1996 Cobra Tachometer Inaccurate

[Sn8kebitten]

I’ve had a suspicion for awhile now that my tachometer has been reading off since buying my Cobra back last year. It never felt or sounded the same during WOT like I remembered from 10 years ago. At 70mph with 4.10s, it reads around 3400rpms and even with those gears, that seemed higher than I remember. So I hooked my SCT X4 I have from my other car up to it, and if I hold the gas at what the cluster says is 3000rpms, the tuner only shows 2493rpms. While held at 4000rpms, it showed 3320rpms. Any ideas where I should start to finding the problem?

 

[Musturd]

Cluster itself is probably bad . I’d donate my cobra cluster but you’d have to turn the pats off only shitty thing is mines a Canadian unit .

 

[cobrajeff96]

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.

Disconnect (-) battery, pull out the cluster, open the lens, and just reseat the needle. I've taken apart clusters dozens of times, I'm damn near an expert by now.

Bottom line: if the needle has smooth movement throughout the rpm range, the motor inside is not faulty.

If you want to go real in depth and see proof-positive if the gauge is spot on or not, go here.

PATS wasn't a thing with clusters until 99. Earlier SN95s didn't integrate the clusters.

 

[Sn8kebitten]

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.

Disconnect (-) battery, pull out the cluster, open the lens, and just reseat the needle. I've taken apart clusters dozens of times, I'm damn near an expert by now.

Bottom line: if the needle has smooth movement throughout the rpm range, the motor inside is not faulty.

If you want to go real in depth and see proof-positive if the gauge is spot on or not, go here.

PATS wasn't a thing with clusters until 99. Earlier SN95s didn't integrate the clusters.

The last time I pulled this cluster out was around 2011 when I replaced the odometer gear that had broken, so I know I can do that at least lol but when you say reseat the needle, do you mean remove it then reinstall it as it will only fit one way? Or just push down on it how it sits now?

 

[Musturd]

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.

Disconnect (-) battery, pull out the cluster, open the lens, and just reseat the needle. I've taken apart clusters dozens of times, I'm damn near an expert by now.

Bottom line: if the needle has smooth movement throughout the rpm range, the motor inside is not faulty.

If you want to go real in depth and see proof-positive if the gauge is spot on or not, go here.

PATS wasn't a thing with clusters until 99. Earlier SN95s didn't integrate the clusters.

Pats is a issue and cluster is included on 96 up cars been there done that

 

[cobrajeff96]

The last time I pulled this cluster out was around 2011 when I replaced the odometer gear that had broken, so I know I can do that at least lol but when you say reseat the needle, do you mean remove it then reinstall it as it will only fit one way? Or just push down on it how it sits now?

Actually, first thing you might try is the test procedure. This way you'll know whether or not the tach motor is bad.

Pats is a issue and cluster is included on 96 up cars been there done that

Strange because I've swapped out three different 1996 clusters now on my 96 Cobra without issue. There's really no module inside a these early SN95 clusters to interface with the PATS module or the ECU. If there is, boy have I been asleep.

 

[gcassidy]

Good to see you back at it. Maybe not much of a help but I had installed a digital shift light that I could set to the RPM by 100s, and it showed my cluster tach was reading about 100 high. Wasn't off enough for me to fool with it. Good luck!