sam woodson

I drove up to Tennessee and drove it home tonight.

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...aff=national#0

I found a few little things, but it's in pretty good shape. It's an 01 Cobra Vert with 49k miles.

On the way home I noticed the speedo is OFF. I was going 85 on the Speedo, but the GPS said 72 or 73. I called on the cell phone to my parents in the car infront of me and they said their speedo said 72 or 73 as well.

Next issue, the cigarette lighter didn't work for the GPS, I had to plug it into the center glove box outlet. Also, later I found and probably related, the interior lights don't come on. The dash lights work, I mean the ones under the rearview mirror and at your feet, etc. Probably a fuse.

There is a little bit of a noise that gets louder the faster you go, I don't think it's serious, as I put the clutch in and the noise continued. If it was the drivetrain (shaft, Tranny, etc) it would have stopped. It might be wheel balance or wheel bearing?

AC works great, cruise works, door locks, pwr windows, pwr seat, pwr mirrors, pwr top, remote key fobs, etc all work.

Clutch is good, engine had a nice roar and pulls good, then you hit 5k and it really kicks in.

Gas MPG seems to be close to double the 86 on the highway. Of course with the speedo being off, that means it looks like I drove more miles than I actually did.

Redbaron93

Nice find, Sam. I love the color,True Blue, and the Saleen touches(rear spoiler & side scoops). The suede seats would have been nice but at least now you don't have to worry about cleaning them.

ShowGT

Looks like a well kept car for a Cobra. Congrats on the new addition.

workmangc

I think you may have some different gears, could explain the noise and speedo. Good find.

Puter

Agree. That was my first thought.

Aren these the cars that take an electronic fix to change the speedo when gears are changed? The part I do not like is the noise. That would mean whomever did the gears did not set them up correctly. Might be a good idea to get them looked at.

Looks nice!

Redbaron93

I'm thinking you're right Ralph. I think '98 was the last year you could change rearend gears and change the speedo gear in the tranny. I remember when I worked at W.A.F. I sold a man a '99 Cobra and we changed out his gears to 3.73's and his speedo was off 10-15 mph.

96TennGT

Nice car. Your lighting and power issue may be related to the speedo problem. I say this because it's common to place the electronic speedo corrector under the center dash stack and use splice into that power outlet to get power. Perhaps the wires came loose and shorted it to one of the metal pieces under there. Of course it could be just a fuse. If the fuse blows again or isn't the culprit check this out. To check remove the shift **** and pull out the plastic peice around the shift handle. The wireing and electronic box for speedo correction is most likely under there.

sam woodson

I replaced 2 fuses #1 and #7 and the interior lights (mirror map lights) work as well as the ligher outlet. I then removed this switch that was right in that area, it just had 2 long wires, not connected to anything. PO removed something, computer? Alarm?

The switch was just a pull out, push in type, no lights, etc. The cover for the computer hookup is also off and in the book with the owners manual, so I'm guessing he had some kind of tuner chip with a stock and tuned settings,etc that also adjusted the speedo.

I washed it, cleaned the interior, and Rainxed it.

Yes, this year requires a computer change for the speedo.

I'll probably stop on the way home Wednesday night to have the wheels balanced as the first step to check for the noise on the highway.

Here is the switch I was talking about:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sam.wood...80232703584850

Grabber Pony

im gonna guess its got gears in it.. does the sound sond like its kinda roaring or something to that effect?? The ones I had in my 05 were worn out and roared..verry annoying. The switch.. could it possibly have been for a switch chip tuner? That could explain why the speedo is off now. Maybe they just pulled it last minute? I would take some time to trace down the wiring under the dash..

Nice find though!!!!

I almost bought a true blue 01 cobra.. buddy of mine got it salvage title and rebuilt it into a cobra r clone in true blue..very beautiful! I glad i waited now though lol

virginiavenom

I owned a 99 cobra, if the noise is a fast vibration kind of dull roar sound not engine related, then most likely it is either the gears that were installed (obviously why the speedo is off) <---you can buy a tuner to correct that easily and I changed my front wheel bearings on my 99 at 80,000 miles. noise was gone. I loved the power band of those things too.....the gas mileage I was able to achieve was amazing to me....on the autobahn at about 100 mph I got 26 mpg during a 3 hour trip.....amazed me....this was with slicks, tools, a passenger, his stuff and intermittant AC.

one thing to watch for sure, is the wheel hop.....the second you feel it, you'll know, get out of it, or you'll be changing half shafts.

I swapped mine to a solid axle and ran slicks at the track and managed to pull a 13.4 at full street weight on an unprepped track, but I only had 3.55's

virginiavenom

speedo is electric on 99 and up.

sam woodson

After driving it more to troubleshoot the noise, I felt/heard it coming from the drivers front wheel bearing. I replaced it Saturday morning and it seems pretty good now. There might be a little noise coming from the passenger front wheel bearing, but the main noise is gone.

As son as I sell the rear disc brake kit and the rear wing I'll order a DiabloSport to adjust the speedo.

Mberglo

For speedo correction, check out SpeedCal. I had one on my Bullitt. Easy to install, rock solid operation.