Speedometers making noise

[az66ghia]

ill be driving and all of a sudden the speedometer starts making this loud screetching noise and it will continue till the car slows to almost a stop. does anyone know of what is happening or how to fix it. thanks.

[Bart Dunn]

New speedometer? BFY, Wolfsburg West, etc. sell rebuilt ones. There's magnets or bearings in there that go bad. Happened to me once in my Beetle. Other than that, maybe dump a quart of Prestone antifreeze in there, no, make that Quaker State.
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Not enough car seats fit into my:
'58 Beetle convertible
'58 Beetle sedan

[JeffL]

I picked up a NOS trip speedo for a 63 Beetle. After about 1,000 miles it started to make the same noise.

I took the speedo apart (not easy but take your time) and lubricated the bushing where the cable comes into the speedo. It was fine after that. Send it out to get it reconditioned.

[Doc's70KG]

I had a similar problem a couple of months ago. The speedo would occasionally freak out (needle jumping all over the place, rattle/screeching noise). It was intermittent, and I tried shooting some lock lubricant stuff into the cable housing on the theory that the speedo cable was binding up somewhere, but to no avail. In the end, the problem just went away of its own accord, so I'm guessing whatever was binding up worked itself free on its own. Not sure if this helps or not, but you may want to take a wait-and-see approach for a while and maybe save some $$$ on a rebuilt speedo.

[BirdLives]

I had that problem, just tightened the cable were it attaches to the back of the speedo, fixed it for me.

I remember someone suggesting on another thread to disconnect the cable there and grease it.

[jh72i]

I had the same problem. Got a new (well, old) speedo and it did the same thing. Of course, tried the cable first and it seemed to be fine. What worked for me (so far) was some plumbers tape (don't know what its called but its very very thin white tape that they use to ensure a leak free connection in thread) when the cable connects into the back of the speedo. Just seemed to tighten the connection enough to stop the noise.

Now, this is not a solution and could even be doing more damage in the long run I really don't know. But its worth a try before considering buying a new speedo.

Good luck.

[Rusted Rockers]

lube works for me....check also the cable could be dry too....

[az66ghia]

well i just tightened the speedo cable and all was fine thanks for all your help.

[Buggeroff]

[v8swap]

I Also had this problem. spedo was squealing and the needle jumping around. I disconected the cable from the back of the spedo and gave it a blast of graphite powder (in the spedo and the cable). Worked for me. I don't know if one should do this if it's been lubed previously with WD40 or similar you might have a caked up mess.

[v8swap]

Just a up date on my previous post on useing graphite powder. Worked great for a few days.....now my speedo died.