In the process of daily use of elevators, the speed limiter plays a vital role in preventing the elevator from going down or going up to overspeed, and one of the important reasons for the 10·18 large elevator fall accident in Mile City, Yunnan Province, China, in 2023 is the failure of the speed limiter function. In this paper, according to the structural characteristics and functional realization mechanism of the speed limiter, several common failure modes of the speed limiter will be expounded, and the failure analysis of some rare failure modes will be carried out, and the failure cause will be judged and the failure critical point will be calculated by means of finite element and other means. In order to avoid the failure of the speed limiter and the failure to investigate in time, maintenance opinions and inspection opinions are proposed. Finally, a self-calibrating speed limiter solution combining a safety switch fail-safe governor and a rotary encoder will be proposed to monitor the key data of the real-time operation of the elevator speed limiter, ensure the normal operation of the elevator speed limiter during use, and ensure the life safety of elevator passengers.