Miles Ahead

I feel extremely manly; I recently fixed the odometer in my '97 Volvo 850! A few weeks ago, I noticed that the miles were not rolling off any more...hmmm, just a small problem. I'm not planning on selling the car any time soon, but I would hate to go for months or even a year and not know how many miles I've put on the car...how would I know when to change the oil? So I called the dealership (just for a good laugh at their estimate): "Oh, that will probably run about $400 to $500 dollars." Yeah, right, I'm going to pay that. I got on the internet and found an odometer fix that I could do myself. Go to Matthew's Volvo Site and see the process. I ordered the new odometer gears from Jeff Caplan at Odometer Gears. He started making these tiny gears when no one else would sell the needed parts to him. I've read on other sites that a new odometer box is anywhere from $125 to $225 or more, but Jeff sells the gears for $25 each. The box needs 2 gears to be fully restored. The tough part is taking apart the Volvo's dash and removing the instrument panel behind the steering wheel (the one with the speedometer and gas gauges). I decided that while I had the panel in my living room I would also change the bulbs in the panel. Most were pretty easily found at Auto Zone, but a couple needed a special pre-constructed bulb. I tried to make a different bulb work, but when I got everything back in the car, my odometer worked, but my turn signal flashers on the panel didn't flash...hmmm, that could be important. So, yesterday, I made the trek down to the dealership again to investigate the bulbs, and in fact, they were only $2.50 for each...I'll take them. So, today, if everything goes well, I'll have a working odometer and a clearly lit instrument panel. What a feeling!