Speedo Error Margin

[mrbishi]

Figure this out though guys......

If the speedo is so conservative to try and stop us from speeding too much, then why the heck didnt toyota include a speed warning alert like in many other cars...eg. the camry has it.

Thats one of the biggest ommisions they forgot to include.

[aardvark]

Why the heck didnt toyota include a speed warning alert like in many other cars...eg. the camry has it.

I wonder how difficult it would be for Toyota to link the speedo into the centre display? It could display the speed as a digital reading and incorporate a speed warning.

[Kruzenvax]

Welcome to the world of cost cutting...

[SmellyTofu]

I wonder how difficult it would be for Toyota to link the speedo into the centre display? It could display the speed as a digital reading and incorporate a speed warning.

No one in the world is asking for it...

[Scott_C]

I can confirm that there's a discrepancy with my vehicle too. My GPS and Lexus agree 100% about the speed being travelled.

Today, the Kluger speedo would say 70kmh and the GPS would say roughly 63kkmh.

I also had some people tailgating me a bit, until i decided to go OVER the speed limit. (according to the Kluger reading)

[fish475]

I don't believe cost cutting has really entered into the equation Alex.

As there are many other features that come standard across all models within the Kluger range. That the Territtory just doesn't have until more bucks are handed over.

Ie; 7 air bags, LED "Mr Bean" beam that lights the console, rear camera, airconditioning seperation, captain's chairs, vanity mirror lights, split tailgate, etc,etc, blah, blah.

I believe it's a bad over sight not having the centre dig speed display like a commodore. Hey I believe the positves far, far out weight the negatives within this vehicle as we would all agree me thinks.

But determining the amount of over allowance on every trip by manually over stating the tightly spaced speedo calibrations. To avoided the rest of the carbon based users from tailgating us or over taking us, is a daily hassle put upon us by Toyota.

Please Mr Toyota find a laptop plug in fix for us at our next services.

I've never had a speeding ticket in 29yrs of driving. Having my Cannon calculator "Blu-tacked" to my horn surface on the steerring wheel for re calibration is gona get me a ticket when I mis judge it by 2 k's soon. Plus when I turn around corners the calculator goes upside down

Edited April 10, 2008 by fish475

[Kruzenvax]

I agree with all point re Kluger's standard features... but when talking about cost cutting I was jocking only partially. And that beautiful list of features actually helps me proving that. What I mean is there are too many oversights for a great car already packed with bells and whistles. OK, digital speedo apart... no memory seats, no iPod/MP3 interface in Grande, Grande compass mistery, strange situation with roof rails on one of the models, no xenon lights as an option, the list goes on.

Living in a corporate world I believe that is what happened: "Lets build an SUV that will.. blah... blah...", "OK the R&D budget is XXYYZZ", than - budget cuts, project delays, scope changes, last minute requests, finally the list of options (perhaps in a spreadsheet) gets presented to a Powerfull Figure, who just unckecks couple of boxes to bring the total figure down to the target. Depending on whay actually happend, these may or may not be fixed in the next model update...

I don't believe cost cutting has really entered into the equation Alex.

As there are many other features that come standard across all models within the Kluger range. That the Territtory just doesn't have until more bucks are handed over.

Ie; 7 air bags, LED "Mr Bean" beam that lights the console, rear camera, airconditioning seperation, captain's chairs, vanity mirror lights, split tailgate, etc,etc, blah, blah.

I believe it's a bad over sight not having the centre dig speed display like a commodore. Hey I believe the positves far, far out weight the negatives within this vehicle as we would all agree me thinks.

But determining the amount of over allowance on every trip by manually over stating the tightly spaced speedo calibrations. To avoided the rest of the carbon based users from tailgating us or over taking us, is a daily hassle put upon us by Toyota.

Please Mr Toyota find a laptop plug in fix for us at our next services.

I've never had a speeding ticket in 29yrs of driving. Having my Cannon calculator "Blu-tacked" to my horn surface on the steerring wheel for re calibration is gona get me a ticket when I mis judge it by 2 k's soon. Plus when I turn around corners the calculator goes upside down

[fish475]

Agree with your extract of assumptions here.

Plus the mute button in R & S models went under the parring knife too.

Pulled in to the drive-in at the local Tavern for a traveller on the way home home from work today and had a Territory in front of me.

He missed judged his door handle upon re entry to his vehicle, whilst viewing my beasts front end.

I will excuse Mr Toyota for no mute button.

[Kruzenvax]

What mute button?

And yes, I can excuse the car, not Mr Toyota

Well, this is 100% repeatable across other car models (re. absense of rear vents in subaru)... sometimes I think they do it on purpose.

BTW, I have to go to bed early tonight - Sydney->Brisbane run starts tomorrow. Will see how does Kluger handle this...

Agree with your extract of assumptions here.

Plus the mute button in R & S models went under the parring knife too.

Pulled in to the drive-in at the local Tavern for a traveller on the way home home from work today and had a Territory in front of me.

He missed judged his door handle upon re entry to his vehicle, whilst viewing my beasts front end.

I will excuse Mr Toyota for no mute button.

[mrbishi]

Agree with your extract of assumptions here.

Plus the mute button in R & S models went under the parring knife too.

Pulled in to the drive-in at the local Tavern for a traveller on the way home home from work today and had a Territory in front of me.

He missed judged his door handle upon re entry to his vehicle, whilst viewing my beasts front end.

I will excuse Mr Toyota for no mute button.

Id call that 1 schooner too many.

[aardvark]

re. absense of rear vents in subaru)...

How about... no cup holders in the new Subaru Forester!!!!

[slow_sam]

Please Mr Toyota find a laptop plug in fix for us at our next services.

I've never had a speeding ticket in 29yrs of driving. Having my Cannon calculator "Blu-tacked" to my horn surface on the steerring wheel for re calibration is gona get me a ticket when I mis judge it by 2 k's soon. Plus when I turn around corners the calculator goes upside down

Gets me thinking back to the days when all the road signs were in km/hr and my speedo was in ml/hr. The only difference being the number of people pushing you to drive at the speed limit and the number of tickets you could get.

Could it simple be a case of Toyota playing it safe and not wanting to get bad press with small errors in the speedo causing drivers to get tickets. Understating the car speed by 8 km/hr for example, would mean there could be a larger error in the speedo tolerance, say +/- 6. From Toyotas piont of view, it would be far worst for the press to run stories that there cars are poorly built when drivers start getting booked for believeing what the speedo tells them, compared to having a "great" safety feature built in the car.

[PaulG]

My wife just went past one of those roadside radar speed displays. Display showed 71 km/h, Kluger speedo 79 km/h.

Does this error affect the odometer reading as well?

Does anyone know if the US Highlander version has the same problem?

[Taka]

I found my odometer is very accurate... Thank ***. The trip meter is impressive down to the 0.1km, at least on mine, - I checked that on the offroad trip late last year.

Paul, for you information, the roadside advisory radars are very out of sync with calibration... they don't get regular testing (coz they are not legally required to do so you see).

One time, in particular, when a set of us (a few cars in a cruise) travelled at the same speed, one after the other, with cruise control.... during lunch time the last person said the display show variations up to a few kilometers per hour.

However, your obseration is still granted.... 79kmh in real term could be 71kmh.

[57fritz]

I found my odometer is very accurate... Thank ***. The trip meter is impressive down to the 0.1km, at least on mine, - I checked that on the offroad trip late last year.

Paul, for you information, the roadside advisory radars are very out of sync with calibration... they don't get regular testing (coz they are not legally required to do so you see).

One time, in particular, when a set of us (a few cars in a cruise) travelled at the same speed, one after the other, with cruise control.... during lunch time the last person said the display show variations up to a few kilometers per hour.

However, your obseration is still granted.... 79kmh in real term could be 71kmh.

Hi all, new to the forum. According to my Toyota Dealer, all Toyota speedos now fitted are showing over. 6kms at up to 60 and 8 over 70kph. My KX-R does exactly that and the answer when I complained was to 'drive a bit faster', not a good road safety message. Like all of you, I have no issue with a small error rate of 4kph. My beast is due for service tomorrow where I will again complain. Not overly hopefull of resolution. Pete

[Taka]

They will not recalibrate for you because it is an over $1000 job. Good luck though.

[Kruzenvax]

Taka,

Not saying you're wrong... but just wondering - where does it say that they don't do the job over $1K? To me not calibrated speedo maybe as much as therad as not-working turn indicator; every drover knows that a slower-tan-it-should-be car on a busy road could cause a lot of havoc...

They will not recalibrate for you because it is an over $1000 job. Good luck though.

[Taka]

Well that is that I was quoted long time ago (in an old camry, when it is also understated)

It will cost them at least couple of hours labour to take the dash out, adjust the speedo and test it with very accurate equipment (which I don't think any dealer will have or do I know what it is ..., something like this I suppose http://autospeed.com/cms/A_108262/article.html). Calibrate takes time and expensive equipments.

I suspect you have to go to an un Toyota place to do it, like above. As it is a highly legal instrument, the speedo... it will cost a fortune. Same goes a lawyer or a medical equipments. Prices are inflated for no real reason.

That is why you may get a laugh from dealer if you ask dealer mechanics to adjust it. They will highly unlikely to cover your ***** when you get book for speeding.

[Kruzenvax]

Perhaps youre right... still I feel this is something I should explore (when have more time from the office). My dealer was good to me so far...

[57fritz]

<_< Well as I thought, anything that involves too much difficulty they're not interested. What doesn't help is the Australian Design Rules (ADRs) which allow a 10% error margin. I may yet take it further. Pete

[BlackAdder]

G'Day all,

I just bought a new 2008 AWD Grande and have been experiencing the same sort of thing:

The Speedo and Odometer are a bit out, but in opposite directions ...

Speedo is a constant 5 kmph over that recorded on a hand held GPS (Garmin Nuvi 660),

BUT

The Odometer is out the other direction, Car/GPS ... 15/15.33, 30/30.63, 45/45.92 which does not make sense to me.

Has anyone else experienced this Odometer difference?

BlackAdder

[nerdygirl]

wow it is really interesting to discover that toyota does this. i have a 2008 rav and have wondered why other drivers have been getting ****** at me when sitting on the limit. i think the downward adjustment is too much when it causes this to happen. it leaves us really uncertain of our actual speed...

[nerdygirl]

G'Day all,

I just bought a new 2008 AWD Grande and have been experiencing the same sort of thing:

The Speedo and Odometer are a bit out, but in opposite directions ...

Speedo is a constant 5 kmph over that recorded on a hand held GPS (Garmin Nuvi 660),

BUT

The Odometer is out the other direction, Car/GPS ... 15/15.33, 30/30.63, 45/45.92 which does not make sense to me.

Has anyone else experienced this Odometer difference?

BlackAdder

hi black adder. perhaps your car's odo is correct, and the garmin is also a bit conservative in giving you your speed in giving you a reading a bit higher than your actual (to allow for any possible margin of error in its measurement), but not as conservative as your car's speedo which gives an even higher speed.

i mean legally the odo would have to be correct surely...

[Taka]

nerdygril,

GPS is most accurate, esp the one that log on to more than 4 satellates.

It is used in many racing instruments to measure lap times. The ONLY down side of GPS is start up (detecting the exact moment of the car starts moving). So 0-100kmh testing is still measured by the ECU data.

[Mikeyboy]

G'Day all,

I just bought a new 2008 AWD Grande and have been experiencing the same sort of thing:

The Speedo and Odometer are a bit out, but in opposite directions ...

Speedo is a constant 5 kmph over that recorded on a hand held GPS (Garmin Nuvi 660),

BUT

The Odometer is out the other direction, Car/GPS ... 15/15.33, 30/30.63, 45/45.92 which does not make sense to me.

Has anyone else experienced this Odometer difference?

BlackAdder

I found in the Grande that it wasn't a fixed kmh error, but a percentage error. At a speed detected by GPS, the speedo would read about 8% higher.

I thought that the error was less on the KX-R but found that it was the same once the tyre pressures were corrected. My tyres from delivery were from 40 - 48 psi. I now have them set at 36 psi.