Toyota created an extremely popular and reliable pickup truck when they created the Tacoma. This small platform truck was a transition from the older “Pickup” named vehicle, but still much smaller than the larger T-100 and Tundra models.
2005 marked the release of the next generation pickup truck. When this happened the gauge cluster and electronics were completely
redesigned from prior years. Typically the signal that comes from your transmission or wheels goes into the computer so it knows how fast you are travelling. This signal usually also splits to the speedometer so the needle can move and show you the correct speed.
Over the course of 2005-2011 Toyota decided to send this VSS or speed signal into the speedometer first and then have the speedometer output the signal back to the ECU. Now the speedometer is no longer able to send that signal to the ECU because the internal electronics have failed. This is where your P0500 error code pops up. What’s even more confusing is that mechanics and dealerships will need to do exhaustive diagnosing on other vehicle components and “speedometer replacement” is usually that last thing to check on the flow diagram of diagnosing this problem.
Recently we have heard of horror stories about Toyota Tacomas sitting at dealerships for months waiting on the backlog of gauge clusters to arrive. We stockpiled brand new clusters recently and they took 12 months to come in from Toyota.
While installing a new gauge cluster is a good option, we have a 2005-2011 Toyota Tacoma Speedometer Cluster Repair: P0500 VSS Error Code. If you purchase this service and send in your cluster we can resolve the P0500 problem and get your back on the road within a week.