CEL Code 06 Question
 

Hi all,
Just acquired a manual 93 Touring this weekend (build thread and proper intro to be posted soon), and am running into an issue that I can't find a definitive answer to after plenty of searching (maybe I'm just using the wrong keywords).

Car is totally stock aside from a Racing Beat catback, and has 108k miles. The tach, speedo, and odometer are intermittent which I'm sure is due to capacitors as detailed countless times on this forum. I pulled the negative battery cable and held the brake for 15 seconds to clear the CEL code in case there was something else happening, which resulted in my cluster coming to life when I went for a test drive. Very exciting to see revs and the somewhat accurate speedometer (reads low below ~50mph, and high after that based on Waze speed) after driving the car 4.5 hours home.

As the title says, I get code 06 when jumping the diagnostic connector (no long flashes, 6 quick flashes) which would be the vehicle speed sensor. The thing that's got me scratching my head, is that it only throws the CEL when I get to primary-secondary switchover revs. I drove for 15 minutes at lower revs through all gears, and the CEL never came on. As soon as I get to the transition, the CEL immediately comes on. Is this something anyone is familiar with? It did it whether the speedo/tach/odo were all reading zero, as well as when they were alive. Would busted caps cause the VSS code to be thrown?

Cluster will still be pulled for potential repair, but appreciate any insight on this!

the speed sensor goes right to the speedo, and then to the ecu and cruise control, abs etc so i could see a bad cluster throwing the code

^Yep, I think the cluster is the root of the problem here. Michael Gagne on the Facebook RX-7 group does an amazing job at cluster repair, very thorough and he will get it working for now and many years to come.

Dale

Thanks guys! I saw on the wiring diagram that the VSS went to the cluster, but wasn't sure if the CEL would be rev dependent. Hopefully will have time to pull the cluster this weekend and evaluate from there.

be very careful
the plastics are quite brittle