Fixing speedometer

Finally got down to the nitty gritty job of tearing out the faulty instrument panel in my twenty year old Toyota fortuner. Despite my lousy soldering skills and not having a functional multimeter. I was able to remove 4 faulty 100uf 16V Capacitors and replace them. It seems to work on a scale of 8/10. The -2 has to do with a lingering defect concerning the reverse sensor. I can live with this minor irritant. The important thing is the remaining 8 out of 10 that konked out before now work perfectly. An added bonus is that I dont have to spend USD 500 plus purchasing a reconditioned speedometer and probably another SGD 300 on labor fixing this. Getting it done DIY manner may seem like a big hassle and even slightly daunting, but it is really isnt in the age of YouTube. Besides I realised the experience of going thru the process from start to finish was really invaluable and since I dont have plans to change my ancient car for another 10 to 15 years. I guess its best to learn how to do these repairs myself without having to rely on others. This is important. Because I live all alone and I am pushing well into my sixties. Many more things in my life are probably going to fall apart or malfunction or simply go on the blink as I age, most I can probably mitigate with direct action. Others like my recent DIY 8 out 10 speedometer fix. I just have to make peace with and live as patiently as I can with….this I guess is the process (for lack of a better word) and its probably a metaphor of my life and yours maybe and life in general.

Oh before I forget….what’s my total cost of repair? SGD $2.55. Labour not included. Now when I first started this repair. I realised no one could really offer me a fix. Trust me. I went everywhere. Not even Toyota Motors. Unfortunately Toyota these days are no longer what they used to be. These days they should be renamed Vampire or Damian Motors because all they seem to want to do to their loyal customers is inflict pain on them by insulting both their brains and wallets. Hence these days Toyota motors is into making you wait 6 months for the parts that you could probably source from internet within 24 hours along with to over charging you for imaginary services. To me the Toyota Motors of today is a very sad lost cause story. To illustrate how bad it is. These days I dont even bother to go to them for my regular preventive maintenance repairs any longer and even if I really have too. I seem to be constantly dissatisfied with their lackadaisical non existent customer service. The only people who seem to be interested or have the rudimentary working knowledge to make these sort of repairs are Philippinos and Banglas. To me this makes a whole lot of sense because the Toyota Fortuner is a rugged car that was built to literally last forever and only in these long lost regions do you actually get these folk starting cottage industries specialising to keep cars which are supposed to be long dead on the road. The problem is that I didnt want to just send my valuable speedometer to someone who posted a self repair video on YouTube. To me its an issue of credibility and watching many of these repairs I realised most of these cowboys have absolutely no idea of what they are tinkering with….so if you ever have an issue with the same or similar type of speedometer. Drop me a private line in the comments section. Thats what most people do. I will call you and we see what we can do together….all I ask from those who seek my help is do a bit of research into whats really wrong with your speedometer. Dont come to me if you dont even know the difference between red and black wire or determined firsthand whether it is a simple fuse or loose wire issue that is responsible for your malfunction. Doing preliminary work is respect. Coming to me without even bothering to try to fix it! Means you either deserve to pay full cut throat retail or get it checked by Damian Rampapa motors.

It lives!