How could the speedometer be off now?

MYT1

MEMBER
1994 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE
200 MILES

I just installed some white face gauge overlays and now my speedometer is off by 6-8 mph (too low). The overlays just slip over the needle and do not require removal of the needle - I barely touched the speedo mechanism so I don't think that could/should cause that. Besides, if I'd somehow damaged the gauge slipping the overlay over the needle I'd think it wouldn't work at all instead of being inaccurate. Any thoughts on what might be wrong here?

2 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,755 POSTS

Something had to move. Double check to make sure the overlay is aligned with the old numbers.

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Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 AT 5:28 PM

MYT1

MEMBER
4 POSTS

Yeah, I wondered about that but when I got them I made sure that the new overlay is exactly the same as the original gauge including markings & location of the mounting holes. The overlays were actually for a 2.0 turbo so I verified that the speedo was the same Mitsu part number as the naturally aspirated version so everything should be same-o same-o. Wondered if perhaps I'd moved the pointer in relation to the gauge but I don't think so since it comes to rest in the same place and I didn't force anything. One other symptom is that it seems that I have to be goin' a bit faster than I did before the needle even starts moving (nearly 10mph) whereas originally I think it started moving almost as soon as the car started rolling. Most curious. Hate to have to spend $150 on a new one just for this. Any other thoughts?