Car speedo & odometer sometimes work OK, other times not at all.

most old cars have a speedo cable.
is the odometer dead too. (we need that answer now)

there are 3 class evolutionary systems.
cable
electric sender to cluster
and sender to PCM and PCM drives cluster.
but honda does this on diffr, dates than most cars. (i learned)

so lets do that. we login to alldata.com and look , so can you at any time,
once a month i do random cars.
what engine, sometimes this varies by engine, and trans.
neither stated so Ill toss coin each time.
a/t trans.
1996
has electronic (hall) speed sensor VSS and runs
engine, cruise. odometer and cluster.

the 96 has no speedo cable, and works in modern mode, very advance for this time
also any scan tool on earth fits the PCM scan port
and if VSS is dead, it tells you that with a DTC , vss dead.
saving all that work wondering why it dont work.
see/?
PCM must see it work
and cluster
and cruise
if only cluster fails, and both speedo and odometer then its bad.
if only speedo fails but not odometer , then speedo meter is bad.
its that easy.

Sounds like you need a new speedo cable .... first step is to get a repair manual. If you can remove the cable from the back of the speedo and have someone hold it while you are driving, if you apply light pressure to hold the cable in solidly, and then try to stop the cable from spinning, but not so much that you snap the cable yourself. The cable should spin while the car is moving forward. Once you replace the speedo cable the speedo and odometer should work again, if not it might be the speedo head, which spins the cable. Try to get a manual. Haynes is OK but the factory Honda manual might actually be the most accurate. If I understood this correctly you should be good to go but if you need further assistance feel free to holler back again.If the cable is OK but the speedo still doesn't work it is most likely the speedo guts ... used ones should be available for about $100 or so. The cable should solve your problem hopefully, making further work unnecessary.

It's a common problem with the civic's, the speedo is bad, you can try findind one in the bone yard but it may be bad to, the dealer is expensive, In my 95 civic I turn on my tom tom and it has the speed on it, all the other gauges work fine, the odometer will work fine, just the speedo.

You just have a bad vehicle speed sensor, has three wire's going to it, sit on top of transmission between transmission and fire wall on top of transmission, held on with a 10mm bolt.Depending if it's manual or automatic transmission the part will cost any where between $70.00 and $160.00.Hope this was very helpful.

if your speedometer is working,and the odometer is not,you will need to have the odometer replaced for it works off the speedometer

the only thing that is related is the d4/rough gear changing
speed/ rpm malfunction is caused by your speed sensor on the trani (common problem) change it

Your cars speedometer has a broken or frayed cable replace it the Tach is separate from the speedometer/odometer and will work on its own

if both go then its the sensor ,but if car is a 98 then it could be a cable or a speedo cable crive worn out

check the connection from speedometer to transaxle. Often this becomes loose, especially the transaxle side. Also 92 was a first year model and have heard many wacky problems.

Look on the wiring harness it plugs in on top of the transmission
make sure all the wires are together. If every thing is ok with the wiring, The sensor is the only thing it could be. A gook used spedometer sensor from the junk yard will work this sensor dosent take a lot of abuse so a good used one will be cheap and work just fine. This is a job you can do your self and save a lot of money. I had the same problem with my 95 civic