P0501: Vehicle Speed Sensor A Circuit Range/Performance
What to do
Driveable, but the speedometer may read erratically and the transmission may shift oddly. If the sensor comes out covered in metallic debris, ask about the condition of the gearbox — the debris came from somewhere.
What this code means
The speed signal is present but implausible — not matching engine speed and gear ratio, or changing faster than a vehicle could accelerate or brake. A signal that is there but wrong rather than absent.
On magnetic sensors, metallic debris collecting on the pole piece is a classic cause: swarf from a wearing gearbox sticks to the magnet and corrupts the signal without breaking it. Removing the sensor and inspecting its tip takes minutes and finds this immediately — and a tip covered in metal paste says something about the gearbox as well as the sensor.
Likely causes
Start here
- Metallic debris on the sensor tip · easy
- Faulty vehicle speed sensor · moderate
- Worn speedometer drive gear · moderate
Less common
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
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Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
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