Neveragain55

Hi Gang,

I thought it might have been a good idea to clean my engine with the gunk remover that also leaves a shine on your engine, and yes.........it was an idiotic move that I am now whole heartedly regretting.

The car runs like shit, and it stutters & pops at idle and doesn't smooth out until around 2000 rpm or so.

I know what I have to do to resolve that issue so no worries there but on my way to the airport last week (I'm currently in Mexico on business) the speedometer started jumping around all over the place.

And of course I ran straight to these forums because I knew I would get some ideas.

I've already read through all of the VSS threads and I know what to buy and how to change it "if" I have to.

But that leads me to my question.......

Before I drop $100.00 bucks on the VSS repair kit (which I don't mine) I really want to be sure that I need to, and that this "new" problem is not connected to washing the engine.

Is there any possibility that some of the fusses that regulate the VSS got wet and that's why it's acting funky, because this only started after the engine washing?

All comments are welcome, thanks guys........

Neveragain55

Well.......

I was gone for about a week, and when I got back from my business trip yesterday I drove from the airport to my house which is about 20 miles or so.........no jumping speedo needle.

I drove to work this morning which is roughly 54 miles........no jumping speedo needle.

I can't say with 100% certainty that washing the engine caused the problem, but it's looking like a strong 90% that the jumping needle was directly related to maybe some trapped water in a fuse box or something that is now dried up.

I'm only posting this follow up in case any of you ever run across this, but please, if you have some thoughts on this, I'd really love to hear them.

Thanks....

Neveragain55

Last update.....

On the drive home yesterday about an hour or so just after my second post on this issue.........the speedo needle jumped around a little bit again.

When I got home I pulled the air cleaner, and each coil pack off, and blew each spark plug chamber out to see if there was any water left.

Number 5 cylinder spark plug chamber had a tiny amount of water that blew out, but all the others were bone dry.

The air cleaner was completely black & completely clogged with leaves & road debris so I put a new one in and cleaned out the MAF with MAF cleaner.

I also pulled all the fuse covers off, and all the fusses & fuse trays were bone dry.

I put everything back together, and she idles much better & doesn't sputter below 2000 RPM on acceleration like she was doing after I washed the engine -but she still doesn't idle as smoothly as she did before I washed the engine.

The lesson I learned is that the VSS is definitely not connected to the washing incident because the needle jumped once or twice again coming into work this morning.

I still have no idea what happened to my "Rolls Royce" idle and it's aggravating as hell to not have it but I have no idea what affected it or how to make her silky smooth again.

There is no water........ANYWHERE!!!!!

Right after this post I'll be ordering the VSS repair kit..........

Hope all of this helps future sufferers from this issue, looks like the VSS malfunctioning is independent of other things going on with your engine.

Lesson here.........NEVER wash your engine no matter how grimy it is, or clean it by hand the old fashioned way with kerosene and scrub brushes like we did back in the 70's...

radieon

It sounds like you might have knocked a vacuum hose loose if you used a high pressure washer. I don't think your engine performance at idle will be resolved with replacing the VSS, but an erratic speedometer is due to a faulty VSS, if that is happening.