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I checked all the connections on my 96, the gas gauge and temp gauge work fine its just the speedometer, odometer, and trip don't work at all, is it more likely that I have a bad speedo or the sending part of it???

This is pretty simple and can be done by anyone who has some kind of gauge problem and a soldering iron.

Remove your gauges/cluster: Pop the upper part of your dash off. There are no screws, it just pops straight up and out. Put it in your back seat. The cluster had 4 screws holding it in. The hardest screw to reach is the bottom left screw. I used an offset screwdriver to reach it. Once those are out, the cluster just pops out. You don't have to worry about unhooking anything.

Flip your cluster over. Remove the paper protector from the cluster. The screws are #15 Torx head screws. Once the paper is removed, remove ALL of the remaining screws. I believe there are 9 of them, also #15 Torx head. You don't have to remove the bulbs. Disconnect the 4-pin ribbon cable. Slowly and carefully work the circuit board off of the pins. Try not to crack the circuit board. Once you break the board, this little job is done and you'll have to find a new cluster.

Once you have the circuit board loose, flip it over and heat up your soldering iron. The points you need to reflow are the 20 joints in the red ovals:


Set you hot soldering iron onto the very top of the soldering joints. There is probably a wire nib sticking out of the solder. Use that. Watch the solder, it will appear to change color. That's all. It won't move or anything, just change color. Don't add any solder to it. Make sure it changes color all the way down. Set the circuit board off to the side for a few minutes to allow it to cool, the reassemble it the opposite of disassembly.

You've just successfully reflowed the cold solder joints in your cluster, and you shouldn't have anymore jumping gauges. If your gauges continue to jump or flicker, then you've A) found a way to screw this up or B) have a cracked circuit board and you need to replace the entire cluster.

The first thing I did to figure out this problem is that I checked
the PCM wiring harness and cleaned the connection. Turn the car
on... still the same... no readings on the gauge. Conclusion: not
the PCM.

Next, I check the fuse box in the engine compartment. All the fuses
are ok but decide to clean the connectors on the fuse. Turn the car
on... no readings on the gauge. Conclusion: not the engine fuse box.

The engine compartment wire and fuse are all clean, I decided to
check the wires in the interior compartment. I checked the gauge
fuse and that was fine. Conclusion: not the Main gauge fuse.

I took the gauge cluster out and check the wiring harness. The gauge
cluster wiring harness are ok and the pins connection are ok. I
decide the clean it. Plug it back in and the gauges still did not
reading. Conclusion: not the wiring harness or the gauge cluster
pins.

Went to the dealership in Burien, BBC Dodge. Talk to parts guy and
he said I have a solinoid gauge problem or a separate part thing...
do not know what it mean or what he was talking about... asked how
much it would cost for a new guage cluster. It would cost $332.78
w/out tax. I almost choked. He directed me to the service
department. Went to talk to the service department sales person not
the master service tech. The service department guy suspected my
PCM. They always revert to the PCM... really makes me mad that they
always say it is the PCM. Really nice guy thou... they let me look
at there 97 neon service book. They made me a copy of the gauge
cluster wiring diagram. Almost the same diagram as the Chilton
Manual but the dealership had a slight more detail. After this... I
went straight to the junkyard in Kent.

After looking at 6 junked neons... all of them were automatics. I
found two gauge cluster with tachs. One with 105k miles and the
other 114k miles. The junkyard in Kent has a 2.0L Dohc engine with
now tranny thou... everything looks fine. If anyone is looking for
an engine the junkyard in Kent has one. I picked up the 105k mile
gauge cluster for $80 and some fuses from the engine compartment, I
stuffed them my pocket. I know stealing fuses is cheap... but hey...
I am at the junkyard not the dealership. Got home... started on the
car again... plugged the used gauge cluster in... started it up... it
worked. Warning chime, temp, fuel, speed, and tach worked.
Conclusion: gauge cluster was busted. The only thing I did not
realize is that the gauge cluster only had 7k tach board signal.

Finding out that my gauge cluster was bad and the used gauge cluster
only tach only goes up 7k. I decide to take the old gauge cluster
apart: only take the circuit board out. I went online to
www.neon.org and searched for any similar problems with the gauge
cluster. A neon enthusiest screen name "Texican" had a solution for
this with pictures of the circuit board. The topic "1997 Plymouth
Neon gauge problems"... knock on wood... my car is a 1997 Plymouth
Expresso Neon. Texican shows where to re-solder and shows a picture
of it and circles the problem in red. I just melted the solder
joints and let it cool. Put my old gauge cluster back together and
tested it. Conclusion: my old gauge cluster worked again. Whoo!!!
My warning chime, temp, fuel, speed, and tach... working again.

I still get a code 42 reading from both gauge cluster. Just happy my
old 8k gauge cluster works. I figured if my old gauge cluster is
broken... could not get any worse to try to fixed it.

Full day of working on my car...
Asking dealership question: really no help but "hey" they might know
something...
Going to a junkyard and accidently picking up a 7k tach gauge
cluster: I am thinking 7k gauge clusters are only made for either
only automatic tach or none sport neon cars...
Finding that you can fix your old gauge cluster: priceless!

Hi Guys:

Half the time the speedometer doesn't work, sometimes the fuel and hot-cold gauges don't work. It never had a tach - I just know when to shift and know the car well enough to know about how fast I'm going. This car was well taken care of, and is totally stock, prior owners were not into "tricking out" or anything-very conservative folks.
People tell me this problem is the speedometer cable...But this is a MAJOR thing from what I've been reading here! I"m a little old lady that barely gets out and puts air in the tires...So, I really don't know how to do all this you all are explaining here. What specifically do I tell the dealer or whomever works on it?

Just a FYI on this topic, the outter top connections are the ones that are for the speedo. Might just be one of them. Both of mine had a crack all the way around the pin, so I had to add material. Once I did that, the speedo worked perfect.

Thanks for your help!! Now I'll sound somewhat intelligent when I address this problem!!

Thanks for the great information everyone! I havent driven my Neon in a few weeks. I got in today and the speedo didnt work, but everything else did. This sounds like a quick fix. Again thanks... its great to be a new member here.

Well i did mine today and no luck the speedo gauge still works when it wants and stuff

The gas and engine heat indicator seem to be wokring fin

Did mine last night I also had to add solder. Works great but on the way back from the shop my alt went (not related to fixing my cluster).

Jason

i just did mine yesterday and it worked great....in the end. i had heated up the points on the guage and i guess i left the heat on too long cause the posts that plug into the dash was leaning, so i couldn't plug it up properly i didn't hav my left turn signal light, gas or coolant temp guage and i didn't figure it out until i looked at the post on the plug.

so be careful to heat it up just enough to get the solder in liquid form again. great tech!

I just got back from vacation... while I was gone I was waiting for my gauge cluster (with RPM) to arrive. Sure enough it had, so I had some time today to do the swap... the one I got was used, off of eBay but it looked to be in good shape (although the odometer had 116,000 on it). Just to make sure I re-soldered everything. I installed it, and everything worked great except for the spedometer and odometer again. Not only that, but now when I close any door I get a very annoying buzz, with a red double triangle on the dash, right next to the tach! Regardless of the ley being in or not. The funny thing is that the owners manual mentions nothing about this dummy light at all. The buzz is actually coming from a relay at the bottom of the fuse box, so I removed it... now I get no dome light when I open the door, unless I turn it on manually. Has anyone ever seen this before? I am a little lost now, and still without a speedometer and odometer. Thanks in advance!

Just wanted to give a quick update... I removed the gauge cluster again and re soldered the connections once more. The first time around I had noticed one of the cluster lights missing, so I put one in the missing spot... just happened to be the warning light I was talking about in my last post. I removed that and reinstalled the relay and the buzzing sound (and obviously the warning light) are a thing of the past. I dont know what it was intended for... it is not listed in the owners manual at all... maybe for a European version, but who knows. So at least that part is fixed... the speedometer though... still dead as a doornail... this really has me puzzled.

Quick Update... I went to the Dodge dealer today to pick up a vehicle speed sensor. I thought that might be the next logical step on this... I pulled the old one out, and in the hole I find a broken plastic device that the speed sensor plugs into. So I just spent $50 on the VSS and now I wonder how to get this part ordered and put back in. I will be highly ticked off if the transmission has to be removed and partly unassembled to install this plastic piece... the car only has 50,000 miles on it! So if any of you have tried the cluster and found it not to be the problem, you might check this next. It is located on the transmission... just open the hood and you can get to it... kind of close to the firewall. It is only secured with 1 screw, so taking it out is a snap.

This pin, along with the other side (top right) need to be resoldered, and possibly add material if its cracked.

Thanks for the info. Doesn't look like the picture came out though... I would be interested in trying your suggestion once I find out which pin it is.

So I replaced the speed sensor, which did not work and then had noticed broken plastic inside the hole where the VSS goes. This ended up being the speed sensor pinion which would normally fit over the end of the VSS. I ordered one from Dodge... man what a difference between the two... there was obviously a LOT broken off inside the transmission that I could not even see. I took a shop vac and placed it over the hole for a second to suck up any unseen pieces (and hopefully not the oil to!). I got a few, but not what I was looking for... I was mainly looking for the plastic piece with the gears on it... who knows where this went.... it may have gotten obliterated in the metal gears. This concerns me though. I am planning on changing that transmission oil though.

Anyway, I replaced the pinion, and it the speedometer STILL does not work!! I am looking forward to trying your suggestion... ya never know... it just may be the thing that fixes it.

Up to now though... here is what I have done so far:

1) Replaced the cluster (I had wanted to do this anyway because I wanted a tach)
2) Re-soldered the sections from the post above, but also re-coated the light socket solder.
3) Re-soldered again since it did not work when I installed it.
4) Replaced the vehicle speed sensor
5) Replaced the vss pinion (This was definitely bad)
6) Listened to the radio and ate some fruit.

I have lots of pictures of the work if anyone ever needs any for reference on their speedometer issues... I would be happy to send them your way.

TRY TO HEAT FIRST WITH SOLDER GUN
IF STILL DOESN'T WORK ADD MATERIAL