E46 M3 Mph to Kph??

Recently managed to acquire an e46 m3 and am in the process of doing a few small job's and
cosmetic changes to the car before I put it on the road. After a few test drives to check the
caliber of horses in the stable I'm starting to think it would make sense to change the current
speedo from miles per hour over to the european e46 style kilometers per hour only speedo face.
I know the current speedo face has kph in smaller digits inside the main readings, but, by the time
i've managed to figure out what their reading I'll most likely be pulled over in the hard shoulder
trying desperately to think of an original excuse for the approaching robocop.

So, from the little searching around I've done so far it appears I have maybe 3 options for converting.

Option 1.
Purchase a second hand set of KPH clocks off Ebay.de
Benifits: I don't have to mess around with the internals of the clocks and theres less chance
of me breaking something.
Cons: Mileage will have to be recalibrated and there seems to be conflicting views on the
interweb whether this can be achieved without getting the little undesirable dot beside
the display to show mileage display has been tampered with. I suspect at this stage also that the
whole instrument unit would need to be recoded so it will play nice with the other ecu's in the car.
Also a little unsure if the secondhand cluster would need to come from a similar SMG car and if
the donor cars year would make any differance.

Option 2.
Purchase a new KPH instrument cluster from the main dealer and have it programed to suit the car.
Benifits: Apart from being probably the most plug and play option it's hard to see past the con's.
Con's: Although I haven't bothered looking up a price I already can sense it would require
copious bags of legal tender and finding a post office or small bank with lax security.

Option 3.
Purchase a set of gauge face overlays from the internet.
Benfits: I get to keep the original clocks and hence don't need to worry about reprogramming
or the quality of ebay insrument clusters thats are from too far away to visit the seller and convince him a refund
would be the correct course of action.
Con's: I can't find any original style/quality overlays on the web. The aftermarket ones all
have the wonderfull "Halfords-esque" feel to them which I'd really rather avoid. Also, I not a big
fan of having to strip the needles off gauges. From past experiance this can go t*ts up in the blink of an eye.

Has anyone out there done this before and care to share your experiances? Or anyone got
any views or insight which might help with the decission making process?

Cheers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xworks

Recently managed to acquire an e46 m3 and am in the process of doing a few small job's and
cosmetic changes to the car before I put it on the road. After a few test drives to check the
caliber of horses in the stable I'm starting to think it would make sense to change the current
speedo from miles per hour over to the european e46 style kilometers per hour only speedo face.
I know the current speedo face has kph in smaller digits inside the main readings, but, by the time
i've managed to figure out what their reading I'll most likely be pulled over in the hard shoulder
trying desperately to think of an original excuse for the approaching robocop.

So, from the little searching around I've done so far it appears I have maybe 3 options for converting.

Option 1.
Purchase a second hand set of KPH clocks off Ebay.de
Benifits: I don't have to mess around with the internals of the clocks and theres less chance
of me breaking something.
Cons: Mileage will have to be recalibrated and there seems to be conflicting views on the
interweb whether this can be achieved without getting the little undesirable dot beside
the display to show mileage display has been tampered with. I suspect at this stage also that the
whole instrument unit would need to be recoded so it will play nice with the other ecu's in the car.
Also a little unsure if the secondhand cluster would need to come from a similar SMG car and if
the donor cars year would make any differance.

Option 2.
Purchase a new KPH instrument cluster from the main dealer and have it programed to suit the car.
Benifits: Apart from being probably the most plug and play option it's hard to see past the con's.
Con's: Although I haven't bothered looking up a price I already can sense it would require
copious bags of legal tender and finding a post office or small bank with lax security.

Option 3.
Purchase a set of gauge face overlays from the internet.
Benfits: I get to keep the original clocks and hence don't need to worry about reprogramming
or the quality of ebay insrument clusters thats are from too far away to visit the seller and convince him a refund
would be the correct course of action.
Con's: I can't find any original style/quality overlays on the web. The aftermarket ones all
have the wonderfull "Halfords-esque" feel to them which I'd really rather avoid. Also, I not a big
fan of having to strip the needles off gauges. From past experiance this can go t*ts up in the blink of an eye.

Has anyone out there done this before and care to share your experiances? Or anyone got
any views or insight which might help with the decission making process?

Cheers.

---

could you not get second hand clocks in kph and see if you can find anyone who could take the needels off properly and put the kph faces on,its not too hard to take them off,i think the trick is to pull straight outwards reathe than wiggle,..give super4 a call he will find something for you.

Option 2 for me, rural post offices on dole day are a gold mine! :D

If that really bothers you you can get a second hand cluster, even though KMH M3 cluster means Left Hand Drive car, so big $$$ most likely.
Fitting it takes 5mn.
Coding it takes 5mn. No dot.
To correct the mileage you will need to get it done at a place such as mileagecorrection.ie, they have to connect to the original chip in order to match your car mileage.

I can code it for you if you need, but I don't do mileage correction.

Personally I would not bother, you get used very quickly to the dual reading

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xworks

Recently managed to acquire an e46 m3 and am in the process of doing a few small job's and
cosmetic changes to the car before I put it on the road. After a few test drives to check the
caliber of horses in the stable I'm starting to think it would make sense to change the current
speedo from miles per hour over to the european e46 style kilometers per hour only speedo face.
I know the current speedo face has kph in smaller digits inside the main readings, but, by the time
i've managed to figure out what their reading I'll most likely be pulled over in the hard shoulder
trying desperately to think of an original excuse for the approaching robocop.

---

There are only 6 KPH speed limits on the road - 30kph, 50kph, 60kph, 80kph, 100kph and 120kph. It's very easy to remember what their MPH counterparts are: 18mph, 30mph, 37mph, 50mph, 62.5mph and 75mph

Option #4, and the one I would go with - live with it, spend the money on something more worthy of your concern.