So my speedometer has been some what annoying me. Seems that when I am at a stop light, or just plain old idling (after driving for a little) the speedometer needle likes to bounce..like its dancing

It did this on the stock cluster as well as the sport trac cluster i just threw in yesterday. Despite the weird bouncing at idle it seems the speedo is dead on (while moving). Any ideas?

 

replace your speed sensor.

I had one that the needle would die under 10 mph. Would cause my ABS to go ape shyt all the time. Even when just sitting there stopped it would freak out.

 

check your negative battery cable

 

I have the same issue with mine. But mine does it while driving also.

 

mine does it when its very cold out and it wont want to shift out of first gear...once it shifts into second its fine

 

Speed sensor is located above the rear diff right?

 

yep and bechind each rotor on the front too if you have 4 wheel abs, are wait a min. sense your a 03 yours may be in the tail houseing on the trans. maybe some one will chime in

 

I have the same exact problem with my 2003 Ranger. Any luck fixing the problem?

 

Crawl under the truck and look in the area under the driver's seat , inboard of the frame rail.
A square plug with a bolt in the center.
Remove the bolt (IIRC 10mm) unplug the connector, and clean the contact pins , coat them with dielectric grease and reconnect.

 

Actually I havn't really noticed the problem since I re-did my sport trac cluster swap. I'll keep an eye out and try OTRtech's solution since its cheap than the speed sensor.

 

yeah mines been doing this too gonna have to try what he said and clean it off

 

ground cable. it's most likely loose, thats what my issue was.

 

Kinda of an old thread but my '03 FX4 had the original Motorcraft battery in it that had the little red floaty in the "window" and finally just disappeared all together for a few months. Truck started getting hard to start and I noticed the speedo would be jumping around when I would be at a stoplight in drive. Other weird electrical things happened too. I replaced the aging battery and all is fine now.

 

Bumping this thread. The speedo in my truck will drop whenever I take my foot off the gas. It's accurate as long as I'm accelerating but once I take my food off the gas or apply the brakes it either drops 20-30 mph or goes completely to zero. It is a 2001 2.5 manual by the way.

 

I am having this problem on my 2.3l rwd ranger right after I got an alignment...

I have to check it out tonight.. I'm annoyed to say the least.

It ONLY does it when it's in Drive and I am stopped... when I am moving the speedometer doesn't bounce at all... perfectly fine.

I ALSO hear some type of an interferance noise almost like static but it sounds like something is happening an up and down high pitched noise. Never heard this before nor had this issue until Monday. thought it might be the battery... probably going to change the speed sensor on the rear diff housing and check the wires.... Could they have done something with an alignment? Or is this just luck? Truck is an 01' and has 135k miles on it.

Getting this one:

Thanks,
-Nigel