I just bought a 96 Neon 2.0L 5 speed. The speedometer is intermittant. I can bang on the dash and get it to start reading sometimes, but it needs fixed. Any ideas on where to start?

 

After doing a search on here, I've got enough info to at least check things out. If I have any trouble, I'll be back!

 

i'm not sure what they call it but, if you go to the shop and let them know they can fix it. its under the hood. i had the same problem. it becomes loose and just doesn't spin right to give a accurate reading to the speedometer.

pm das2123, he'll probly tell you where its at so u could tighten it and save money not going to the shop.

 

It's probably one of two things. Either your solder points on the back of the cluster needs to be re-soldered or you just need to tighten down the bolts that hold he speedo in place. The former was my problem.

 

My car had the same problem. When I pulled out the cluster, I found that the plugs were loose and the tabs that held them in place were worn. So I trimmed the tabs off and glued the plugs in place. Haven't had a problem since

 

I had the same problem with a 96 neon sohc. I took cluster out. Where the wires run through the dash. I drilled a small hole & pop riveted the conector so it would not move in the dash, & reconected to the cluster. It works almost 95% of the time now.

 

I had the problem where ALL my guages would randomly die. Nearly had a heart attack the first time it happened. Turned out it was the solder joints. I dismantled it & re-flowed the solder, and they've worked flawlessly since. Try doing that. It's MUCH easier to do than it sounds.

 

I tried the solder method first , it did not help me any. Thats when i figured the connector was moving & pop riveted it to keep it from moving inside the dash cluster.

 

Sometimes you need to add solder. Try reflowing it again and make sure you see them change color.
https://dodgeforum.com/m_179505/tm.htm

 

Well i did not add any solder, didn't know i was supposed to. I did heat the old solder points until they changed color. Like i said earlier the pop rivet works pretty good to keep the connector coming through the dash from moving.