Here's an interesting addition to the DIY:
After my post above, I went to run some errands. I look down and after 7/10ths of a mile, odo broken again. Went home, took it apart again, nothing wrong. Reassembled, drove 3/10ths, broken again. Went home, took apart...you get the picture. After the 3rd try, (4/10ths) I started thinking;"Damn, I should have listened to Jeff and bought both gears. Went home, took it apart to confirm other gear was broken. It wasn't. So, I shined a very bright light into the place where the gears go, lo and behold, the tooth that broke off my old gear was in one of the crevices of the outer ring. Now remember, these gear teeth are approximately 4 molecules of plastic in total mass. They are hard to see. Save yourselves some hassle and check to ensure that there is nothing in the works before reassembling the unit.
Mine is working fine now (3.8 miles) and I am once again filled with the spirit of Porscheness.

 

Is there a DIY for fixing a stubborn speedo needle? A slight tap on the steering wheel once underway or just about 5 seconds of patience usually gets it going again but for such an expensive car thats 3 years newer than my Toyota Forerunner I keep wondering why everything seems to work on the Toyota with 121,000 miles (albeit with a rebuilt motor - bought it that way) and its worth less than a good set of rims and tires?!?! (thank you for your understanding...must just be my angst over having to put in a new starter in the 993 in the next few days....ok, rant over)

 

My odometer gear went well over a year ago. I immediately contacted Jeff and had a new gear in my hands in days. The DIY was very straightforward. Before I replaced it I checked with my Porsche dealer who has maintained the car from new. He said they didn't repair guages but could sell me a new guage for an astronomical price. I preferred to do the fix and keep the correct existing current mileage on the car.

 

This is such a common problem on these cars and the DIY is so easy. I'd rather save hundreds of dollars and do it myself. If the car has documentation of its mileage, I don't see why this would be such a huge problem. The way the gears are made, I would imagine that it's only a matter of time before all of our 993s are TMU.

 

RUBBISH!!! Just because an odometer was repaired by an "Authorized" shop with a special tool to uncrimp/recrimp the ring, doesn't mean the car was documented properly for the who-knows-how-many miles before being sent in for repair. So repairing it youself has absolutely NOTHING to do with the truthfulness of the odometer, the trustworthyness of the seller, or the guarantee that you are getting what you paid for. This is absolutely no different than someone who changes their own oil and then says service was performed on schedule vs someone who had it done at a dealer. Makes the end result no better or worse.

 

I did the repair on my own because:

(1). with 90k miles, it is not exact a low mile car, why would anyone bother tampering a not so low mile car

(2). I have very detailed documentation which logs the mileage up to date.

 

Bull****. It would he really easy to just replace the ring. there is no "pressure seal," and it definitely isn't tight. It's a cheap metal ring that is easily replaced, and then a couple of bolts. Besides, the way the ODO is sealed, there is no access to the tumblers that show the mileage.

 

While I completely agree with your sentiment Falcondrivr, you CAN access the tumblers. Take a small pin and tap out the pin that the tumbler wheels ride on. Once you get it far enough out of the plastic case, you can now move it out and free wheel any digit you like. I did this so I could roll my odometer FORWARD many thousands of miles to reflect the closer to real life status of my car. If I ever sold my car it would be listed as True Mileage Unknown with my current 168,000 only a best guess that I would divulge to the potential buyer. Of course, I won't ever sell my car so having real miles was just for my own sanity.

If a speedo shop did this would it make it any different? Nope. It still comes down to what I tell potential buyers. Hey guess what... I painted my own front bumper once too... and my car has never been in an accident.

 

Took me 3 times (hopefully) to fix this thing. First time didn't work. Took it apart again and looked under the magnified glass. Found nothing and put everything back. It worked but when I reset the trip odometer (with the car stopped) the whole thing stopped working . Took it apart again checked everything over again and reinstalled. It works now but I am afraid to reset the trip odo.

 

I have the two odometer gears available. I bought them for $54 and will sell them for $40 including shipping.

 

Sold!

 

Mine just broke, Jeff is a real nice guy so thanks to everyone on this thread.

 

mine broke last week and just did the repair. Just adding here to what was posted by Falcondrvr. Tried mine 3 times before I got it correct. And this was knowing I was looking for the little broken off piece of the gear!! It was hidden in one of the teeth of the fixed gear ring the motor fits into. I had checked each tooth of the odo/trip gears and used compressed air but missed it several times in the teeth on the clear plastic housing. So check each tooth with a bright light and magnifier and save yourself a little grief. Just clarifying. Agree, jeff is very helpful and fast service!

bill

 

Jeff is great ...that he created this little niche business for us freak DIY-ers is a God-send! Not to mention he's A1 at customer service, answering my emails nearly immediately, even offering phone help! I just did mine a couple of months ago (bought both gears just in case) and the DIY was easy and his gears fit like an OEM glove. A huge +1 to him and his business!

Edward

 

Question for you guys: I replaced my DME before I had a problem (kept the old one for emergency). Would it make sense to do a PM on the two gears? From the above, seems like it is only a matter of time.