scion speedometer died

Cat wrote in news:1192213495.491123.309180 @i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Your car is still under warranty. Plus this would be considered a safety issue.

Bring the car in to your local Toyota/Scion dealer. Free fix for you.

The speedometer is in all probability electronic, even if it's moving an analog pointer. I don't think they've made a car with a purely mechanical cable driven speedometer in quite some time.

Symptoms point to a loose wire, connector or similar.

thanks tegger!!

but when i called the dealer, they hesitated that it might not be under warranty. i have a call into the warranty company.... however, just to diagnosis will be close to a hundred dollars if to find out, its not under warrant... .... i thought if it was something simple i could handle, i would avoid the dealer at all cost!!

i was hoping it was merely a loose wire and not something serious like a sensor.

anybody familiar with this car?? is it something obvious to spot, willi have to do some serious digging?

omg, trying to change the air filter was like giving birth.

Cat wrote in news:1192222498.156739.174080 @q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Whether it's a loose wire or a bad sensor is of no consequence.

Your car is UNDER WARRANTY and has a problem. The dealer is obliged to fix the problem, whatever it turns out to be. Either way, Toyota's getting billed for a warranty fix.

You paid for that warranty as part of your purchase price. It was meant for such things as this. Use it.

Cat wrote in news:1192222385.365711.326640 @q3g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

It should be covered under your standard 3-year factory warranty, not under any extended warranty you might have bought from the dealer.

Don't let them "hesitate". Your car has a SAFETY problem that needs to be fixed. Use of the word "safety" is guaranteed to get their attention.

They probably don't want to do the work because Toyota pays less for warranty repairs than customers do for regular retail work.

Be persistent. Don't let them slough you off. And especially don't try to fix this yourself. You break something else while fiddling with it and it's on your dime. Ever priced interior parts?

Pretty unlikely to be a sensor if two gauges are acting up, since they have separate sensors.

Not familiar, but most everything instrument panel related in most vehicles is a bit of a pain to get to. Not that it's overly difficult, but all the various trim pieces that have to come off to get to the instrument panel have interesting tricks to getting them off with most using some variety of hidden fastener for cosmetics.

The days when the engineers took serviceability into account in their car designs seems to be over. I remember when changing a heater core involved removing a half dozen screws and removing the core from the engine compartment. Now you have to tear apart half the interior of the car to do it.

Even when you have something like a 6/60 warrantee that has expired and no third party extended warrantee, don't assume that you are stuck paying for anything that needs to be repaired. There are some safety and emissions related items that are covered for much longer by federal regulations. My truck had the usual 6/60 warrantee, but I had both cats replaced at about 80k miles under the emissions warrantee which goes to

"Pete C." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@snet.net:

This particular vehicle is an '05. It's TWO years old and still covered under the factory warranty.

Either dealer is lazy or OP is a wimp. This SHOULD be a no-brainer.

The warranty is 3 yr/36000. It could be an 05 and be out of warranty.

The 5yr/60000 warranty is drive train. Unless it's a mechanical problem in the trans a speedo problem may not be covered under a power train warranty. Most electrical problems probably are not. Gotta read the fine print...

"M.M." wrote in news:2iTPi.7186$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe17.phx:

It's covered, trust me. The OP just needs to approach it in a logical and aggressive manner.

Now if the OP never brought the car in for any sort of servicing during those two (or so) years, then she might have to contact the Toyota zone rep for help. The dealers know what side their bread is buttered on...

OK then, which specific warranty clause would you cite to prove coverage of an inoperative gauge condition on a 70,000 mile Scion xA?

Toyota MDT in MO

Comboverfish wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@v29g2000prd.googlegroups.com:

I just couldn't see how a car that was barely three years old could have a piece of "safety" equipment fail and not be covered under some kind of warranty.

Maybe I should have just kept out of this one.

A speedometer really isn't safety equipment, it's simply instrumentation. Nobody should be relying on a speedometer nor the posted speed limits to determine if they are driving a safe speed.

i travel in my job. i depend on my car. it has been service as recommended by the dealer religiously. this is why i posted, because i want to be able argue my point with the service dept and not sound like an idiot. i do health care insurance recovery for a living... i know how to aggressively argue and get my point across...but this is unchartered territory for me.

I do appreciate everyone taking the time to respond... you have been most helpful and i certainly appreciate everyones opinion.

many thanks..

wish me luck... sometimes the darn thing works, some times it doesnt... ugh.

Intermittent problems are also the most difficult to troubleshoot. Certainly the symptoms point to a problem with an electrical connection so that narrows down the likely suspects a bit, and the fact that two gauges are affected narrows it further. Even so it can be difficult to isolate. Good luck.

I looked at the instrument gauges wiring diagram for your car. Based on your description that the fuel gauge and the speedometer intermittantly quit, and the odometer works during this time, I would suggest that your instrument panel (IP) has an intermittant open in one of it's ICs. About all you can do with an intermittant problem like this (when it works flawlessly for the technician) is to peruse the wiring schematic and apply logic to find the one possible culprit.

This schematic's breakdown of components inside the IP isn't terribly descriptive, but is still helpful towards troubleshooting your particular symptoms. Based on the one IC that both the fuel gauge and speedo "wire" into, and the lack of any common ties elsewhere, and the fact that the odometer still operates during this failure event, I can highly suspect the IP as a failing component and disregard the ABS module speed sensor input, among other lesser possibilities.

Any component testing without the failure occuring is by and large a waste of time and money. What I just did equates to about 0.5 hour diagnostic time, my hands are still clean, and assuming the symptoms are accurately and fully reported, I feel >95% confident that I am right. Something like this should only be done in cases where the problem can't be duplicated, and the part shouldn't be ordered without the customer's signed approval that it is an educated guess which is accompanied by a statement of no guarantee.

Hopefully they will cover this as a one time goodwill repair, given that you have kept up with services at the dealer. It will be in the hands of the service manager or district rep, unless you get no help and want to push the issue to the national customer service level. Sometimes in a case like this the dealer may offer to pay the part and you pay the labor. Given the cost of the part and your purchase agreement RE: 3/36 warranty, I would be happy with that if I were you.

Toyota MDT in MO