Re: 4000 Quattro Question

[John Greenstreet <jgreenst@motown.ge.com>]

> From quattro-owner@swiss.ans.net Mon Nov 14 14:05:11 1994
> Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 13:23 EST
> From: Peter Orban <ORBAN@nrcamt.iamt.nrc.ca>
> 
> >...claimed that this is a very common problem with VDO odometers (since it
> >happended to me three times in two years, I can hardly argue). He explained
> >what was wrong, but I can't really recall exactly. He did, however, say to
> >never poke the odometer button on a VDO while the car is moving.
> 
> I had the same problem on the VDO gauge on my '88 Jetta. For me the
> the problem was that the last wheel in the odometer, that is driven
> by the shaft, was slipping on the shaft. The wheel is die cast and is
> a press fit on the shaft. I rolled the shaft under a file, effectively
> putting a serration on it where the die cast wheel is on it. That
> solved the problem.
> As for the reset for the trip odometer, the button lifts out the
> little gears between the numbered gears, and the numbered gears are
> returned to 0 by a set of springs pushing on a cartoid shaped cam
> profile moulded on to the side of the wheels. There should not be any
> problems, even if the car is moving while reseting the odometer.
> Now, the Audi gauge could be different, but I doubt it.

The VDO speedos in Audis and Mercedes are essentially identical, and
Mercedes' speedos develop the same slipping-gear problem.  In fact,
there was an article last year in the MB club of America magazine,
STAR, about this very problem.  The article did not warn against
resetting the trip odometer whilst moving, and looking at the
mechanism, it's easy to see why this should not be a concern.

All this talk is tempting me to pull the pod on my S-class and see
what's running the LCD odometer.  I imagine I would find the same
old mechanism, nylon gear and all, running an encoder switch!

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John Greenstreet, Senior Engineer           (jgreenst@motown.ge.com)
Martin Marietta Government Electronic Systems    Moorestown NJ 08057
WPI Class of '75, Temple Class of '94

My new car history:
  1975    1978    1982       1986        1989      1992      1995
   VW ->  Audi -> Audi  -> Mercedes -> Mercedes -> Audi -> Mercedes
Scirocco Fox GTI  4000S    190E 2.3    190E 2.6    100CS     S320

POSSLQ's* new car history:
         1978       1981       1985      1988        1990     1993
       Triumph ->  Toyota ->  Toyota  ->  VW    ->   Audi  -> Audi
       Spitfire    Tercel     Corolla   Jetta GL      80      90S

*POSSLQ = Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters
Note: All Audis and Mercedes above were sold to friends or family.
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