Speedo swap 2009

[Greg]

Hi all - first post and apologies if I have missed this elsewhere in the forum (there is a lot to catch up on).

A friend imports Japanese cars (to the UK) and has brought me in a low mileage 2009 Japanese model. To register it I need to put in a rear fog light (will use the reversing light as they do with imported MX-5s so hopefully fairly straightforward) and convert the speedo to MPH.

On the latter I've now tried every combination of changing the odometer and holding the button down but still have km/hr.
I'm beginning to wonder if it would be easier to pick up a speedo from a UK-spec car and fit that. Or perhaps see if a Mitsubishi dealer would be able to reset it.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

 

[Don]

Many times the speedometer is linked to the cars computer, in which case a dealer would probably have to match it to the car. But, not always. On my 2014 Ford Transit Connect, there was a premium model which had a larger color LCD display screen between the speedo and the tach and it gave more information than the tiny green screen one which came in my van. An enterprising forum member (aren't car forums wonderful!?) discovered that if you bought the whole instrument cluster, you could swap it out and everything worked, including new pages of information that our old green screen didn't even have. Oddly though (or it seemed to me) the odometer info is stored in the instrument cluster and not in the cars computer. So, for $75 with free shipping I was able to buy the whole cluster on eBay . . . . but it cost me $100 to ship it off to an instrument repair specialist to have the odometer reset to reflect the actual miles on my van

I have no idea how swapping in a used instrument cluster into a JDM car would go, but assuming you can find a used one for $50 or so from a local wrecker, I'd say it's worth a shot just to see what happens

Don

 

[Greg]

Thanks Don, am trying to get one off eBay - just waiting to hear back. Will post updates as I progress!
And yes, forums are amazing