Celica Forums General Discussion General Is your speedo correct? Four 04 I have tested are not.

Hello,

I just bought a new 04 Celica, and was given some teasing when I first got home by the wife about how I babied it all the way home.

Come to find out the speedo is off by 4 mph slow. So as my wife followed me home at what I thought was 70 I was actually doing 65-66.

Basically the dealer will not fix the problem and I have done research on the topic, including test driving three other 04 celicas (all different dealers) and they all have the same problem. Also talked with other 00-03 owners and they all stated the same speed difference but mostly more since the tire wear had increased the problem on used cars.

The dealer wanted radar confirmation, When I had it done, it showed that when the needle is touching the 70 mark on the speedo the car is actually doing 65. Also found out that Wisconsin state law states 4% spread on accuracy but dealer will not do anything. 4% at 65 = plus or minus 2.6mph

Simple tests. (Odometer had tested correct just speed indication is not correct) use odometer and time 1 mile flat surface road. If you have a ten mile flat section you could test at 65 should equal 9 min 13 sec. I used speed calculator to help with different speed time calculations here. http://www.gazza.co.nz/distance.html.

Thanks for any Ideas to help the situation.

Mike

check tire pressure if thats good then try getting a cop friend for radar..lol

simple way to fix this, drive faster...

I checked Tire pressure first thing and it was at the 32 specified on the door. When I brought it in the dealer pumped up to 44 as per the tire max and stated it was better with their tester showing it was off by 3 mph at 60.

Dealer gave me diag sheet from their book that shows 250 ohms between four connectors on back of speedo (A to C and B to D) to see if speedo needed replacement as per their docs. I check it out and it was ok.

Dealer called their support in California and they stated that the car they tested there was off as well but nothing can be done.

Thanks for the reply.

Mike

Mike
I love to drive faster but have Four other cars that are for pleasure and this is a work car. 500 1000 miles a week. I would hate to get a ticket because Im accustom to driving faster when in the pleasure cars.

Thanks for the reply.

Mike

hmmm isnt the 04 model using an electronic accelerator this might affect it somehow either that or toyota made a small booboo

Basically I have found over 10 celicas between 2001 and 2004 that have the speedometer incorrect by between 4 - 7 % Mine running in the average of incorrect speeds at 7 % incorrect. Actually I have only spoke with 10 Celica owners I have not found one Celica to be correct for speed indication.


This means all you that are boasting about doing 140 or better in a Celica better subtract 10 off the top since thats about the average incorrect Speedo reading with brand new tires. If your tires are used subtract from there.

Frustrated that nobody cares about this!!!. Toyota should fix this.

Mike


Mike

Taken right from the shop manual...

This might also explain why some peoples' lift kicks in at different locations, or at least why they think that.

This is actually an issue with any car you drive.

Speedos are highly inaccurate over certain speeds. Also, tire radius also affects your readings.

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthreads/thread.f_57207_0_collapsed_5__1.html

Your stock speedometer is fairly accurate up to around 100 Mph. After that any speedo that can't be calibrated is not very accurate. It could be off by as much as 5 - 10 MPH.

This is especially true if you are running aftermarket rims / tires or are using an aftermarket Ring & Pinion set like 3.55, 3.73, 4.10's etc. Even if you get the correct speedo gear for your new ring and pinion set, your stock speedo may still be off, based on your rim or tire combo. This is true for all types of cars.

For accurate readings in "race applications" the stock speedometer (and all the other stock gauges) are virtually useless. You'll need to upgrade to VDO (or another brand) of gauges that allow you to calibrate them.

For example, you can calibrate a VDO race speedo by simply pressing a button, driving one mile, then pressing it again, the speedo will compensate for rear end gear ratios, speedo gearing, windup, etc. You must also calibrate a speedo often to compensate for many factors to insure accurate readings (in racing).

The stock gauges are fine for street applications and general driving, but for road racing / drag applications and to ensure accurate measurements, we recommend you upgrade your stock gauges. Just to note, 99% off all folks out there will be fine with the stock gauges, we are talking about sponsored race applications (or folks that want accurate readings) only.

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Just to note, 99% off all folks out there will be fine with the stock gauges, we are talking about sponsored race applications (or folks that want accurate readings) only.

I've got a 2004 also, and you're right, the speedo does seem to be off a bit. I have a handheld Garmin GPS I keep in the car, and one of its functions shows your speed. I would say that for me, at about 70 indicated on the GPS, the Celica speedo reads about 66.

If it makes you feel any better, according to the GPS, the 1994 Acura Integra I came out was only a tad more accurate, if at all.

dam..its off on both gts and gts??

i take that as a GT and GTS... lol!!

and to answer ur question, yes i think so.

allllll speedos are a little of

exactly or in my case off by a lot after taking off the needles to paint them

Sounds dumb for a dealer to do. You shouldnt fill up the tire to what the max it says on the tire. You should only fill it up to what is says on the door or in the owners manual. Sounds like the dealer is just trying to hide the fact that they can't fix the speedo. If you over-inflate the tire, of course its going to change the speedo, same case if you under-inflate. And if you change it to the max, you risk over-loading your tires and premature failure.

If you want good gas mileage, or have aftermarket rims, then you may want to inflate the tire to what it specifies on the sidewall. As long as your car falls within the tires maximum load handling capabilities.

I heard slidr has a tangerene speedo

toyota wont do anything to fix it becuase it is within a certain degree of error. the newer camrys also have this Speedo problem too along with any other 2000+ toyota.

my 2000 gts is off a bit, at 40 on my speedo,my cop friend clocked me at 31, at 70 it was 63

I checked out the speedo in my '04 GTS today.

I drove exactly 1 mile at 60 MPH, and the time came out to be almost exactly 1 minute (1:00:87, to be exact).

Hi all

Thanks for the support, I think its a conspiracy since I just bought my wife a bug and its speedo is off by the same amount. Weird those two O4 vehicles are off by 7% but my Porsche buddy states the German cars have been wrong for a long time. So it does not surprise him that the bug is wrong on its speed. Even though its Mexican car.

Allot of people state that this is normal but I have 94 Saturn and 94 Bonneville and 78 grand Prix and 97 Yukon that all the GPS readings state the Speedo is correct. I tested my brother-in-Law Mercedes, and it is also correct as per GPS.

Seems like something maybe going on with newer cars for fuel mileage since I do not get very good MPG when I compensate for the mileage difference on the Speedo.

I just wish it would have been better situation at the dealer. I will not go back to them since there was some heat over it.

Over 10 grand miles on the car in the first three months and its still a great car to be in and drive.

Thanks for all your replies, the Celica group is surly a bunch of great people.

Hey wave if you see a Cel in Wisconsin. : )

Mike

well i dont think you should drive over 65 anyways because you have to break in the car... arent there some digital speedos that i can buy in the aftermarket department? ive seen some cars with lil boxes in front of their gauges so i think thats it... would rims fix this problem?