Why are these odometer gears so expensive?!

[mkcman17]

Jeebus you are one defensive sob.

[Nick_S]

Only sometimes is math my friend, when I can do it without taking off my shoes :grin:. But your point is my point, what fun would it be if your car just worked all the time? To me, none (i think). Once you have gone and replaced everything when it breaks eventually you get a brand new 20+ year old car.

I totally agree. I actually love working on my car. Replacing worn out bits, freshening things up and having it drive like new. I think working on an old car like this lets you get to know it real well and is what makes a car like this special.

instead of complaining, have you even tried calling jeff? he's a producer, so obviously his listed prices will be higher than his distributors...otherwise he would be in direct competition with himself.

Where, since the last you posted in this thread have seen me "complaining" still? I was looking for justification and I got my answer, stated that on this page. Quit trying to stir up more arguments.

[mkcman17]

instead of complaining, have you even tried calling jeff? he's a producer, so obviously his listed prices will be higher than his distributors...otherwise he would be in direct competition with himself.

[HippyEarly]

Well considering my car is a 91 that would make it 20 years old actually, not 25+, math is your friend. I'm not new to having an old car that things go wrong on. I've had two older Jeeps and a 94 Passat, that fucking car had something new go wrong every week. I couldn't keep up with the repairs at 16 so I sold it.

Only sometimes is math my friend, when I can do it without taking off my shoes :D. But your point is my point, what fun would it be if your car just worked all the time? To me, none (i think). Once you have gone and replaced everything when it breaks eventually you get a brand new 20+ year old car.

I found it easier to take care of my car when i was 16 with a full time job and no rent/food/bills than i do at 27 with that plus vet bills and alcohol, thank god i was smart enough to wrap a trojan on my shit or id have to sell all my toys :D

[Nick_S]

To me a working cluster is a must, no clue why kids are so CHEAP. No wonder so many builds on here are based on cut springs and stickers.

The rest of the cluster works fine, just the odometer which does bug me. Also, not sure if you're referring to me, but I'm not a kid, I'm 25 and I'm also not cheap. Just had to move two weeks ago and had a lot of unexpected expenses this summer so I'm doing what I can within my budget right now. Have a few more pressing issues to take care of and more so was like I said, surprised by the price. Just wondered if it was justified and I got my answer :up:

I suppose the alternative would be to sell your 25+ year old car and lease a new 325 for $400 bucks a month. then you wouldn't ever need to deal with this crap and you could always drive an (ugly) new car.

Well considering my car is a 91 that would make it 20 years old actually, not 25+, math is your friend. I'm not new to having an old car that things go wrong on. I've had two older Jeeps and a 94 Passat, that fucking car had something new go wrong every week. I couldn't keep up with the repairs at 16 so I sold it.

Installed garagistic gears, the cogs don't line up completely so the issue wasn't fixed. Although, it might partially be my fault because now my gas mileage gauge doesn't work...

Not sure if it's related but try and disconnect the negative terminal on your battery. I had mine out (also the battery disconnect) for a bit and when I put it back in the MPG gauge would only "work" past 2600rpm and then it would just read 0. Disconnected the negative terminal for like 15 seconds and it worked fine after. I assume this could be in part to a failing SI battery? I'm still learning these cars.

[mkcman17]

Installed garagistic gears, the cogs don't line up completely so the issue wasn't fixed. Although, it might partially be my fault because now my gas mileage gauge doesn't work...

that's exactly why i stopped using them (china/garagistic). i learn more and more that you get what you pay for.

for this reason, i've ordered several dozen sets of gears from odogears.com with zero regrets.

[Zasz]

Installed garagistic gears, the cogs don't line up completely so the issue wasn't fixed. Although, it might partially be my fault because now my gas mileage gauge doesn't work...

[HippyEarly]

I also understand the price. I don't disagree with it, I don't know that i feel it is obnoxiously high.

a sunroof motor for $350 was allot but not too much. Just took a while to save for it.

I suppose the alternative would be to sell your 25+ year old car and lease a new 325 for $400 bucks a month. then you wouldn't ever need to deal with this crap and you could always drive an (ugly) new car.

[mkcman17]

built with pride my ass. i used to order from their same source in china in bulk. cheap shits.

i do all my work with odometergears.com now. call jeff, he can help you out, and the gears will actually fit properly and not clack around.

[Gilley]

I got these, for 15 bucks worked great!

Garagistic - Built with pride - FORUM DEAL: BMW e30 odometer/trip repair VDO kit

[F34R]

I feel like such a baller just because I wouldn't hesitate to pay $100 to fix my odometer if it was needed.

This^

If it needs fixing I take care of it. ALSO I buy up clusters from junk yards for BMW makes. Take the good parts from them depending on working order. Thus spare parts.

To me a working cluster is a must, no clue why kids are so CHEAP. No wonder so many builds on here are based on cut springs and stickers.

But seriously, the overall cost I don't particularly mind, I was just kinda blind sided by the price of such a small piece.

Rebuild a 2002 brake booster. Vacuum elbow and two O rings set me back 86.00

[lbreevesii]

We recently had a steel mold for an injection molded part roughly the size of the larger gear and it was 25,000 dollars. Even a low volume aluminum mold would be on the order of 5,000 dollars. That's not going to change much based on the size of the part, as each mold needs gates, ejectors, sinks, etc. The tooling cost for those two gears is likely almost the same.

If you want to get a rough idea for part tooling costs, check out http://www.protomold.com

If someone wants to send me some of these gears i can probably run it on my rapid prototyping machine and see if they hold up, but I could certainly sell them for about 25 per set... the downside is the material it produces is only abut 2/3 the strength of ABS plastic. Shoot me a PM if you're actually interested...

read about it here:

http://newman.onyxsyndicate.com/e30gtr/e30gtr_98.html

God I love rapid prototypers/3d printers. One day...

[Nick_S]

Jesus fuck I feel like I'm back on a Neon forum.

My car doesn't work and I have to pay $100 to fix it! Fuck that; that's not fair!

I'm sorry you were on a Neon forum, ha....I can't say shit, my other car is a Focus, those forums get pretty cheesy often.

But seriously, the overall cost I don't particularly mind, I was just kinda blind sided by the price of such a small piece. I suppose I got used to driving a Ford for awhile where everything was pretty cheap and readily available. I guess if he's the only one making quality ones it's the way to go. I'll just have to push them back on the to-do list, got more important things to fix at the moment.

[lbreevesii]

Injection molds are hella expensive. I bought a set from odogears and haven't looked back.

[Roysneon]

I feel like such a baller just because I wouldn't hesitate to pay $100 to fix my odometer if it was needed.

Nor would I, but I still feel like a broke ass because I pour all my spare cash into my car to fix shit.