05 no speedometer wont go into gear

Hello. Long time lurker first time poster. Hope I'm doing this right.
I'm stumped. All the other dash lights work but No speedometer read out ( once in a while it will come on and the ice will start but within seconds it shuts down). It won't shut off unless my foot is off the brake. I replaced the combination meter, I removed the 12v and had it tested at pep boys. Checks out. I used a basic scan tool and it read no codes (before I pulled the 12. I pulled the traction battery plug for a few minutes. It will only move to neutral. I wanted to blame the new combination meter but the company says there is some other problem. The brake switch seems to work, lights come on. The car is beat up and has 240000 on it. Is it time to move on?

 

Thanks for the idea. I thought so as well. Took the combination meter out and put one in that is known to be fully functional and all the symptoms remain unchanged. I'm at a loss now. Really don't want to have to tow it to a dealer.

 

Thanks.
I only have a cheapo code reader and it reads no codes. We've had the car for about a year. I see 2 switches on the brake pedal. I'll check them both.

 

Yes.

 

Thank you again for the advice. I'm in woodland hills. Wife said she's ordering the mini vci. Should arrive Wed. The headlights are off. Tonight I noticed the traction battery gauge showed just one blue bar then it climbed to 6 blue bars over the next 60 seconds or so. The engine didn't start.. The car is haunted.

 

Screwed around with the new mvci cable and software. Finally got it to work on an old xp laptop. Did a healthscan and one code came up. Gateway B1271. Says combination meter or wiring harness. Replaced the combination meter twice already.. So maybe a new dash top with the harness from a junkyard?

 

How much do you want for the harness parts?

 

Update. Aquired a new (old) dash top from an 08 (thanks Jonathan). Plugged it in and no change. Swapped the combination meters and tested both harnesses in the car. Original harness produces everything but a speedometer read out with either meter in place. 08 harness produces no dash lights at all with either meter. In all test forms the symptoms remain unchanged. Rescan with techstream and it still says Gateway b1271 fault defined as combination meter or wiring harness.

 

Yes it is odd because all the plugs are the same and the wire arrays are the same numbers and colors. Only the lead to the airbag lights are different. There are 6 wires instead of 2. I was wondering if maybe the airbag deployment had triggered some other failure within the new dash. I'm still tinkering with it between beers. Thanks for the number. I'll contact them tomorrow.

 

Update. After chasing mysterious dash problems for 2 weeks and having the car throw the code for combination meter or harness fault and NO OTHER CODES repeatedly I got the dash issue resolved by combining parts from 2 dash tops and harnesses until it worked and the code has not come back so far. The original meter and harness are in place so I can't say for certain what is different so I expect it to fail again soon. Now it will come on, ice starts, consumption shows energy flowing into the traction battery, speedometer is showing, mfd shows something about a park function failure and asks to be parked on a flat surface and the brake applied..maybe 20 seconds (I'll time it next test) and it shuts down. Says "problem" (yeah, I know). This time it's a low engine power code, along with a vsc abs code and one that says fuel run out... Fuel run out???? Don't tell me... If it's just out of gas I'm going to loose my mind...
Gauge shows just under 25% ..Added 2 gallons.
No change. Still threw the fuel run out code.
Gotta call an expert. But at least the speedometer is on again.

 

It's an optima yellow top that tested healthy at pep boys a couple of weeks ago.. It's on a battery maintenance charger so it stays fully charged throughout the days of screwing around with the doors open. I left a message for 3prongpaul. Thanks again for the number. Will go get more gas. Omg..if that solves it...I might have to get rid of my tools