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There are three common reasons for this in cars equiped with electronic speedo gauges.

#1- A dirty or faulty ground connection on the instument cluster harness. Finding the harness and a wire that grounds to the firewall is a starting point. You may have to improvise a new ground from a point where the ground wire is accessible for troubleshooting purposes if the actual firewall connection is behind the dash or console.

#2- A dirty speed sensor or connector. This is usually mounted on the transmission or 4WD transfer case. Try removing and cleaning the sensor and/or connector. This part is usually cheaper to replace than a gauge cluster

#3- Poor gauge cluster connections or gauge failure: Try just removing the cluster and cleaning the contacts at the back of the cluster with contact cleaner making sure no cleaner gets on the plastic or in the gauge(s). If this doesn't fix the issue, replacing the cluster may be necessary. To save money, You can sometimes use an old working cluster's parts to just fix yours if you are handy with electronics. Replacing the entire cluster means your odometer mileage will be different and this would need to be reported to the local DMV or DOL before doing the swap. It may actually be illegal to swap clusters in some jurisdictions. especially if the odo mileage is lower in the new cluster)

Hope this helps !

*** On much older cars equipped with mechanical cables the cable often got bent and the wire broke or froze in the cable sheath.

The cable can be possibly be lubricated to fix the problem.

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Q: What causes my speedometer needle to bounce?
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