Changing speedo to mph?

[Angus]

Hi folks,

Not got a Prelude as yet, but have my eye on one. It's a 2.2 VTEC manual, one of those with the light-up dash, and it still reads in km (JDM car).

To change the car to read in mph, is it an easy job to install one of those convertor chips (I had one in my JDM Celica GT4), and how does that affect the speedo needle? The speedo currently has mph + kmh graduations.

Does the chip change the odometer to read in miles while leaving the speedo untouched?

Does installation of the chip remove the 112mph limiter too? If so, how the hell are you supposed to know what excessive speed you're doing (on the German autobahn, for example ) - the speedo only seems to go up to 120mph? Do you just have to guess, or is a replacement face available?

Or do you just have to leave well alone, live with the limiter, and have the odometer go up in km rather than miles?

Cheers for any help or pointers!

Angus
Scotland

[spiffyguido]

Angus,

Sorry for the delayed reply. I've been thinking about your question since you posted and trying to find an answer. Any research I did said nothing about having to swap out a chip, but it could be the case. I thought that you just had to swap out the gauge cluster itself.

I know that's not much help. Have you found anything out? I'll keep looking.

[Angus]

Just to finish this one off ... I got a JDM BB4 with a kmh regular cluster.

Swapped it out for a set of UKDM EL mph dials, and changed the whole wiring loom behind the dash to accommodate it, rather than splicing into the existing loom (different connectors at dials than on old loom).

It reads in mph without any convertor installed, but I've no idea whether the 112mph restriction is still in place (can't go that fast on these roads!).

[spiffyguido]

Sounds like you did a clean job.

Thank you for getting back to us and letting us know how it all worked out. Got a write-up you want posted?

Thank you also for being responsible enough to not find out if the 112 mph restriction still exists on public roads. Hopefully you'll be able to take it to a track and find out.

[Angus]

Haven't done a write-up myself, because there seem to be some good ones elsewhere ... however, here's a link to my thread concerning EL Dials swap-out on Prelude Australia.

http://www.preludeaustralia.com/forum/s ... hp?t=35064

(the forum there may require registration, but it's a worthwhile place to be anyway!)

I'm sure that'll come in useful to someone at some point - I seem to have had all the standard problems whilst installing, so that thread just about covers the lot.

Don't know about a track, but I might get the chance to take the car round Europe in the summer ... in which case the German autobahns will do nicely (no speed limit on much of them, plus you're really not out of place cruising at 100mph+ in among all the huge BMWs, Porsches and Skodas ... yes, Skodas! ).

Angus