My Name is Peter and I’ve just purchased a 1993 Mitsubishi GTO Automatic and heard this is the forum to be on so thought i’d come introduce myself
I’ll upload some pics as soon as get some taken.
I wanted a Dodge Stealth for years and only ever seen a couple for sale and always got outbid on eBay, so this time decided just to go for the GTO.
I’ve owned 2 Supras and a 300ZX (among countless other Jap and American imports) before this so i’m no stranger to the jap performance world.
My maintenance skills are somewhat limited so no doubt i’ll be here with some questions in the future that maybe the experienced GTO owners could offer advice on.
The car already has a problem. The guy that i bought it off has tried to put El-Glo dials in and made a right arse of it. The fuel gauge does not work correctly or the speedo. The fuel Gauge would be an easy fix i think my filling to full and re-setting the needle but the speedo seems completely buggered. He says that when he took it out the needle started to spin by itself so i think the spring has unwound and have heard this is a bitch to correct.
I’ve ordered a new Guage cluster from a Breaker (as i presume it will be a straight swap) but the problem is that the car only has 70k on the clock documented from all the old MOT’s and i dare say the new Gauge cluster will have a lot more.
What do you propose is the best (easiest) way forward for this?
1- try to take the speedo out of the new cluster and attach to the old one?
2- try to take the odometer out of my current cluster and put in the new one
3- leave well alone, swap the clusters and accept the fact that i’ve lost the low mileage reading
Hi Peter welcome to GTOUK, im sure the guys will be asking for Pictures of your car soon enough .
Regarding the speedo , suppose it depends how long you are planning on keeping the car and weather you mind the mileage being incorrect .
One word of advice for the Auto check the condition of your gearbox oil , a fresh oil and filter change will help with the longevity as they can suffer problems if neglected , also some of the guys who have run Autos in the past have fitted an extra oil cooler to keep the temperatures down .
Thanks for the Advice. Never thought of that. I’ll look at getting the gearbox oil and filter done after christmas maybe.
Should have the car a while as it will be my daily driver next year (providing nothing goes wrong). I don’t particularly mind it having the wrong milage to be honest but if i did want to sell in the future it could decrease the value.
Is it easy enough to manually wind the ODO in the new dial cluster to match mine or is it really hard/impossible to do?
Welcome to the club,
I like the knight-rider avatar.
Sorry no speedo knowledge but when you get your hands on the replacement you will see the options for you.
Welcome to GTOUK, The speedo is really easy to do, remove the clear plastic cover & get yourself a small flat screwdriver & just flick the numbers over to whatever mileage you want, Its so easy its probably why most GTO`s that are sold all seem to have similar mileages :roll: Good luck
Thanks Julian, Appreciate it. Might give it a go before i put the new cluster in. Really daft question but do you flick them forward or roll back? I presume they are on some kind or ratchet type mechanism and don’t want to break anything in the new dial cluster.
Most GTO speedos have been clocked that I’ve come across, so at some point someone has rolled the mileage back. If you take the whole speedo to bits and get to just the actual numbers there is a small cog that can be wound backwards or forwards that changes the mileage. I used an electric drill with an old rubber wheel off a lego set so as not to damage the plastic.
I’ll also give Julian’s method a go as haven’t tried this yet, normally like you say when changing the dials it’s simply a case of the needles being put back in the wrong place which can be easily rectified but you usually need to go for a drive first and see how far out they are.
The mileage on this seems genuine from all the old MOT’s, thats why i don’t want to lose it if i can help it. The speedo itself sits at 20 on idle and the Odometer spins when its not moving. When you drive it it doesn’t go pst 50ish really regardless of speed.
Ok, got all the dials changed over and although the fuel gauge is working properly now (i think), The new speedo is no different to the old one? Starts of at 20mph at idle them moves up slowly but not to the speed you are doing? I’m thinking maybe a fault with the speedo converter.
haha, yeah, of course i remember you. Nice little black number you had
You still got the Zed or sold up for one of these?
I almost bought the Zed back but the guy had not looked after it the way i had. He’d smasshed the Ipad (well the frame) i built into the dash, Cracked the front nose, cracked the Bodykit and said i can have it back for what he paid :0
