Is there any way of turning off the display of total mileage of my E280- 1998 -(personal reg.plate) Looks "as new" but lets all and sundry know it has done 125K whenever the doors are opened, and of course when driving. I'm not after anything illegal, just any possible Merc.display adjustment.
sid
Oh no?
DAS
NO!
The LCD is backlit via three lamps behind the display. One for the left (Temperature), center (Trip Odometer and Odometer), and right (Clock). You could remove the center lamp, extingushing both the the trip odometer and odometer readouts.
The back lights do not merely provide background light "splashed" on the display, but are what actually makes the numbers "glow" (LCDs are variable filters which must be illuminated from behind to actually display anything... no light, no numbers for that segment!)
Personally, I think numbers on the odometer that belie an otherwise pristine (a well-loved!) automobile is a tribute to be proud of, not hidden... but then, maybe I'm strange!
Cheers,
Paul
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Thanks Paul, you are probably right. It was no more than a thought on my part.
sid
After rereading justsid's query I asked myself the same question. I would be proud to display a high mileage in a car in good shape. When I had to let go of my W124 230E in 1993 after 6 1/2 years the car had reached 120 000 miles and felt just nicely run in, and I had hoped to be able to display 200
000 at some stage. However, it was a company car and policy was to renew after a certain period, and I had kept the car far longer already.(The chap who bought it off the company then did do something worse than justsid was suggesting, namely he turned the odometer back by several tens of thousands of miles, silly man.)
DAS
Here in the US it is strictly illegal to reset an odometer (if it is, it must be so noted on the registration. This may happen for reasons of service, repair, etc. but must be reported on the registration), and, in fact vehicle in this market are required to have a way to indicate such activity. Davehd
Well, in the UK it's exactly the same, but that doesn't mean people don't try, especially withe older style of odometer. It isn't always possible to obtain an independent check of the mileage. However, in recent times, when paying the annual vehicle excise duty ('road tax') there is a box on the form in which to fill in the mileage. However, it is voluntary...
DAS
Read my original posting. I did not want to ALTER the odometer reading. I wondered if the display could be adjusted to not show when door was opened. I realise that it would be visible when ignition was activated.
justsid
Yes. In my previous post I wrote "The chap ...then did do something worse than justsid was suggesting, namely he turned the odometer back..." In other words, you were not suggesting that.
DAS
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