Changing the Second Speedometer to MPH

[aerofurb]

And of course, there are some things the dealer can do, that VCDS can't - such as coding the tail lights to be on with the (front) Daytime Running Lights.

[nugbuv]

In answer to the original post: after 12 years of driving cars with digital mph displays, this February, I took delivery of our Yeti. I was disappointed not to be able to get mph on the Maxdot through the settings menu and find the speedo tricky to judge on those pesky occasions of keeping 30.50 or 70 mph speed limits, and of setting the cruise control accurately.

Last Saturday, a kind Forum member did his recoding magic with a cable and a laptop. The Maxdot now clearly displays mph, with the settings menu option of changing to kph should I wish.

if there is someone near you who is offering a similar service, my advice is to take them up on their offer. If the kph display is an irritation and a hundrance, getting it recoded will make driving much more pleasurable, relaxing and safe.

 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, nugbuv said:

In answer to the original post: after 12 years of driving cars with digital mph displays, this February, I took delivery of our Yeti. I was disappointed not to be able to get mph on the Maxdot through the settings menu and find the speedo tricky to judge on those pesky occasions of keeping 30.50 or 70 mph speed limits, and of setting the cruise control accurately.

Last Saturday, a kind Forum member did his recoding magic with a cable and a laptop. The Maxdot now clearly displays mph, with the settings menu option of changing to kph should I wish.

if there is someone near you who is offering a similar service, my advice is to take them up on their offer. If the kph display is an irritation and a hundrance, getting it recoded will make driving much more pleasurable, relaxing and safe.

 

Thanks nugbuv, this is exactly my situation. I have had my Yeti a week now and love it, apart from this one item.  I find it an irritation to read the analogue clock accurately when going through speed cameras etc.  However I am a little concerned letting someone I don't know change the settings. how can I be sure it will be done without harming the system?

Graham

[Gizmo]

34 minutes ago, Graham1941 said:

Thanks nugbuv, this is exactly my situation. I have had my Yeti a week now and love it, apart from this one item.  I find it an irritation to read the analogue clock accurately when going through speed cameras etc.  However I am a little concerned letting someone I don't know change the settings. how can I be sure it will be done without harming the system?

Graham

 

Graham what part of the West Mids are you in?

 

Although there are loads of VCDS members on the map to choose from, I can highly recommend some of them as they really know their stuff.

 

My parents also live in Burntwood (WS7).

[kenfowler3966]

But the whole point is that if you change it to a mph digital readout it is not acutate and hence you would go too slow in average speed limits etc.

I know through calibration that 70mph is an exact 119kmhr, and similarly 50mph is 86kmhr.

Yet speedometer reads about  78mph and 55mph and that is what you would get on the display.

I find it really useful to have an exact remembered value to drive at rather than an incorret one such as 78 on the digital and actally knowi g this is a true 70!

[Guest]

Sorry Ken but I find it tedious trying to remember odd conversions 119 or 86 and would prefer a digital mph. It's not good that Skoda have done this.

[kenfowler3966]

So you need to remember that perhaps an indicated digital 77mph is actually 70mph exactly?

 

119km/hr is not a conversion it is the optimistic digital speed reading when I know my car is exactly doing 70mph, and seems as easy to remember as the 77 would be. (A true conversion of 70mph would be 112.65km/hr)

 

I only need to remember 3 numbers; 119, 102 and 86 for the 3 main speed limits when I am likely to be using the cruise control to set an exact speed through speed cameras and average speeds on motorways.

 

I tend to have the TomTom on as well for speed camera alerts and completely ignore the speedo in 20, 30 and 40 zones, using the much more accurate digital speed shown on the sat nav, which can only be slightly under the real speed if the car is on a steep gradient.

 

I actually think it is crazy that manufacturers still build in a deliberate 10% or so error to their speedo readings. The car must know exactly its true speed as the record of distance travelled is virtually spot on, and speed is a simple calculation from distance traveled in a known time. Interestingly the maxidot records exact trip time and distance covered, so I suspect the average speed comes from this and is hence probably spot on.

 

 

 

 

[Llanigraham]

2 hours ago, Graham1941 said:

Sorry Ken but I find it tedious trying to remember odd conversions 119 or 86 and would prefer a digital mph. It's not good that Skoda have done this.

 

It isn't Skoda, it is VAG as a whole. The same dash with the same display is used over a whole range of cars

[TeeDeeEye]

6 hours ago, kenfowler3966 said:

But the whole point is that if you change it to a mph digital readout it is not acutate and hence you would go too slow in average speed limits etc.

I know through calibration that 70mph is an exact 119kmhr, and similarly 50mph is 86kmhr.

Yet speedometer reads about  78mph and 55mph and that is what you would get on the display.

I find it really useful to have an exact remembered value to drive at rather than an incorret one such as 78 on the digital and actally knowi g this is a true 70!

Hi Ken Not accurate? Are you saying the analogue and maxi dot show different speeds or that they both over read by the same amount?

thanks

[kenfowler3966]

They both over-read by the same amount when presenting speed on the dial and the maxidot.

Yet distance travelled and time recording are near enough exact. I compared the distance travelled according to the sat nav to the maxidot over a long trip of over 100 miles and it was within 1/10 of a mile.

They would have to if you think about it as where the mph can be enabled the digital would have to agree with the analogue dial.

 

I am sure there was a thread on here years ago about someone who managed to largelycorrect the speedo and digital errors by altering parameters with the external connection set up device.

 

 

 

[Llanigraham]

The speedo drive ratios are fixed and cannot be altered by any method. To do so would be illegal under the C & U Regs. 

 

And to the person who said the speedo should be 100% correct. That is impossible. it would not only have to take into account the difference in the circumference of the tyre as it wore, but also take into account that tyres, even of the same notional size, are not uniform in size. They can easily be up to 10% different.

[Falmouthboy]

11 hours ago, Llanigraham said:

The speedo drive ratios are fixed and cannot be altered by any method. To do so would be illegal under the C & U Regs. 

 

And to the person who said the speedo should be 100% correct. That is impossible. it would not only have to take into account the difference in the circumference of the tyre as it wore, but also take into account that tyres, even of the same notional size, are not uniform in size. They can easily be up to 10% different.

Exactly - and clearly over reading is proferable to under reading as owners would be complaining in numbers as they got tickets whilst thinking they were adhering to the limit.

 

I must say that when I first got my Yeti the KPH display was a constant irritation to me, however, I no longer notice it.  It is daft that if there is no type approved reason for it being fixed on KPH and it's a simple software setting that Skoda have never changed this throughout the production run of the Yeti, but we are where we are.

 

As for people who seem 'challenged' by an analogue speedo without 30, 50 & 70 digits (but clearly marked calibration) - are you sure you should be driving?

[freedie]

At last someone's said it!

 

[weasley]

12 hours ago, Llanigraham said:

The speedo drive ratios are fixed and cannot be altered by any method. To do so would be illegal under the C & U Regs. 

 

Ive just read through The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations and can find nothing about speedometer accuracy, drive ratios or alteration.  All it really says is that you must have one and it must be in working order and unobstructed.

 

ECE Regulation 39 (regarding type approval for speedometers) is more detailed and includes required markings and gradations but also the required accuracy.  In brief, it states that a speedometer must never under read and must not over read by more that 0.1V+4 km/h (in other words, 10%+4 km/h, or 10%+ 2.5 mph). In other words, at 100 km/h, it can read up to 114 km/h or at 70 mph it can read 79.5 (call it 80).  The testing to achieve this accuracy requires prescribed conditions such as tyre pressure and ambient temperature.  Of course type approval is about fitness for sale, not ongoing fitness for purpose, so does not cover any after sale modifications.

[Northam]

We have MPH on the digital display on our current car, (soon to be replaced by a Yeti), and we have never use it for that.  At first we used it for current MPG, but it currently stays on miles left in the tank now.  Mrs drives the car more and likes it on that setting so that's where it stays.  I've always been cautious of the speedo on any car, sat at a constant speed the SAT nav always reads less than the speedo.

[VAGCF]

15 hours ago, Llanigraham said:

 

It isn't Skoda, it is VAG as a whole. The same dash with the same display is used over a whole range of cars

Such as? 

The Yeti is the first VWG car that I've owned or driven that doesn't have KPH as a second scale on the speedo which is why we are saddled with having it in the Maxidot.

 

 

Edited 9 April, 2017 by VAGCF

[Northam]

3 minutes ago, VAGCF said:

Such as? 

Certainly displays MPH on a 15 Plate Audi A3 Sportback and it hasn't been made to read MPH, bog standard from the factory.  Just went out and double checked too.

[aerofurb]

I was very much in the 'what's the problem' brigade with the standard speedo display and then when I invested in VCDS, I enabled the MPH Maxidot display. Mainly because when you get into VCDS you enjoy switching things 'on'.

 

Now I have it, I actually find it very useful but - after a fair few miles in three Yetis I reckon I have a pretty good feeling for what speed I'm doing without having to study the dials in too much detail.

 

In the Three TIBETs, the speedos have consistently over read by 5% - this is measured against GPS. The digital and analogue displays read the same.

 

As for the 'who don't Skoda do this for us' - it isn't Skoda, its VWG and every other car manufacturer and for the most part. Most owners don't notice or care about some annoying traits or things it doesn't do, it's the car (Yeti) lovers that care. The same reason that only a small proportion of Yeti owners visit Briskoda (other forums are available) - not everyone is obsessed like the majority of us.

 

But don't start me on why 'they' removed the headlights 'on' warning from the instruments or can't even have a sensible indication by the switch as to what the lights are doing (and I'm sure that's VWG-wide, not just Yeti).   

Edited 9 April, 2017 by aerofurb

[muddyjim]

15 hours ago, Llanigraham said:

The speedo drive ratios are fixed and cannot be altered by any method. To do so would be illegal under the C & U Regs. 

 

It appears that you maybe able to 'tweak' the pulse count settings in VCDS to adjust the speedo reading, though whether that also affects the odometer calibration too I don't know....

 

http://forums.ross-tech.com/showthread.php?402-Speedometer-Calibration&p=14622&viewfull=1#post14622

 

Jim

[Urrell]

Its strange that although the speedo over-reads by 7 to 10 percent the actual odometer reads as near as dammit.
This has been on all my cars and motorcycles.

[kenfowler3966]

Reminds me off the idiocracy film where cars speedos read 200mph even though they were only doing 50. However all the drivers thought they were going really fast.

Also why beligerent lane hoggers sit at 63mph as their speedo says 70 and no one should be overtaking them!

[Gnomeface]

Most car have accurate calculated speed available to them using digital signals from the wheels - the signals that also provide input to ABS and traction control systems.  I'm amazed that some people seem to think that old-hat cable drives with fixed gearing are still used.  The issue is the legal requirement that a speedometer must NEVER show a speed that is lower than actual, so the electronic systems add an amount - typically 5-7% - to the figure that is sent to the speed displayed (be it analogue or digital, or both).

 

The real data is used in distance calculations, and is usually available on the CAN bus via the OBD2 connection if you wish to display it.  I had an OBD2-connected display on my last car;  when the car's speedometer showed 75mph on flat straight motorway the OBD2 readout from the car showed 70mph and two separate sat-nav systems also showed exactly 70mph.

[Northam]

27 minutes ago, Gnomeface said:

Most car have accurate calculated speed available to them using digital signals from the wheels - the signals that also provide input to ABS and traction control systems.  I'm amazed that some people seem to think that old-hat cable drives with fixed gearing are still used.  The issue is the legal requirement that a speedometer must NEVER show a speed that is lower than actual, so the electronic systems add an amount - typically 5-7% - to the figure that is sent to the speed displayed (be it analogue or digital, or both).

 

The real data is used in distance calculations, and is usually available on the CAN bus via the OBD2 connection if you wish to display it.  I had an OBD2-connected display on my last car;  when the car's speedometer showed 75mph on flat straight motorway the OBD2 readout from the car showed 70mph and two separate sat-nav systems also showed exactly 70mph.

 

 

Actually you have just reminded me, I have a Scanguage II, and I do recall the same thing now.

[Tibbermore]

Contrary to what has been said, dealers CAN make the change using workshop technology but may not wish to do so as in their view it contravenes EU legislation. If their reluctance can't be overcome by persuasion or doughnuts a VCDS owner will certainly be able to do it following Gizmo's instructions to the letter. It is well worth it and I wouldn't be without it.

 

Jim

[Urrell]

3 minutes ago, Tibbermore said:

Contrary to what has been said, dealers CAN make the change using workshop technology but may not wish to do so as in their view it contravenes EU legislation

 

How is that possible, it puts a tick box to change it back to KPH like most new cars so both KPH and MPH are both available.