99 V70 Attempt to change MPH cluster with KMH cluster possile?

[Faheyk1981]

Hello all!
So before i go messing about in changing my speedo from MPH to KPH, i want to be 100% sure i will be fine in doing this.

YES my car currently is in MPH and it also shows a much much smaller KPH gauge but i find it hard to read the KPH part on my cluster as the numbers are very small.

Living in Ireland the roads are now in KPH. I bought a cheap KPH cluster off ebay (as you can see from the pictures) thinking it would be easy enough to just switch the MPH gauge from my car with this KPH gauge. (The card KPH dial i just wanted to replace, leaving behind everything else. I don't mind leaving my cars trip computer in MPH. I just wanted to have my speedo in KPH only.

BUT it seems to be well glued on and i don't see a way to remove the speedo needle, so i could just pop out the KPH card, it looks like i would need to remove the entire KPH section/box and replace it with my MPH section/box.

Do you think it is possible to do this? Or is there a way to take out the KPH card without damaging the speedo needle?

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Kevin.

[tryingbe]

Why not just swap the entire KMH speedo? I wouldn't try to take the needle out.

This

[Faheyk1981]

Yeah i will do that if you would think it will work fine? Thanks

[Ozark Lee]

On a '99 I doubt it will work to change the cluster without a software download to mate it to the car. Much of the car's identity, including the VIN, live in the instrument cluster. It might be easier to change the face if they are indexed the same.

The odometer will continue to tally miles though of course.

...Lee

[tryingbe]

Yeah i will do that if you would think it will work fine? Thanks

I'd say speedo will work fine if you only swap the speedo unit itself. I only see a electronic motor back of the speedo unit, which means it is only an output device and no feedback to the cluster.

Changing the entire cluster might be a different, but just the speedo unit, it should work fine.

[erikv11]

... I'd say speedo will work fine if you only swap the speedo unit itself. I only see a electronic motor back of the speedo unit, which means it is only an output device and no feedback to the cluster. ....

Interesting idea, would that mean the signal would be KPH, so that the motor (blind output device) displays the wrong speed (needle moving to MPH on an KPH face)? Or perhaps inside that simple output device, the speed signal gets converted to the proper unit.

There is one way to know for sure ...

[tryingbe]

... I'd say speedo will work fine if you only swap the speedo unit itself. I only see a electronic motor back of the speedo unit, which means it is only an output device and no feedback to the cluster. ....

Interesting idea, would that mean the signal would be KPH, so that the motor (blind output device) displays the wrong speed (needle moving to MPH on an KPH face)? Or perhaps inside that simple output device, the speed signal gets converted to the proper unit.

There is one way to know for sure ...

Signal isn't KPH. The needle will point at the same spot with kph, mph, or nothing as the face plate.

[erikv11]

So are you saying that every speedo is the same, only the face plates change?

Your succinct answers are awesome sometimes, at others I don't really know what your point is.

[tryingbe]

So are you saying that every speedo is the same, only the face plates change?

Your succinct answers are awesome sometimes, at others I don't really know what your point is.

Excuse me, English is not my first language.

Looks like KPH speedo goes to 260kph and MPH speedo only goes to 245kph.

So, I don't know. OP, please test it and let us know.


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[tryingbe]

double post