My wife and I did a test yesterday to check the calibration of the Mini's Speedometer. Unlike most of the reports ours is a perfect 5 MPH off across a range from 10 to 90 mph. In other words subtract 5 from whatever the speedo shows and that is what the GPS showed. This bothers me for some reason. How is the Mini's speedo calibrated, by cable and gears or electronically through the ECU? If its ecu related it should be easy to recalibrate. Thanks in advance for any info. I really want to get this fixed.

 

No one knows? How disheartening.

 

Miata's are also set 5MPH faster than actual speed. On them you can remove the needle and reposition it. I leave mine alone I kinda like that 5 MPH cusion

 

The speedo is electronic,works in reverse
In Europe it is the law for the speedos to read over,mine is about 3KMs over at 100KMs[62MPH]Not that big a deal,ya get used to it.
Lots of threads here on NAM on this,do a search.

 

Not necessarily so. Remember, the ECU contains software (program code) and the data tables used by the software. The data tables can be changed fairly easily but not the program code.

Most aftermarket ECU tuners play with the air/fuel ratios across the rpm band; these are known a AF maps. These maps are in the data tables not the program code. Certain other information is kept in the data tables as well, such as the threshold for the rev limiter and the ASC activation thresholds. These can all be changed by modifications to the data tables.

However, the actual lines of code and (I suspect) the individual data variables (like, perhaps, the boolean data types used for activation of DRLs, auto-locking, etc.) can only be changed by hooking up the MINI/BMW dealer's GT1/MoDIC system and laying-down new code or toggling data variable values within the code.

I suspect that the speedometer calibration factor is actually stored as a constant data element within the program code. For legal reasons, this would be my choice if I were MINI/BMW.

You already know you're 5 mph too fast so factor that in. I suppose you could also go with some larger diameter tires, but that might only adjust the speedo by 1-2 mph. Better yet, get the NAV option and use its mph reading!

Theo

 

BMW programs all there cars speedo's to be slightly fast. The do this because they don't want your car to ever be going faster than it says it is. They say this helps keep the number of speeding tickets issued to BMW/MINI owners down. That would be bad advertising if their cars were know for being pulled over for speeding. Also a BMW engineer told me it was also due to some German law. BMW says that most of there speedos within 10%. Hope this explains why.

 

My OEM nav has speed readouts in meters/second, no option for mph. I also have a Garman Quest for the other car which has a front screen mph readout.

 

mine is only about 2 mph off....I too used gps to check it...

 

My GPS says the speedo is 2 off at 70mph