legacycentral bbs

Well I decided to put an optima yellow top battery in mr car tonight...one problem...the positive battery terminal was too short. Rather than be an intelligent human being...and that it was only centimeters short...I stretch it and it works. Now when I get in my car I get a transmission code 33 VSS 2. I am very good friends with a subaru dealer and he allowed me to use his select monitor to pull this code. Is it possible I pulled a wire off of the VSS? does the VSS affect fuel economy? I searched but couldn't find any of these answer. Again I know im an idiot for doing this...but please help..

I doubt it.....the VSS 2 is in the combination meter.

Mine's been stretched for about 5 years now and no problems.

Does your speedometer still work?

Yes, it still works... I hooked up the select monitor. I am getting signal from the VSS1 but nothing from VSS2...how do I fix this...and does this cause any problems to my transmission?

Hmm, that's weird.

Like Josh said, VSS2 is the one built into the speedometer. And all its wiring is under the dash.

I can't see how something in swapping the battery and stretching the cable could cause this problem.

I agree, this is interesting. I also want to note that when I put this battery in I pulled out some of the plugs on the bottom of the black fuse box under the hood...I plugged them all back in( I think)...is the VSS2 controlled by any of these fuses or relays under the hood in that black fuse box? Could any of them being temporarily unplugged cause a short in the VSS2? How do I go about replacing the VSS2? would I need a new cluster?

No, it shouldn't be affected by any of those connectors.

I think the official way to replace VSS2 is to replace the cluster, yes. It may be possible to just replace part of it; I don't know.

It still seems weird to me.

Can you put a voltmeter up to the ECU's VSS pin?

That just doesn't make sense. If the VSS2 is bad, your speedo wouldn't work.

So you're not getting any ECU codes, just TCU codes? Does the green power light flash when you start up the car?

Well, if the little reed switch inside the speedometer has failed, then the gauge would work but the computer would get no signal.

Oooh, wait, I missed that -- the ECU still reads a VSS signal?

Then you'd want to check for continuity between the ECU's VSS pin and the TCU's VSS2 pin.

There's a reed switch inside the speedometer? Why?

It's the sensor. Apparently a little magnet spins and goes past a reed switch. That, along with the pull-up resistor inside the ECU, creates the VSS square wave.

Oh, that's cool. It makes perfect sense. The applications I'm used to seeing them used in is to detect when a pneumatic cylinder is extended or retracted.

Fixed, I reconnected the power wire from my turbo timer to the battery...and voila..the signal is gone...is this possible because I tapped the ecu wire for vss2?

You tapped the ECU wire for VSS2?