94 Honda accord check engine light and speedometer problem?

[darrel]

I have a 94 honda accord lx coupe. On my way to work today after taking off from a dead stop at a stop light, my speedometer suddenly bounced up and down 2 or 3 times then dropped to zero and quit working after which about a second or two later my check engine light came on. My car sounds perfectly fine and had no drop in performance or any tell tale signs of trouble when this happened (no noises, knocks pings or hisses) and has always run great as I keep it regularly maintained. Did the speedometer just go bad? And is that enough to set off the check engine light or could this be the start of something worse? and about what cost am I looking at to replace the speedometer?

 

[wwjd77488]

Unfortunately, there is not enough information to be completely sure of the problem.
You could have blown a fuse, but typically all the guages run off of one fuse so if the other instruments are working, prob not that.
The speedometer could have died but I'm betting that isn't the problem either.
Sometimes an alternator that is going bad can give those indications early on...though typically the speedometer starts working again after a short while.
Your best bet is to pull off the trouble code that is causing the engine light to come on.
Each car is different in how to pull the codes.
You can buy a handheld code reader - some parts store will go out with you and read it for you.
Or you can look up the method for your make/model.
Some are turning the ignition key on and off a few times.
Others have you jumper across the diagnostic plug terminals.
Buy a chilton manual that has codes in it....the manual will tell you how to pull the code, what the code means, how to fix it and how to clear the trouble code out of memory.
If you take it to the shop, you are looking at about $100 just to hook ity up to a computer. Chilton or haynes manual costs aboyut $20.
Your choice.
Hope this helps