2000 corolla, speedometer/transmission problems

[92LudeSR]

I need a bit of technical help with a 2000 corolla, When the weather is hot the check engine light is coming on. If the light is on as soon as the car starts after about 2 minutes of driving the speedometer will fluctuate wildly between the actual speed and zero. Sometimes the speedometer will die completely and then suddenly start working. As well there are times when the transmission seems to drop into neutral for a second and then start shifting back to drive.

I will be taking the car in to have the code scanned but would anyone here have any suggestions as to what may be the problem? I suspect it is electrical and not mechanical and it also seems this car has an electronic speedo so it could be the VSS or whatever these cars use to read the speed off the transmission however would this also affect the shifting?

Thanks for any ideas.

Darrell

[Chris Corolla S]

wow, that's weird.

I can't speak to the speedo/tranny issue but if the CEL comes on when it is warm out you might need a Coolant flush and fill there...
Let us now what code it is throwing when it gets checked

[brink]

I had a similar problem and it turned out to be loose/dirty connections on the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor). Post is old so you may have fixed it your problem by now, but if you still get it, you can try taking some tiny needle nose pliers and carefully squeezing the contacts together on the plug itself (not the sensor). Also try taking the corner of a shop towel and wiping around the outer housing. If there's oil or something in there it can foul the connections.

Having a faulty VSS will eventually cause a code to be thrown, I think it's like P0500 or something like that. I had a CEL for awhile, then after two times starting/driving the car after fixing the problem, the code cleared itself.