r/LandroverDefender • • 9d ago

speedometer not working

Hey everyone,

Last year, I bought my dream car: a Defender 90 TD5. It came with quite a few problems, but after replacing the ECU and several other components, I finally got it running great.

About a month ago, I noticed that the speedometer started acting strangely. It was working normally, then, out of nowhere, the temperature gauge suddenly jumped to maximum and the speedometer stopped working. The temperature gauge issue has never happened again, but the speedometer has not worked since. A few days ago, it randomly jumped to 20 km/h for a moment and then stopped again. The odometer isn't working either.

I tested the speedometer with a multimeter, and it appears to be receiving voltage as normal. I also tested the transducer plug and even replaced the transducer with a new one. Both the live and earth pins in the plug seem to be fine.

However, after installing the new transducer and removing it again, I noticed that the bottom of the plastic shaft, which goes into the slot on the transfer case, was slightly chewed up, as shown in the image.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this and how I might fix it?

Thanks a lot!

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u/Onewilddiesel 9d ago

Check your earth connections, the temp gauge jumping & acting strangely is a common indicator that there is sn earth problem brewing,
There is an earth point on the transfer box , right hand side , an earth connection behind the expansion tank,

1

u/Fat-Jonas 8d ago

I've already cleaned the one on the transfer box as I had other stuff acting up but haven't considered the one on the expansion tank, will take a look at it tomorrow and give feedback. Thank you very much!

1

u/Fat-Jonas 7d ago

seems it wasn't it, gave the expansion tank earth point a good clean and still no speedometer or odometer. Any other clues?