'09 MCS - USA
76 GPS = 80 SPEEDO ; thats 5 %

 

Anyone have this fixed to get the speedo accurate. i asked the dealer about it today at a normal service--he said bmw adjusts them all about 5mph to high--but they cannot correct it. wonder if a private mechanic could or if anyone has done so. i would rather be accurate. on a recent trip-my gps said i was about 5mph under

 

This is an issue that has arisen on the VW forums as well. What is nice on the 2005.5 Jetta TDI is that you can access the "secret" menus by pressing several buttons and adjusting the temp on the climatronic. Lots of useful things to see there. There is one setting that shows the actual vehicle speed and you can compare that to the speedometer. THAT value is spot on with the GPS and mile marker tests I have run.

I to have heard, though not verified except from forum posts, that vehicle manufacturers can be fined for having speedo's that display LOWER than the actual vehicle speed.

Looks like tomorrow I will have to do a test in the Clubbie.

 

I would like to see the result of your test.

 

I never look at my speedo

 

I was wondering this as well, we just bought a GPS and had it is the car to test the terain feature. The car was over 4mph at 65. I guess I was not cornering as quick as I thought. 2 weeks old I was hoping for a car that was accurate. My base Neon that was the trade in was spot on as is my wife's Suzuki XL7.

 

I guess you didn't research at all then did you? Especially not before posting this reply. Most european cars read high. Because if a car coming off the factory floor reads low the manufacturer gets slapped with a nasty fine. So almost all of them set them to read high, so if it reads lower then they want, it will still pass inspection.

If you want a car that has an exact speed readout, but a non-european car.

 

Foolish me, I expected it to work. I assume you meant buy a non-european car. I was responding to this thread because it answered my question. Thanks for setting me straight.

 

What nokia are you running that on?

 

My Navigon only goes up to 131mph but the speedo was always 3mph faster.

It definitely surprises the big BMW's and Mercedes when the cooper goes by over 240kph on the autobahn lol, Been there done that.

 

I always wash my Speedo after intensive use, cold cycle, hang dry

My other speedo is about +4 fast, and I like it like that. wriggle room.

 

mine seems to be pretty close, i had my cruise control set at 88 on I10 in west texas and DPS clocked me at 87

 

This could be due to your smaller wheels as my ScanGauge is always within 1-2 MPH... (most of the time 1 MPH)

I have 17" Crown Spokes for reference...

 

The 6% was for the MINI Speedometer; my ScanGauge's reading is quite accurate when checked against GPS.

 

I've found out that the speedo needle is always a couple of km/h ahead of the digital read-out display on the trip computer.

I wonder if the trip computer has the right speed, then.

 

Not that I can see - same reading on both and always high.

 

I also find that the speedo needle (NAV version) reads a little faster than the digital readout on the tach. I also find that the digital readout on the tach reads a little faster than the digital readout on a ScanGuageII (connected to the OBC's OBDII port). This seems odd to me. The only think I can think is that BMW programmed the tach readout to read a few miles faster than the OBC thinks it is.

 

Sorry let me clarify - after seeing everyones posts online saying how thier MINI speedometers read high (and dealing with some cold weather issues) I purchased a ScanGauge and installed...

Since then I have never seen a difference between the Scangauge and my speedometer of more than 2 MPH... most of the time it is 1 MPH...

 

From zero to 30mph on my car it varies slowly up to 3mph off then from 30 to well over 100 mph it is off by exactly 3 mph on the digital readout on the tach and needle on the speedo.

This is compared to my ODBII gauge reading.

 

There may be variation in speedometer accuracy from one unit to another. In your case, you seem to have gotten one that is fairly accurate.

Out of curiosity, what wheels and tires are you running?

 

This intrigues me. My dad has an '05 that he thinks is 5 mph off and I have an '09 and I'm not sure if or how much it is off. I actually asked the service department at my dealership about correcting my dad's and they said that they couldn't do it. Something about having to replace the entire speedo and that it could still be inaccurate. I never look at my speedo, I use the computer read-out. I'm really tempted to go by my local PD and ask one of them to use their radar gun to clock my speed for comparison purposes. They really don't have anything to do around here and I'm really curious to see if there is a difference between actual speed and Mini speed. Has anyone tried this route to finding out the accuracy?

PS: from what little I know about GPS ( and I could be completely incorrect on this) the speed that it gives you can also be inaccurate due to the distance between your GPS and the satellite.

 

I think the GPS readout is very accurate. The various 2nd Gen cars I have driven, four loaners, and my new 09 MCS, have all had the speedometer off by 2 to 5 mph. My 06 MC was off by 2 mph at Hwy speeds.

 

IIRC, my speedo's MPH was within 1mph of the reading in my Garmin GPS....I'll have to check it again, as I looked at this a while back and my memory is a little fuzzy..

 

delete
never mind...

 

I'm not buying this German/European law thing, I'd like to see some proof on that. Reason is, I've owned several Audis and Porsches and Jaguars over the years including our current '04 Audi allroad, all of which have been spot on.

In fact, my two MINI's are the only cars I've ever owned that had a built in speedo error.