Correcting Inaccurate Speedometer

[jtq4u]

There is an imported rav 4 forsale that I am tempted to buy, however the speedometer is wildly inaccurate. It has the changed face which shows mph and small kmph.. but still has the odometer in kmph

however when I measured it against a very accurate gps it was 25 mph speed when the dial shows 40mph. I assume they forgot to callibrate it when they put the needle back on after having removed it. Is this something that's easy to fix?

Also with this face replacement means of conversion will it have a speed limiter, what is this set at and how easy is this to remove?

Finally is it a mechanical or electrical speedo?

Thanks

James

[Bibbs]

well 40 kmph = 25mph .. so it's just had the sticker and no conversion .. ask them when this is going to be done.

The limiter is supposed to be at 112 (but my MR2 and S2000 were both at 116). Easy to remove with an Apexi RSM, a "delimiter" which is available on THOR site (have a look on the forum a tthe bottom of the main page for the link).

[jtq4u]

thanks for the reply :-)

I was under the impression from the websites that the sticker was all that was needed (and no conversion), it having the new numbers at the correct locations. This I feel is confirmed as it still has kmph as the odometer. If there was a conversion then i'd expect the odometer to also be in miles.

from researching I beleive that what has happened is that they have removed the needle without first marking it's position.. you are supposed to remove the endstop and then the needle moves to sub 0.. you mark this, then put it back on at the same position and glue back on the endstop.. if you don't do this marking then imagine if the natrual resting point was minus firteen mph.. when you put it back on you would put it back at 0.. thus it would read 15mph higher than it should, like it does. this is my current theory from reading it..

anyone done this job.. does it look like it is about -15mph for it's resting point..

how does the needle attach.. does it have splines or is it just a tight fit on a pin.. perhaps I could hold the pin with watch makers tools and twist the needle if this is the case.. wouldn't want to do that if it was splines though!!!

James

[Bibbs]

Ahh, just from your number it looked as though it hadn't been converted (you didn't mention the -15 mph

It should be just a tight fit on a pin.

[jtq4u]

thanks - good to hear it's just a tight fit pin as it shouldn't be too hard to encourage it to be 15mph higher. How easy is it to remove the glass at the front of the dials?

Thanks

James

[Bibbs]

What car was it again? Not a clue on your car.

On the MR2 you have 4 screws,take out the WHOLE unit, and then just unclip the plastic front.

Then the black face unclipped, then you were left with bare dials and bulbs (I swapped the speedo form J-spec to UK-spec, and then swapped a pony eletric boost guage with a small manual guage - so I've had the dash out a few times)

On my S2000, the whole dash is digital, so nothing to do there.