I have a 97 RS manual tranny. I thought my odometer was off so I measured its reading against a measured mile. The odometer told me that I had gone 1.8 miles when I had only gone 1 mile. My speedometer is working fine though. Any ideas what may be the problem? Extra mileage is no good for the trade in value, not that I ever plan on trading it in.

Originally posted by Blmet
I have a 97 RS manual tranny. I thought my odometer was off so I measured its reading against a measured mile. The odometer told me that I had gone 1.8 miles when I had only gone 1 mile. My speedometer is working fine though. Any ideas what may be the problem? Extra mileage is no good for the trade in value, not that I ever plan on trading it in.

What size tires are you running? The Speedo and Odo both use the signal from the VSS on the top of the trans. It either works or it doesn't. Chances are good that, if the odo is off, your speedo is off too. If you're running smaller than stock tires (say r50 instead of r70), you will be turning the wheels - and VSS - faster than stock, resulting in the miles (and miles per hour) clicking off at a faster rate.

Nope, I am using stock 14" rims and stock size tires. Speedometer seems to be right. But the tripmeter/odometer are logging 1.8 miles for every 1 mile driven.

sounds like you need a "tandem" run. find someone else with a new car and go side by side on the highway, make sure you have phones that you can talk to each other, and do it at a time when you will have the road clear enough to stay at the same pace for several miles (I like 3am myself) have your friend set the pace and stay as even as possible and keep track of what their car says you are doing and what your car says you are doing. do this at several different speeds. your odometer and speedometer are not supposed to be able to run independantly from eachother. if your speed is more than 2 miles off and you're running stock tires, I would be concerned. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that the odo reading way different from the speed is very highly improbable. after you've eliminated the possibility fo the speedometer being bad then you're probably gonna have to change the cluster. sometimes you can find them on ebay or look in the marketplace forum, there's usually someone parting out a car.

I finally did a tandem run, and as I thought, my speedometer is working correctly but my odometer is still recording 1.8 miles for every 1 mile travelled. Does that mean my cluster is garbage?

Second question, I have to buy a few dealer only parts, does anyone know a discount source or anywhere I can get the parts I need? I need the parts relatively soon.

Thank you to everyone one for your help.

You don't have to replace the whole cluster. Each gauge in the cluster can be removed separately... they're all independent units held in by two to four screws. If you can find a spare odometer/speedometer, the replacement procedure is a 15 minute job. You can even reset the odometer, although you'd better know what the approximate actual mileage is if you're going to trade/sell the car.


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