BS911

Problem: Your speedometer works, but odometer gears stop turning. It usually happens right after you hit the trip reset button. The drive gear that turns the odometer and tripmeter, over time, and thanks to VDO coating a plastic gear with a petroleum lubricant, turns to jelly. Your options to fix are: send to a speedo shop, buy a new speedo, ignore it (sorry, but that's illegal), or spend about $20 and hour and fix it yourself. Read down for legal rules if you want to stay legit with your mileage.

EDIT: This whole DIY is now officially on http://www.p-car.com.

More specifically, see it ---> HERE <---

blackcat

cool! thanks Brian!

Dudley

Great DIY. But I realize... Hmmm, no wonder people are suspicious of low mileage cars.

graham_mitchell

Thanks for all your effort! Threads like these are what make this board the valuable resource it is. Nice photos too.

ljugete

I have the same problem but don't think I have the patience to do this DYI. Great thread though.

Ben in Plano, TX

very timely Brian - thanks.

Mine just gave up the ghost at 70k miles.

Ben

burgass

Brian thanks! Maybe you can post all this in the DIY forums for 993 and 964

9elheven

Brian-

You da MAN! I've been procrastinating about fixing mine, and while I saw the part advertised in Pano, I didn't just didn't want to dive in, screw it up as I'm sure I would, and ship the whole mess to California. Now, I've got a clearer idea of what I need to do. Can you come up to NJ and supervise me? Just kidding, although there is some Guinness lurking about if you happen to pass nearby! Thanks to you!

Jim

pchak

I was just getting ready to send my speedo to a shop, when I read this excellent DIY. Extremely concise-gives me enough optimism to be crazy enough to attempt this!

Perhaps I'll do the white face guages, after I do a search to see how hard the rest of the gauges are!

This should nicely compliment the brushed rings from the group buy.

Also, how have people who have had to deal with this disclose the odo issue at time of sale? Would this justify sending it to a speedo shop, or do you think this type of documentation is enough?

campbesl

Brian,

Outstanding write-up!!! Cheers to you!

Scott

BS911

Thanks all for the note on the DIY. I love to actually contribute where I can. Leave it to me though to find the really left-field ones.

I was going to speculate on the law, but figured I'd let you speculate on your own. However, once you drive with the odometer not working, I believe the car will always be a TMU ... true mileage unknown. However, fixing it is fixing it. The law doesn't say - as far as I could tell - that some special, licensed, law-abiding, odometer guru repair it. In fact, it says a "person" may repair it. I'm sure some will argue, but I think I qualify as one of those. It really just says that it must be repaired and what to do if the mileage changes because of the repair and that it must be noted on the sale. For the real facts... here are the relavant laws...

dhicks

I dont have this issue...yet...had it happen on my 951.....but wanted to commend you on the time taken to provide a really good commentary on the process, will be used by many for sure....maybe this will go on p-car diy

Richard Curtis

I did this repair tonight. But -- and this is very surprising -- the original odometer gear was still intact, every tooth was still there. It was, however, very soft. I replaced it however, thinking it couldn't hurt especially since I had everything apart. Then did my usual stare-at-it-until-my-eyeballs-hurt-trying-to-find-something-else-obviously-wrong, to no avail. Put everything back together, reinstalled, and -- surprise -- the odometer now works. Go figure. Brian's instructions are spot on, and he's correct about the speedo needle. Be extra careful with that, even when reinstalling. Before you take it off, note where it is at rest (on mine, the first hash mark on the speedo, signifying, i guess, zero. It's a bit tricky to get it realigned exactly but keep working at it BEFORE you do the final press fit. If you've got instrument bulbs burned out on the speedo (there are three of them), now's the time to replace those, too. Whole thing took me 45 minutes, mostly thanks to Brian's instructions. And, yes, www.odometergear.com and Jeff Caplan were as helpful as Brian pointed out.

jnor10

I recently did this as well.

Man, I just scratch my head when you guys post such short DIY times. It took 45 min for me just to get the gauge out (including gathering my worklight and tools)

Anyhow, not much to add, Brian did an excellent write-up on this. My gear was shot, broken teeth, etc. The replacement (plastic injection mold) is robust.Taking the bezel off the guage was slow for me as I was trying to maintain damage control. Using a variety of small tools, I'd say the flat blade screw driver worked best; as recommended.

Taking the speedo needle off is a high anxiety moment, as if you break the small needle shaft your out some large ones (~700). Jeff at Odometergears.com was very helpful and patient in discussing the correct technique to remove the needle. If you want, you can stop at that point and have a pro finish where you left off for a small fee (never discussed the details).

Follow the DIY, its straight forward, gear was $25 plus postage.
My OD failed at 75K.

Jeff N.

BS911

That's great news. Glad this was helpful. That's funny Jeff about your mileage. I stared at 73k for the longest time.