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Topic: Gauge Help...Please... (Read 776 times) previous topic - next topic

Gauge Help...Please...

I'm planning on replacing the stock digital dash piece in my car with a custom aluminum plate with some AutoMeter gauges in it; tach, speedo, fuel level, water temp, trans temp, oil pressure, etc...

What do you do if you remove the stock odometer and swap in a new one with zero miles on it?  I know everytime i get the car inspected the guy asks for the mileage and writes it down.  Won't the DMV have an issue if the guy was writing 125,000+ miles for years and suddenly submits 5 or 10 miles, like I'm starting over?  Or won't they care?

Hesitant to do this swap till i find out what the deal is.
 

Gauge Help...Please...

Reply #1 –
The *proper* thing to do would be to make the new odometer match your old one, or get it as close as possible. I don't know if Auto Meter can do that for you or not...you can always contact them to find out. I hear rumors that the speedo signal can somehow be hooked up on a bench to a drill, which would then make the odometer go up until you're where you need to be (and I've also heard that it takes a looooooong time to do this). But I've never checked into doing this sort of thing myself. Might be some instrucciones on teh Intarweb to do that.

So if you get the car regularly inspected, it's kind of a big deal that your odometer is correct and I would recommend that you take some good, proper, legal steps to ensure that you're not going to get rejected come inspection time. There are probably a few ways to get your odometer close, and the guys with more electrical knowledge should be able to help you here. Also, I believe the new speedo should come with a label that gets affixed to your door jamb, informing people that your speedo was changed. That might be something that you need installed either before or at inspection. Finally, if you have a good repair shop available, they can usually get you some paperwork asserting that the odometer was changed in good faith and proper measures, which will then be your golden ticket for the inspector. You don't *have* to do that but it would certainly help keep things verified.