My 96 5 spd. manual trans. Miata gets check engine light on. The scanner reads the code PO500 (Speed Sensor A). I called a dealer to purchase VSS, but was told that manual trans. does not come with a speed sensor. Does anyone know what parts need to be replaced?
Fory Horio snipped-for-privacy@trihard.net
I believe your 96 has a speed sensor located on the manual tranny. Try Trussville Mazda (internet) looks just like an oversized speedo gear with a plug for wires instead of a speedo cable.
I'm Confused-- Are we talking about a 96 or 2006 ?
Isn't a 2006 still under warranty?
William F. Morris RN, BSN
Sorry, it's 1996
-fory
Chuck wrote:
There is a speed cable between trany and instrument panel, but not the gear/wire.
Chuck wrote:
The next question is where does the speedo cable go--do you have cruise control? Likely locations for a speed sensor are at/in the cruise control, and at the back of the speedo. Do you have a mechanical or electric speedo meter? I thought that a 96 has the electric speedo. If so, It gets a speed signal from whatever the speedo cable from the tranny connects to. Since a 96US model would be involved with OBD, possibly even OBD 1, the codes may not match the later OBD2 codes.
It goes into the back of the speedo even with CC.
I think all 96 are OBD II, but I cannot swear to it.
Leon
If it is an OBDII, it has an electric speed sensor at the tranny. If it's something else, or a non US model, who knows? I am under the impression that later NA's have an electric speedo and speed sensor. Early NAs had the cable and were not OBDI or II (US models, anyway)
Perhaps this is a 96 with an earlier mechanical speedometer?. If so, I would expect to see the speed sensor code from the ECU. The reason I referred to the cruise control was that some cruise controls have a digital speed sensor built in. Really old ones had a stub speedo cable going to the speedo.
I hate to agree with Pat, but Bozo is^H^Hwas an OBD II Miata and has the mechanical speedo cable.
Darn, that hurt. Leon
The 1996 miata that I took apart was OBD-II and it had the same type of speedometer as the 1990 model, both driven by a cable from the transmission and plugging directly into the speedometer. I would need to check, but I think that the cable is the same part number for any 1990-1997 miata.
No.
Correct, I have never worked on a'97, so I can't say for sure there, but I am almost positive that the M1's all have mechanical speedometers unless they have been modified.
My mechanical one was the one that came with the car.
You can completely disable the cruise control on any M1 and the speedometer will still work. If a vehicle uses the cruise control to determine speed, doesn't that make cruise control mandatory on the vehicle?
Pat
Believe me Leon, the pain was mutual, as I was agreeing with your post as well. :-)
Come on, can't we be friends again? You wouldn't really club with with a blunt object, would ya?
Pat
The OBDII ECU must get a speed pulse train from somewhere. I've not seen a late model NA OBDII with a speedocable. (You always learn something new.) So the most likely location for the speed sensor is actually in the instrument console at the rear of the speedo. Assuming that's where the speedo cable goes, and does not stop in between.
It does not. Maybe a pulse counter has been added to the speedo?
Leon
Ouch, there we go again with that agreement thing.
The cable looks the same for the 1990 and the 1996 model, straight from tranny to the speedo. If the ECU needs a pulse counter for OBD-II, then it must be taking it from the instrument panel.
Pat
I do see a cable goes straight from trans to instrument panel. So, do I need to replace the instrument panel in order to repair the "Speed Sensor A P0500" check engine light problem?
pws wrote:
PS My car does not equipped with a cruise control.
pws wrote:
Possibly, it is not a problem that I have heard of before, and electronics are not my area. Do you have a factory service manual? I find the factory ones cumbersome to read and find what I need, but that information will be in there.
Since the back of the instrument panel can detect whether the ABS light bulb is working or not, I am guessing that there are other areas, such as the speed sensor, that can be tested there by a knowledgeable person with the proper equipment.
If you do try the "swap the parts and see" method, I would suggest trying to find a used instrument panel first, they are not hard to swap on a 1996 model. The one from my wrecked '96 went for $65.00 about a year ago.
Finally, is your speedometer working properly?
While I have never heard of a faulty instrument panel causing these codes, I have seen a number of posts about speedometer cables not working properly, and both of the ones that I pulled sold quickly, so that might be a potential source of the problem if it is slipping at the speedometer because of a missing gear at the transmission side.
Good luck!
Pat
Yes, it was easy to take it out.
It's kinda odd that the odd meter works fine, but speedometer is about 10% off. When I drive 60MPH, it shows about 66-66 MPH.
Does the gear slipping show as a faulty "Speed Sensor"?
Not odd at all, they are two completely different instruments although driven by the same cable. The odometer is a mechanical counter the counts revolutions of the cable, the speedometer is an analog meter driven by a rotating magnetic field opposed by a spring. As the spring ages the speedometer can get more optimistic or the initial calibration can be a bit off. Changing tire size will, of course, throw both off.
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