Lube for Odometer?

Is it turning at all? Is the trip meter also stuck?

White lithium grease.... put a little on the end of the cable and reinstall to the odometer housing.

Actually I was thinking of lubing the gear itself. White lithium grease sounds right.

Sorry to break it to you, but odometers in the '96-98 cars break a *lot* and they're motorized. I'm pretty sure that the motors die. I had mine changed in my '97 Cobra - had the whole cluster swapped. It would "stick" as you say until one day it just died completely. I had to pay for it though.... grr...

You could try looking for another cluster, but being a Cobra dash, you'll probably not find one. I'd suggest going to Ford. They replaced mine with an updated unit (the numbers on the odometer look different but the cluster looks the same). Worked like a charm ever since.

BTW - mine gave up at about 28k.

JS

What did you pay to have your instrument cluster replaced? I think the part alone is around $400-$500. I am at 26K miles. I know from previous discussions on this group that this is a common problem, but I am hoping that it won't give up the ghost entirely and lubing it might prolong its life.

Fortunately, I had an extended warranty that covered that - $100 deductable was all that I ended up paying. I believe it would have been $600 had I not had the warranty.

I think the problem is in the motor itself. Lubing the odometer itself may help things slightly, but if the motor's going bad, it's going to eventually die completely one day.

I wish you luck though, and if you find that using some lubrication on the odometer works, it may save others the expense of changing the cluster.

JS

If it was the motor, do you think it would stop at the same tenth of a mile? That's what makes me think it's more mechanical than electrical. After it sticks a few times, then it's fine for many miles.

That sounds more mechanical, yes. Perhaps if you get it now while it's not too bad, it'll last... but the added strain on the motor from trying to turn the stuck numbers is sure to do it in quicker than just spinning around a couple million times freely..

Like I said, you can try the lube, it can't hurt anything... just try to stay away from anything that's electrically conductive in case it leaks onto the PCB traces...

JS

Thanks for all of the help. I am going to try the lube. There is a 96 Cobra instrument cluster on Ebay for $150 I'm keeping my eye on, just in case.