Odometer stuck at 199,999

Recently on my commute I heard a faint grinding noise coming from my speedometer and noticed that my odometer was about to turn over to 200,000. This is on my '95 Taco. Pretty soon I noticed that it was just stuck on 199,999. The last zero on the 1's column was trying to drop down, but everything just stuck there. Is there any way to fix it and get it going again? I imagine these things aren't that easy to tamper with.

 

Does your speedometer still work? Or does the whole thing not work?

 

The speedometer is working, it's just the odometer that is stuck.

 

Yeah it’s broken. Probably gringed down all the teeth on the little plastic gears. It’s also not worth having someone fix it probably.

Just download Waze on your phone and use that. Also, if you ever sell the truck, where you put the mileage on the title you will have to put TMU (true mileage unknown)

 

well on the bright side you forever have a first gen with only 200k on it

 

What would be involved with pulling one off a junkyard truck and having a shop adjust the mileage? Would that be pricey?

 

You could get one from a junkyard and just transfer the good parts/gears. Idk that's what I would do. Granted I am an avionics tech so easier for me to just do that to keep the numbers. All based on skill level.

 

Sweet! 10 years from now you'll be able to sell your '95 with only 199k miles!


But actually, switching the speedo cluster is fairly easy - just a few dash screws. I'd more likely switch the whole thing, and not bother trying to take it apart and switch out gears, etc... I had a '97 5 lug poverty spec, but I wanted a fancy-pants tachometer, so I got one from a junkyard out of a newer truck, a 2001 iirc. Everything plugged right in no problem.

Just be sure to write down the mileage of the old/new odo's so you have a conversion so you know how many miles it actually has. Document it in your manual or service record, too.

Being is Cali, the DMV will care if you ever sell it. There's a box on the form that indicates if the indicated mileage is the "true" mileage. Check that box. When I traded in my 5-lug for my current taco, the dealer didn't check that box and I got a very angry call from an investigator. Luckily I knew who my salesman was so we got it all figured out (the DMV saw that the truck was indicating that had fewer miles than when I first bought it).

 

Someone told me that shops wont touch the odometer numbers on the instrument cluster if you want them to roll it back or up to current mileage if something like this happens. Something to do with laws and heavy penalties for adjusting speedos. IDK if that really the case or not but thats what I heard. I would roll it up myself, I dont think that a big deal, but I doubt a shop would mess with an odo reading even for something like that.

 

Your mechanism probably has worn or broken gears.

Some shops can do it, but I think they'll have to do some official paperwork to indicate it was legitimately repaired

If you don't plan on selling the truck and keep it forever, then you can DIY no problem

As long as you don't mess with the actual mileage and put it back with the right mileage, you should be allright.
Then you have the truck's annual registration papers as proof that you didn't roll it back (I guess the mileage is shown on these??) or carfax

 

Yep! I use my Waze app to determine how fast I'm actually going!

 

Truck is fighting the aging process!