W124 - The Speedo Lives Again...

For whatever reason, someone accidentally (or deliberately, maybe, because it was working before) broke a connector/attachment that links the speedo cable to the speedo bearing housing on the gearbox. This attachment is needed to allow the speed from the gearbox to spin the speedo cable that will in turn spin the speedometer mechanism that shows the speed on the instrument cluster.

The speedo was working in the past where a new speedo cable was fitted and all was well for a while. Shortly later, the speedo stopped working, and there seem to be 2 issues to it, the first was a broken speedo cable where it was attached to the cluster and the other was on the gearbox where the cable is connected. This cable was replaced but the speedo still didn't work.

The car was taken to the mechanic sometime back where there was a sign that the speedo bearing housing has some weld on it. It must have damaged that required welding to be done. While inspecting, the problem became prominent where the connector between the gearbox speed sender (I think?) to the cable was broken.

The fix was to just replace the speedo-bearing housing from the junkyard and also a good opportunity since the current housing has been welded on. This issue has also caused the gearbox to lose oil as it leaks from here.

Upon removing the speedo bearing housing, it was also noticed that someone in the past has tried to fix this issue but opted to not use the gasket and sealed it with a sealant. It was a hassle to remove this housing as a number of parts needed to be removed including the front flex disc of the long shaft to allow access. The mechanic took about an hour to remove parts before he finally was able to get to the housing.

He inspected the mechanism, cleaned it up, and put everything back in place which took another hour. In the process, a couple of bolts were also replaced as they did not fit the brackets properly.

Once all that is done, the car was hoisted to allow the wheel to freely spin and tested. The speedo came back to life. The mechanic then hoisted the car again to check his work and ensure that there were no oil leaks from the oil seals as well as gaskets that were just replaced. Finally, he checked for the transmission fluid level where it was about 1 liter short, and had that topped up accordingly.

On my way back, I was observing the behavior of the speedo and it works fine, there was no hopping below the 20 km/h mark and it smoothly glided up and down.

As usual, I am monitoring this fix to ensure that there are no issues arising from this fix and leaks before this issue will be marked resolved. 

Pictures:

One of the connector/socket from the housing which was broken on the sides

The old speedo bearing housing that was removed

The weld on the old housing

The seal on the inner side of the old housing instead of a proper gasket


Replacement housing before being fitted with new gaskets and mounted into the gearbox

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