While driving speedometer stop working then car shut off

1997 MITSUBISHI MIRAGE

43,000 MILES • 0.5L • 4 CYL • AUTOMATIC

ANNIKKA.LOPEZ

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I was driving earlier today when I noticed (to my horror) that the speedometer had abruptly stopped working. Less than a half an hour later my car, "shut off" on me while I was on the road; fortunately, though, this happened as I was pulling up to a stop sign. My husband did put some oil in the car in the morning before we went anywhere. He mentioned that sometimes a consequence of over or under filling with oil can be exactly what we experienced. But that does not explain the speedometer breaking so suddenly. Please help. Thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Ekaterina Lopez

Nov 25, 2018 at 2:51 PM

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

CERTIFIED EXPERT
110,175 POSTS

Hi and thanks for using 2CarPros.

Adding oil, whether it is too much or too little, won't shut the engine. On some vehicles, if oil pressure is lost, it will shut the engine down to prevent damage. However, that is not relevant with this model.

As far as the speedometer, you should have the computer scanned to determine if there is an issue with one of the speed sensors. Chances are it is the vehicle speed sensor (VSS).

Here are simple directions for testing VSS. Picture 3 shows general location, and picture 2 shows how it is tested and what to look for. Picture 1 shows location on the transmission.

Let me know if this helps.

Take care,
Joe

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Nov 26, 2018 at 5:18 PM