aaron.cavosie Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 The speedo in my 98 Outback quite a few months ago, but the tach still worked (so I figured it wasn't the cluster). After a lot of trouble-shooting, it turned out my VSS was bad. When I took it out, the little paddle that sticks out was broken, and dangling down at a 45 degree angle. This also caused a P1507 CEL code. After replacing the VSS, the speedo worked immediately, and I haven't had any more codes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron.cavosie Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Did more people have diagnostic success with the procedure of pressing the trip reset button and having temporary speedometer functionality? I've just had the speedo fail at over 257k this morning. Error codes generated are P1507 and P1540, according to AutoZone. I can't afford to buy the Haynes or Chilton's right now in case I need to buy a new speedometer cable if it is not this electrical problem. Advice or thoughts from people? Thanks! -Josh new-to-me 99 Legacy wagon, AT, AWD, 257k+. Josh: do a search for posts I've made from Sept. to Nov. 2013. Either use my name or search on 'P1507'. I encountered your problem this fall with my 98 Outback. I didn't get P1540, but I did get P1507. I spend a lot of time chasing my tail with fixes to the P1507 before I replaced the VSS, which solved all my problems. My speedo worked instantly, and the codes ceased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surbahar Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 What I wonder is whether or not their is any way to make a firm diagnostic determination without removing the speedometer cable and verifying that turning one end of it turns the other end of it. Thank you for the replies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwiniarz Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Just want to say thank you for posting this.Got my 99 Legacy about a month ago and the speedo issues was annoying me. Fixed it last night and no more issues. So far. Thanks again this is why I love internet forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strykrr Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 Thankfully I found this, my car only has 119000km and I doubt I'd find anything close to that if I swapped. Got to give this a shot, seems like it works for everyone else though:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSubaruLegacy Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Glad I found this. It was the perfect fix. Mine didnt look as pretty but the cluster is back in biz. So glad someone posted pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnegg Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 thanks for ''searching'' for it, glad it helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyRuu Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 Wait so you just cut the wire right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnegg Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 no, read it again. you add the blue wire. of course, it doesn't have to be blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyRuu Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 i was of course just trying to help nobody using a comedic misdirection, but this is happening to a friend currently and will be sent his way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yfz450guy Posted October 15, 2017 Share Posted October 15, 2017 having the same issue. push the trip button and it works. pulled the cluster to solder the wire trick and found that I already have the wire trick done. does that mean it's the vss? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwiniarz Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Probably not the vss. I've done mine like 3 times and it always comes back. This is not a permanent fix. Try to re solder it might fix it for a couple months Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J3C Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Joined this forum just to say a big THANK YOU to u/Johnegg for posting pics of the 'blue wire' fix - worked like a charm on my '99 Legacy Outback. I'm the 3rd owner of this beast, and I had spoken with both previous owners, who said 'smack the top of the dash' sometimes it will work! Also not sure what to say when I know it has over 260k/miles on it, and the lady at the DMV insisted on putting 128k/miles - even after I explained the speedo worked intermittently. Oh well, i'll driver' til she dies. Thanks again, I'll be lurking. J3C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shwykert Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 Even though it was years ago, thanks for this whole post. I went through the same "speedometer not working" issue, and I wanted to leave my fix here (because it's kinda funny) I bought a 98 GT about a month ago and knew the speedo/odo did not work. Ok, I'm not bad at fixing my own stuff , so I bought it... I found this thread and decided to try the free, "blue wire" fix first. When I would push my odometer rest button and I didn't get much of a response but I wanted to try it anyway. It seemed to work for Strykrr. I took apart my cluster (which btw, the board didn't look exactly like the picture) and got a piece of BLACK wire and soldered it on (it's worth noting that my board actually had a "J8 and J9" right next to each other, but I still soldered to J8. J9 is where the two small holes are next to J8 in the other pictures. And for the record, nothing you solder to is labeled "SP". Just mentioning that because I was confused initially). This, however, didn't work. Maybe because I used a black wire and not a blue one (LOL). During my quick test, I had my girlfriend in the car and we saw it didn't work as I went down the driveway. I went ahead and just backed up the driveway (i was half way down out 1000ft drive). She pointed out that it intermittently would track speed and go back to 0. Odo also worked inconsistently in the same way. Confusion set in... Next thing was for me to buy an ODBII reader, which is well worth the $12 and a free app on my phone. I ran codes and I have the following 4 codes: P0500, P1100, P1507, and P1540; three of which are related to the speed sensor. So my final step was, unfortunately, to order a $90 speed sensor. It came in and I crawled under my car last night in the freezing cold to replace it. When I took a wrench to the old one, it only took about 1/8 of a turn and the sensor was out...like completely out. I then replaced the old sensor with the new one, making sure my sealing surface was clean, etc (also worth noting, the sensor is a pain to get a normal wrench on. There appears to be a lot of room, but there isn't. I suggest a short 17mm wrench...or a small pipe wrench like I used:lol: ). The surface around where the seal should have been was very dirty. Also, the old sensor had dirt down along the shaft where it shouldn't have been dirt since it was inside the transmission case. I took the car down the driveway and...it worked. Consistently. Both forward and backward. Great! So what I think happened was the sensor was actually loose the whole time. I think it went bad a few thousand miles ago and someone got under the car like I did only, they let the small space get the best of them and never actually tightened the sensor completely (I'm saying this because there was no Loctite on the threads, unless our good ol friends at Subaru didn't assemble it with Loctite). I think the sensor only worked in reverse because it was loose enough that it would kind of jiggle and tilt when going in that direction in order for it to read inconsistently. ...So let this be a mechanical and moral lesson to us all...never be too sure. Maybe your only problem was that something was a little loose. Kinda a small chance for anyone else to have my exact issue, but worth saving $90 like I was unable to do! PS, if anyone needs a discounted speed sensor, PM me for my old one:lol: I'm pretty sure it still works. **Edit (1 day after original post): Got in my car this morning and all of my codes automatically reset. All 4 must have been related to this issue.** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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