Rolling back odometer?

[dude8383]

I know this may be somewhat illegal but in the state of New York, all vehicles 10 years or old (if I recall correctly) are title exempt for mileage listing.

Now, my question is, how do I roll back my odometer/speedo when its out of the cluster? I want to bring it down to the mileage of the motor since nothing matches anyway.

What doesn't match:

Mileage of chassis - 160k
Mileage of motor - 7,000 miles
Mileage on cluster - 231,812miles (from my old red car)

Since nothing matches, I might as well be able to keep track of the engines' mileage.

Thanks for your help fella's.

[Ray Smoodiver]

It takes ages, and is a fiddly process, the gears are apt to break quite easily.

[dude8383]

It takes ages, and is a fiddly process, the gears are apt to break quite easily.

Good advice, I have two speedo clusters, so if one breaks...no big deal.

[Schnitzer318is]

I used my air compressor and gently rolled the gears backwards to the correct mileage. Be careful though, if you spray too hard you will break the stopper part of the gear, and then you will have to go forward to reset the mileage. Will take 5 times as long.

[dude8383]

I used my air compressor and gently rolled the gears backwards to the correct mileage. Be careful though, if you spray too hard you will break the stopper part of the gear, and then you will have to go forward to reset the mileage. Will take 5 times as long.

Yeh I'm taking it easy, using my dremel :)

[robmespeedy]

its very easy to roll back the miles. but its kinda hard to explain on here. maybe a youtube video will help lol

[dude8383]

its very easy to roll back the miles. but its kinda hard to explain on here. maybe a youtube video will help lol

lol i recorded a short clip of me rolling it back with the dremel, but im open to other suggestions! i wouldn't recommend posting something like that on youtube, but if you do have a video you could email it to me :)

[NeoMishMoo]

Wait do you have motometer or VDO cluster?

Motometer is way easier. I would just take off the first few gears (like the top 3). This put the least amount of gears between your dremel and the numbers. Plus the inside gears are a little harder than the outer gears, or at least they stay harder and don't turn into play doh over the years.

I went to town on my motometer, I was trying to turn it forward to be more accurate (gears were broken for awhile). I went at a pretty high speed but it was way too time consuming.

I tried to crank back a VDO but it had something in it to prevent backing the numbers up, I think you can only turn those forward.

Best way would be to hook up something that you could walk away from. If you do that then post a pic! I'm trying to figure that one out now.

[E30QC]

hiya everybody
so i'm restoration my chassis this summer, and rebuilding my block right now, and got my hands on a dash.. now i need to roll the odometer too, it says motometer on the back, and its' from a 2.7.. now, i need to do what exactly to remove the glass and all, is there a way to remove scratches from the lense.. want to sharpie the needles too, any pics will help.. or a link to the thread, i'll keep looking, but any videos or pics will go a long way
thanks boys

[dude8383]

I'll post a video of how I rolled the miles back :)

[george graves]

drive backwards

Just kidding - I've done with out stressing the gears. It's hard to explain.

IIRC I partially removed one of the axles that had held the gears that drive the numbers. I had to de-solder something to get to it. I don't recommend doing it unless you are good at working with very small parts and can take sometime apart, and keep track of how they go together.

[87bimmerguy]

I'll post a video of how I rolled the miles back :)

Please do. I'm going to have to roll the odometer forward on the new cluster I have coming in the mail. I assume it's the same
procedure, just the opposite direction.

[E30QC]

thanks again, removing the glass was staright forward i guess,as far as the "face" to paint the econometer?

[NeoMishMoo]

New cluster? As in completely new? What happened to your old cluster? Rolling the odometer forward is the same if it is a motometer cluster but way easier if it is a VDO cluster because you can roll the vdo forward but now backwards.

Oh and as far as the scratches go on the plastic in front of the cluster I would recommend Meguiars PlastX plastic polish, it is used in those headlight restoration kits you see. It works pretty good and is a good price, but don't expect anything amazing out of it. I can't think of the name but another good product is a 3 step motorcycle helmet polish that removes scratches from helmets.

[87bimmerguy]

No, used. I just bought an 89 325i with an eta cluster (yes, the whole cluster with incorrect and non-working odometer). The PO has an idea of the actual mileage so I'd like to get close with the one I have coming.
So you say the VDO is easier to go forward? Cause I think that's what it is.