Speedometer, odometer, combination meter (instrument cluster), sensors

Hello Guys and Gals,

Newbie posting for the first time. As you can imagine, I'm in deep doodoo!

Truck has 47,000 and never a problem. One day it just woke up and no speedo, no odo, no cruise control (duh!), ABS light, check engine light.

After getting under the vehicle and looking for any sign of broken wire(s) at any wheel sensor or the sensor on the back of the transmission, I was stumped. I searched in this forum with no luck. So off to the dealer I went.

The dealer started by saying its the vehicle speed sensor and a ABS sensor on one of the wheels. $700 please. $500 for two sensors, $200 labor. OK

Work done, they said ABS and Check Engine lights out, still no speedo/odo.

Now they say the combination meter (gauge cluster?) is the problem. Total $3,500! $$2,800 for the combination meter.

Questions:

1. How royally am I getting screwed?

2. What if after replacing the combination meter things still don't work? At what point will they allow me to straighten up from this bent over position?

3. Is this the new reality of cars run by computers and sensors?

4. What is the solution for the non-mechanic type like me? Buy a car with no money down and walk away when it stops working? Lease? Taxis?

5. How many people do you know with the same story? In my neighborhood it seems everyone knows someone with this same horror story. BTW, when I was at the $700 repair quote stage a friend of mind predicted it would end up costing me $3,500. The exact same number?!?! Mind blowing.

6. Does anyone out there believe in their dealer?

7. What am I bid for this money hole? I'm sure someone out there knows the easy fix, understands the car's computer system and sees a bird's nest on the ground.

 

Hey OP,

did your cluster ever come back after a while? or is it not coming back on at all?

i've got an 05 w/ 215k miles on it. Mine has been doing this intermittently for the last year or two. I had a check engine light (had to replace my right front speed sensor) and that got rid of the engine light. It will randomly not work when i start the truck or stop working while I'm driving (truck still runs fine but trans shift later than usual) but after a few minutes (sometimes 15-20min) of driving everything comes back up.

I've yet to figure this out, I've gone through and checked everything possible and its not throwing any codes. I was Ford Tech for 12yrs and still do diag/mechanics on the side and these kinds of things have always been pretty difficult to diagnose without throwing parts at it and hoping one of them fixes it. Reason i haven't gone to dealer on this is because the truck still runs fine but mainly because of whats happening to you right now (Sorry! i know this isn't what you want to hear), i already knew they would be taking that route.

Your the 2nd person I've heard of having this issue (the other guys in TW but can't find the thread) but have yet to find a solution for this.

 

bump

Hopefully someone else can shed some light!

 

Hello Maggot61,

Thanks for your input.

No, to answer your question, this was not an intermittent problem. The speedo/odo went out and there was no intermittent working again. I had to drive 100 miles to the nearest dealer, relying on the RPM (which did work) for speed. Since my truck is manual, each gear at around 2300 rpm equals the gear plus 5 mph, e.g. 6th gear equals 65, 3rd gear equals 35 etc.

I did get a scare when I filled gas along the way. The gas meter didn't seem to work. After about 10 miles it finally went from 1/2 tank to full tank. I don't know whether this was an anomaly or what.

So far the philosophy of the dealership seems to be to "throw parts" at the problem. It's funny that they wanted to charge me $700 to change two sensors even though this didn't cure the speedo/odo issue at all. Where I come from, we believe in "no cure, no pay".

It will be interesting to see if the dealership puts in a new combination meter and still no fix. Do they expect me to pay them $3500 for no fix?

As a Ford tech for 12 years, are the charges ($700 for two sensors, $3500 for an instrument cluster) in the ballpark? These numbers seem crazy high but maybe I'm out of touch. It is not the labor that is majority of the price, it's the parts.

I love the Tacoma but I may switch to Ford because a Ford dealer is 5 miles away, versus 100 for the Toyota dealership. Will Ford parts prices be equally high?

If this was your truck, would you have tackled the diagnosis and parts replacement yourself? Is it technically difficult to read codes, reset codes, change out parts? Are Toyota parts available to civilians at better prices than the dealer?

thanks

 

Toyota parts are readily available, easy to get and a lot cheaper to get outside of the dealer.

I would definitely keep track of what you've already put into the "fix" with no resolution and have them discount that from the cost of the combination meter. If they replace that and it doesn't fix it would fight it and not pay, they shouldn't be charging for parts that aren't fixing the issue. I'm sure they'll try to come up with an excuse as to why it needed to fix but don't let it fly.

To be honest $700 for two sensor does sound like a lot but thats why they call them stealerships. I did a quick search and the speed sensors are between $80 - $100 each (depending on where you go)and labor charge in CA is about $95hr right now if memory serves and that's probably 1hr-1.5hr job. there should be a breakdown on charges on your receipt. For the combination meter, i'm not too sure i'll check into that.

Tacoma and Ford are both very popular trucks and you can easily get parts for good prices especially aftermarket.

As for my truck, with this situation i would/am. because its intermittent it allows me to continue driving it while still trying to find out whats causing it. The difficulty all depends on your experience, there's plenty of members on this forum that are like at a beginner level that can do plenty of work on there trucks with a little direction from the more experienced member's. As far as forums go this probably the most helpful and most full of all the info you need for your truck in comparison to others.

 

Let me know if you've got any other questions, I'll try to help out the best i can.

 

DEMAND THAT YOU GET ALL YOUR MONEY BACK!


That is the exact problem that is addressed in the spiral cable recall! Basically I ignored the recall until all of that stuff started happening to me! Dash warning lights looked like a pin-ball game after hitting the super prize ball!

FYI, the RR ABS sensor controls the speedometer. Order online for about $50. I have replaced more ABS sensors and wires than I can count from every object you can think of hitting and dragging the underside of my truck over the years. The replacement entails...

- driving home and parking in the driveway (or your shop)
- takes about 1 minute to open the box that your new ABS sensor arrived in
- takes about 1 minute to walk to the fridge and grab a beer
- takes about 1 minute to turn on the music in your shop
- takes about 1 minute to walk to your truck holding a socket wrench and lay on the ground
- takes about 10 seconds to to put the socket on the single bolt on the ABS sensor
- takes about 20 seconds to remove that bolt
- takes about 10 seconds to remove the old ABS sensor
- takes about 30 seconds to safely unplug the old ABS sensor from the wire
- takes about 30 seconds to put the new ABS sensor in place and put the one nut back on
- takes about 10 seconds to plug the wire back into the ABS sensor

eezy peezy!



---- edit ----

the RR ABS sensor, the RR ABS plate in the RR bearing housing and the RR ABS wiring harness are all that has anything to do with the speedometer reading.

even at dealership price for the parts its under $1,000. real world parts price is under $500! The real world labor, if you do none yourself, worst case... 1 hour to replace ABS sensor and wiring harness, 4 hours labor to replace wheel bearing, machine shop charge $100.

 

Hi Ragin Cajun,

Wow, thanks for your input. So in conclusion you're saying:

1. This is likely a spiral cable issue.

2. Changing sensors is cheap and easy.

3. I'm getting REAMED ROYALLY by the dealership. That's what I suspected.

 

I've had the spiral cable recall done on my truck and replaced the RR sensor before, i'm still losing everything including gas and temp. Maybe i'm just lucky and have an isolated issue.

Hope this works out for you OP!

 

Called around to a few dealerships in nearby cities. Their parts departments are quoting $250-$300 for wheel speed sensors, $180- 280 for vehicle speed sensors, and $2400-$2800 for the combination meter (aka gauge cluster). Supposedly all ordered out of Toyota Houston?

Ragin Cajun, or anyone else?, what are the go to online sources for Toyota parts? I've been searching without much luck.

thanks