The Nissan Path

I had to jump the battery, and apparently there was a spike. The speedometer needle appears to have gone all the way around and is now resting under the pin.

All other gauges plus the odometer are working fine. When I drive, the speedometer needle just stays at 0 since it cannot go past the pin.

I’ve tried the dash diagnosis procedure where I turned the ignition on while holding down the odometer reset button and then press it three times. That does not do anything.

What next? Thank you!

I was curious about this diagnosis mode so I tried it on my '02. If you followed the instructions right in the FSM, the fuel, tach, speedo, and temp gauges should all jump a bit as it enters diagnosis mode. Pressing the odo/trip meter switch again will make the gauge needles all jump again and again if you continue to press and release the switch. If you cannot get this to enter diagnosis mode, the process flow chart indicates your unified meter control unit assembly needs to be replaced. The unified meter control unit is a circuit board integrated into the multi-gauge cluster. Unfortunately, that means the entire cluster would have to be replaced.

I’m not sure the diagnosis mode is an issue. All meters jump when I follow the procedures. The problem is the speedometer needle has gone all the way around and now cannot jump past the pin at the 0 mark.

Pathyj1 wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 30, 2023 9:46 pm

I’m not sure the diagnosis mode is an issue. All meters jump when I follow the procedures. The problem is the speedometer needle has gone all the way around and now cannot jump past the pin at the 0 mark.

So ... There is hope. When you wrote "that does not do anything", I assumed the procedure literally did nothing at all. There have been numerous posts about this issue with several different makes and models. It seems like there are as many different "fixes" as there are posts from folks that have resolved this on their own. In this following thread, users have posted several how to remedies. https://community.cartalk.com/t/how-did ... n/52935/21

Thanks for the input. I ended up trying a magnet and voila! You have to play around with the placement of the magnet but once you find it, the needle just spins back around like magic! And it’s working good as new.

Pathyj1 wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 31, 2023 11:44 am

... it’s working good as new.

Wow! I'm impressed and I learned something new for a very unusual condition. Thank you for sharing your success and how you achieved it. Knowing how this speedometer functions, I thought the use of a magnet would make sense when I read something about a magnet fix in that post. Explaining the physics of why this worked would sound boring so I'll just agree, it's "like magic".

Pathyj1 wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 31, 2023 11:44 am

Thanks for the input. I ended up trying a magnet and voila! You have to play around with the placement of the magnet but once you find it, the needle just spins back around like magic! And it’s working good as new.

I am real happy to hear it also!