Title says it all.

What is the the sensor on the Drivers side of the T5 tranny?

Mine broke off & now my car throws a code, is it related to the broken sensor??

 

There are 2.

The one in the case is the backup light switch.

The one in the extension housing is the speedometer cable housing, or the vehicle speed sensor in later models.

What code are you getting?

 

I have an 87 camaro, therefore I have the cable driven speedo, so I dont think its for the speedometer. However my speedometer stoped working? I am pretty sure now it's the back up light sensor, is the back up light for the up shift light?

I'll go checkt he car for the code and come back with the results.

 

No.

The backup lights are the lights on the back of the car that come on when you put the car in reverse.

The upshift light is controlled by the ECM, and is based solely on engine RPM. RPM reaches some value = time to shift. It needs no input from the trans to calculate that.

 

It's throwing a code 24, it is the speed sensor. So that's the thing that is broken on the tranny? where is it located exactly? the broken sensor I have is on the side of the body of the tranny on the drivers side. Wheres the speed sensor?

Thanks for the help buddy.

 

If your car still has the stock speedo arrangement, then the VSS is a little yellow box on the back of the speedo in the dash. The cable drives the cruise, which has another cable that goes to the speedo, and the little yellow box literally "looks" at the thing that the cable spins inside the speedo, and generates pulses for the ECM accordingly.

The "case" of the trans is about 14" long, goes from the bell housing back to where it starts getting narrow. The backup light switch is in the side of the case, up high, about 10" back of the BH. The speedo cable plugs in at the rear, right above the crossmember.

 

Besides the factt hat I cant see how fast I'm going, does this hurt my performance at all???

 

ummm nope, the VSS is the sensor on the side of tranny....its actually a sending unit. If you have a mechanical speedo there will be no wires going to the the thing that broke....it would be a fitting that screws on similar to a garden hose fitting.

the VSS just has a plug on it, and there would be wires going into it, there wouldnt be any cables. Also, there would be no code for a VSS if you had a mechanical speedo because there isnt one....cruise control is controlled by vaccum.

the part you broke, is the VSS its on the drivers side of the transmission it should be round, and metallic in most cases and have a weatherpack plug on it.

im pretty sure you need to get a new one at a dealer. The are pretty easy to change though, not too big of a deal.

The VSS sends pulses to the ECM based on how fast the transmission spins....these pulses are converted by the ECM into MPH and sent to the speedo and the odomoter.

ive F-ed with that thing alot on my tremec, it turned out being the connector and solved the problem. there should only be 1 bolt that holds a clip which holds the VSS in place.

 

now this sounds more like it, I have the hose type of screw in for the speedo cable, and the broken sensor has a weather pack attached to it, it screws into the side of the tranny with a bolt.

 

thats weird though, how are you pulling a code for a bad VSS if you have a mechanical speedo?

if your speedo isnt working try tightening the hose like fitting with some water pump plier...they loosen up sometimes....also pull the dash and spray wd40 down the cable and see if that lubes it up. sometimes it doesnt work right and makes the speedo bounce

 

OK, then the broken one is the backup light switch.

Does your speedo work? Since the VSS relies on the mechanical spinning of the speedo guts as driven by the cable, then if the speedo isn't working, the ECM won't get pulses either, and of course will set a code.

I have no idea what if any effect on performance tha tmight have. AFAIK the ECM doesn't do anything with that data in a stick car, but I dont know that for sure. In an auto car there's the TCC which relies on vehicle speed data, but that's not there in a stick car.

383, you're mistaken. His car has a cable-driven speedo and a VSS in the dash. On the Firebirds they went to the VSS in the trans much earlier than the Camaros, so if you're thinking of Firebirds, it doesn't apply. In fact I have a 87 IROC cluster in my dash right now, complete with the little yellow box optical transducer, just like the one that came in the car originally (83).

 

well isn't this a bit confusing lol.

is it hard to get to the yellow VSS?

I've tried taking out my seedo once and it wont come out.

 

The speedo comes right out. I can get the whole cluster out of my car (identical to yours, in fact it's a 87 cluster) in well under 5 minutes.

There's a little clip that holds the cable in, that's probably why you can't get it out. If you take the upper cable loose from the cruise, and push it in through the firewall, you can pull the cluster out far enough to see it.

You'll see the little yellow box too... one ¼" head screw, plus one plug.

 

i dont know about that, no i talking about a camaro....my gauge cluster has the yellow box, so does the 88 i had before...

I have a standard VSS in the transmission

 

i believe the VSS does affect the shift light in a minute way

the shift light is based of RPM's

but what about when the tranny is in 5th gear?
there are no sensors telling the ECM the tranny is in 5th gear

except for the VSS

the ECM must look at MPH vs. RPM to determine what gear the tranny is in

it must do this because the shift light "knows" not to come on when you are in 5th gear

well, atleast in my car the shift light doesnt come on in 5th gear


kinda hard to follow, but i guess you get the idea what i am saying


(Trans Gear=VSS+RPM)-------into ECM

 

his connection between the Speedo and ECM is open..........

 

I just changed my 185 km/h speedo face plate to a 240 km/h speedo. Besides changing the speedo gears to recalibrate the speedo, do I also have to swap the Vss (yellow box) from the 240 km/h cluster into my original 185 km/h cluster. I don't know if there any difference between the 185 and 240 Vss sensor.