Adding bold speedometer markings??

[grilled cheeseus]

The speedometer on my '07 hatchback is hard to read at a quick glance, especially when you're approximately halfway between the major ticks at 10 MPH intervals. Am I going 53 or 57? Iono, let me squint at it for longer than I should while driving. The minor ticks (1 MPH intervals) blur together and are basically useless.



So, usually I just look at the digital speedometer on my Scangauge, but after disconnecting it to help a friend diagnose his CEL, I drove home with only the stock gauge and was reminded how crappy it is.

What if we add bold ticks at 5 MPH intervals? It's trivially easy to remove the gauge cluster and its clear plastic lens. I've done it in literally 2 minutes with a philips screwdriver. Then you can do whatever you want on the panel itself.



Maybe with little white stickers or a "correction pen", or maybe etch away the plastic so they glow at night?

[dogsridewith]

I think it makes the parallax error problem worse...might just use pen to make odd tens stripes the same as the even ones.
(I'm fine w/ this Mind of Toyata center pod for simplifying mfg of left and right hand driver vehicles...if they had simply mounted it in a spherical or flat plane w/ a cylindrical cut for aiming either way. This would obviously also improve the degraded off-center output of the light sources in the pod. And, thirdly, the nagging right-seat/back-seat-driver psychological effect.)

[grilled cheeseus]

Originally Posted by dogsridewith

I think it makes the parallax error problem worse...might just use pen to make odd tens stripes the same as the even ones.
(I'm fine w/ this Mind of Toyata center pod for simplifying mfg of left and right hand driver vehicles...if they had simply mounted it in a spherical or flat plane w/ a cylindrical cut for aiming either way. This would obviously also improve the degraded off-center output of the light sources in the pod. And, thirdly, the nagging right-seat/back-seat-driver psychological effect.)

Yes, the Echo gauge cluster is actually aimed at the driver.

[dogsridewith]

Thanks for that. What year Echo?

[WeeYari]

Originally Posted by dogsridewith

What year Echo?

All year Echo.



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[Leegamer]

I've thought about doing this, too. It is really difficult to tell. I, too have a scangauge but my backlight died so at night I have to rely on the speedo.

I might try to pop the glass off and see how hard it would be to tilt the cluster towards the driver a bit.

[dogsridewith]

Originally Posted by WeeYari

All year Echo.



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The USA market Echo that Toyota had between the Tercel and the Yaris?

[WeeYari]

Originally Posted by dogsridewith

The USA market Echo that Toyota had between the Tercel and the Yaris?

Yes. It was a shame that they moved away from the angled cluster with the Gen2.

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[dogsridewith]

Amazing. Screwed up a nice feature. Then focus groups or something said they didn't like a pod that only reads correctly to the middle passenger in the rear seat. Then fixed it with a conventional dash. (Tell me Toyota knows what it is doing...per comment in another recent thread.)

[charliegriefer]

Unrelated to the original question, but did you modify your LEDs on the speedo? Or did the '07 not come with the ugly amber backlight?

[grilled cheeseus]

Originally Posted by charliegriefer

Unrelated to the original question, but did you modify your LEDs on the speedo? Or did the '07 not come with the ugly amber backlight?

I did not. All three of the 2007s in my extended family have the white/teal backlight. I've seen newer Yarii with the amber one but I don't know when Toyota changed it.

Separate topic, the gauges on my Freightliner chassis motorhome are very nice to read! The speedo only goes up to 85 so the numbers are big and the ticks are further apart. Also, it's actually facing the driver.