98 Intrepid Vehicle Speed Sensor - Limp Home mode, dead speedo

It's been, oh, a bazillion threads ago and I don't care to Google around and
find it to reply to it properly, but suffice it to say that the output
vehicle speed sensor went out on my '98 Intrepid a few nights ago, putting
the trans into limp-home mode and killing the speedo. I remembered having
read about it on r.a.m.c., so I dropped by AutoZone and picked up a new one
for $26. The one they had was a Wells brand.

It was really helpful having the FSM under the front seat to figure out
which one was the output side. For the record, it's the rearmost one,
slightly higher up than the input speed sensor, and screwed into the side of
the trans on the driver's side. On a 2nd-generation Intrepid, you need a 1"
socket and a short (3-4") extension to get to it. For easy access, I raised
the front driver's side of the car and supported it on a jack stand, and
then removed the front wheel. Unplug the clip, unscrew the old VSS with the
ratchet, replace with the new one, then connect everything up and put it all
back together. I disconnected the battery because it had set the MIL and it
didn't clear immediately when I started it back up. Fifteen minutes or so
of no power turned it off. All in all, it took about an hour to fix..but
I'm...um...meticulous.

So you guys who've talked about this -- Putney comes to mind, and a few
others -- thanks. You saved me a lot of trouble, not to mention money. I
find it really easy to believe that a dishonest trans shop would try to take
the unsuspecting for a high-buck rebuild on this one; after all, it happened
at 82K miles, right about when everybody expects a Chrysler 4-speed auto
trans to blow up.

Usenet. Pound for pound worth every penny, despite the long off-topic
threads and occasional idiots.

Maybe this one should go into the FAQ.

--Geoff

 

Thanks for the kind words. Knowledge is power, as they say.

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")