Speedometer gone crazy

[mikeJP]

occasionally after driving for a while, , My speedometer will go to the max anytime the car is moving. When I come to a stop it goes to zero. if I move just a little it will go all the way. The trip odometer and main odometer show the miles clicking way too fast. it basicaly says ive gone about 5 miles for every mile driven. I guess it thinks the car is traveling at high speed? Is this a simple fix or a major problem? The car drives just fine.

1994 318is

[johnf]

By coming to a stop in just the right way, I used to be able to wrap the needle all the way around until it was pointing straight down. I didn't realize it could go that far. The problem turned out to be a bad speed sender.

[PhilipWOT]

occasionally after driving for a while, , My speedometer will go to the max anytime the car is moving. When I come to a stop it goes to zero. if I move just a little it will go all the way. The trip odometer and main odometer show the miles clicking way too fast. it basicaly says ive gone about 5 miles for every mile driven. I guess it thinks the car is traveling at high speed? Is this a simple fix or a major problem? The car drives just fine.

1994 318is

Well slow down! That dangerous! :slap:

[Corey Milne]

Well slow down! That dangerous! :slap:
:rofl:

[dox]

Absolutely hilarious... now maybe someone could provide a real answer? My son's 2001 330i is doing the same thing. 5 miles on the odometer per mile traveled and the speedometer is off by 5 times as well. At 30mph it reads 150 and is maxed out above that. The computer is also foiled, reading 99.9mpg, 1500 miles to empty, 155mph average. I can understand the sending unit providing too low a reading, but not too high. This is a real problem on the odometer!

[dox]

Apparently the cause is a bad connection on the back of the instrument cluster!

I removed the instrument cluster, opened it up, cycled all needle gauges manually and left them set at 3/4. Then I put the cluster back together and installed it in the car. When the cluster gets power it makes a grinding noise as it quickly moves all of the needles back to zero. A quick test drive around the block and everything is good!

Thank goodness I was able to fix this. Unfortunately my son has been driving like this for months. He drove about 12k, but racked up over 60k and added about 48k extra miles to the odometer. So instead of it reading 96k, it reads 154k! :mad: OUCH!!!

[Corey Milne]

That really does suck