That is hilarious. :D
By law, speedometers are allowed to be off by a certain amount (I forget how much). I suspect that'll be the eventual test if enough owners raise the issue to prompt a dealer to investigate better than that.
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So I'm getting my snows tomorrow, which brings back the issue: Should I stick with the 60's, or move up to the 65's and save a few bucks?
Hey man, I would go with the 65's...will help to bring the speedo closer to reality...an issue I will bring up with the dealer as well, when I get a chance. Hopefully they will come around at some point and admit there is a problem.
I'm going to measure some tires on Saturday at a few places.I actually seen some nice 70s at Costco I'd like to measure. Does anyone know where to get spare Steelies for the micra? Is the wheel bolt pattern 4x100?
Well, I ended up getting the 60's. Costco tire shop manager said he refused to put on anything other than what the car came with, because this car wasn't in their system yet so he couldn't check for compatible tire sizes. They were really busy and I heard them telling people it would be two weeks before an appointment could be booked, and there's snow in the forecast for tomorrow. I saw my tires sitting there, but they didn't even have 185/65R15's in stock, and I knew if I wanted to get the Michelin X-ice Xi-3's for that price, it was going to be now or never.
I was really impressed at how quiet they are; normally, snow tires generate a lot of road noise, but these were as quiet as the stock tires, but with noticeably more grip.
I was going to mention that: big shops often will not put on any tire size other than OEM for liability reasons.
The way around it is to bring in just your wheels. Bit of a pain in the butt, but I did that once because I wanted a different size.
Received a private message from a shy (?) member requesting that I bump this thread:
Thread bumped.Quote:
Can you mention the important responsibility we all have of notifying the dealerships of the speed discrepancy of our speedometer? Power in numbers ;)
This is not unsual, infact nearly every car typically over-reports speed.
Speedometers, like any instrument, will never be completely exact, and like most insturments, will tend to wander in precision over time. Car manufacturers, in order to limit liability, typically set them -5% in order to limit the likelihood they'd ever under-report speed.
Keep in mind as well, things like tire size and air pressure can result in variation in speed being reported (as speedometers register tire speed rather than the vehicle's speed on the road, noticeable when tires slip in winter/wet condititions).
My Micra speedo is out about 9% consistently as it gains speed. When the car registers 130 KM/H is really is going 118 KM/H. Tested it against two GPS units and a highway radar sign - they all read the same. I have an appointment with my dealer and I will report back what happens.
Spoke with the dealer who confirmed my Micra is out 7% and the other Micras on the lot are out at least 5%. This will affect your warranty expiration up to 5600 KM too early and also affect official fuel consumption readings. My dealer has contacted Nissan technical support for a recommendation of how to fix the problem. The Service department manager said most likely a recall will happen to flash the ECM/PCM and correct the algorithm that calculates speed. I would recommend everyone get to their dealers and press that this defect be corrected immediately. The longer you wait, the more of your warranty gets eaten up.
Thanks, ijamie.
Great detective work ijamie. Hopefully something comes of this and they fix it.
If there are any warranty issues up to 10,000km outside of warranty, they'd better address them or there will be hell to pay...not that I expect any because it is a Micra after all.
Still working with the dealer on this issue. Now the sales manager is involved. Hopefully we will have some action soon.
Service Manager says that the variance in reporting speed is within regulation from SAE. I have asked for Nissan to provide that information in writing and I have contacted Transport Canada for verification. I will report back with results as soon as I have them.
Transport canada wont give you anything.. They dont regulate the accuracy, that would actually be SAE J1226.. Summing it up, speedo is allowed to be 2.5% to 4% (5% depending on the version you read) out with a bias towards high and still be deemed accurate. So if you think about it. If 4% out with a high bias at means when you see 104k/ph, your actually going 100k/ph.
Really, we're whining about a speedo thats 1% out of tolerance. I don't think you'll ever see a fix for this.
This is why on some cars, like p71 you will see "Certified Calibration".
http://www.whitegauges.net/product_i..._1581_pic3.jpg
They are usually adjusted yearly for federal cars, as some of the older radar systems use this to determine how fast the cruiser is going to get an accurate speed readout of your speed. (Eg, parked cop vs moving cop)
Thanks for the info - came up with the same document so good to know I have the correct one before I passed it on to the Service Manager. I'm pretty sure the speedometer readings displayed by my car are outside of the standard or at the very least right on the edge of what is tolerated - I'm not an Engineer so I can't be sure. It would be nice to have an accurate speedometer, 7% (by the dealer's own measure) discrepancy is a considerable one in my books. A few percent either way to take in to account for corners, different tire manufacturer's tire tread designs and what would be what I could consider acceptable. On the other hand, I've spent a fair amount on replacing the stock rims and tires that came with the car and I have bought winter tires as well for my new Micra - I often wonder if it would have been possible to increase my speedo accuracy with a slightly bigger tire size, as I would have done that without hesitation when I ordered my tires and rims. You would think if this is a common inquiry from Nissan Dealers across Canada, that Nissan Canada would have some documentation to pass on to the customers to help explain their position in regards to speedometer accuracy. I have noticed the speedometer accuracy is an issue for owners of the Versa Note and the Versa in other Nissan model forums - I know that these cars have a number of common parts (one of the reasons I bought this car) so it wouldn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that I had a Nissan Quest for for a number of years and it's speedometer was very accurate at all speeds, all the time -that is what I expected when I bought this Nissan Micra. It don't think it's unreasonable to expect the same quality of build, the same attention to detail and the same standard achieved of that vehicle built 30 years ago in my new Micra. So far I would say the Micra exceeds all of my expectations for the price I paid except this one - which as I said, is surprising to me, to say the least. Hopefully Nissan Canada will make an attempt to increase the accuracy of the speedometer readings in their cars. I am sure it will lead to an increased perception of a reliable, quality, well built small car for the Canadian market, that just so happens to start under 10 grand.
I would think so, reducing the outer diameter or increasing it would bring the speedo back on track I would think. If it reads faster then what its actually going then reducing the tire size would bring it back onto center I think. Maybe changing to a p185/50/r14 would work..
I punched this into the calculator here:
http://www.roadkillcustoms.com/hot-r...#axzz3PPn17Icp
Ahh hell. I cant figure it out.. Im no good with math.. All i know is that when the hub rotates, the computer should think.. "x number of inches traveled". A taller ratio would make it go a little further, and the computer would still think it went the same distance, right?
Maybe nissan had a taller ratio in mind, and a supply deal fell through or something?
Yes, a larger diameter tire will bring the speedo more in line with reality. My Micras' speedo is so far out that I would need a pretty tall tire though! On the original tires my Micra would show 60 KPH when the actual (radar) speed was 54 KPH. Kinda ridiculous.
I installed slightly taller tires (24.25'' compared to stock 23.7'') and it helped somewhat but the speedo is still out quite a bit.
For other reasons I have pretty much abandoned the idea of even taller tires, so I need to bring this up with the dealer, when I get a chance.
Good luck to us all!
Not necessarily. The speedo and odometer are driven separately by the computer.
From what I've read, manufacturers fudge the speed reading (to ensure you're never actually going faster than the displayed speed), but the odo should be closer to reality. Separate issues.
That's funny...
In the SR loaner I had, I tested both the speedometer & the odometer. And the odometer was dead accurate -- within 1/10th of a km after 20+ km of driving (distance measured 2 different ways). But the speedometer was off (read low) by 4 km/h.
My experience with Nissan is that they don't really care about this issue. I think we got Versa guts in our car, but to make it peppier, they slapped on smaller profile tires.
I got a call from the service manager at my dealer a few days ago. Both he and the sales manager at the dealer have raised the issue with the Nissan district corporate management team. He seemed positive that a fix might happen and was going to keep me updated. I do hope Nissan does correct the problem and it was nice to hear that my dealer is still looking for a fix on this issue.
thanks for keeping this thread alive guys. i , too, would like to hear what is the response.
I let Anthony the service manager at Scarborough Nissan know about the speedo issue. He made a note of it on my car's service record and said he would let me know as soon as Nissan had a fix for it. Haven't heard anything in two weeks. Will probably check again in a few weeks when my car is due for its first oil change.
Funny that I find this thread. Last week-end I doing some survey for google maps and had my GPS gear on board, and noticed the speed was off by 6% too low. Speedometer showed 100 km/h, and ODB-II as well, while my GPSs and smartphone would beg to differ it was more like 106. There's no way to adjust the speedo through reprogramming via ODB-II ? Somehow the OEM dimensions don't translate into accurate readings. 6% is way off. I'll ask my dealer as well.
I bought mine in Quebec, and came with winter tires (or tyres). Tiger paws of the same geometry.
But actual measure by GPS is higher than speedo is displaying. I'll see if I can get an OPP guy on a slow night to confirm.
I managed to get a reading today. Found an available OPP officer and he seemed amused by my request, but obliged nonetheless.
So while my car indicated a steady 100 Km/h, his laser lidar showed 97 km/h.
The dealer says all the settings are fine according to the manufacturer. So I guess the flaw is by design!
:confused:
While this sucks, I wonder if there's any tuner out there that would allow tire dimension tuning.
97/100, that is pretty good, especially for a manual Micra. Dealer will not adjust that unless you willing to fork over the dough, unless you have a really good dealer.
:-/
What do the others see? 4% + ?
My Micra was at the dealer for the past 8 days while they worked with Nissan Canada to determine if the speedometer is off. When I am driving 120 (speedo reading) I am being passed by Honda Civics at a guesstimated speed of 10kph, who show a speedometer reading of 120 (I can see their digital display speedometer from my car). My GPS indicates I am going 110. My phone gps indicates I am going 110.
The service Manager of the Nissan Dealership said he tested it against an Escalade and there was a clear difference although he insisted we would need to put it on a dyno to be certain (at my expense).
Nissan Canada called me today and said they have reviewed the car and there is nothing wrong with it. They are closing the case. I insisted that there is a problem as my speedometer is off by approx. 8-9%. "Sorry this case is closed". I asked to speak to a supervisor and the lady said, "Well I guess I can get my supervisor to call you to tell you the exact same thing". Nice Nissan....
For those of you with a similar problem, please don't let this go. If we call Nissan Canada enough, perhaps they will put the correct tire size on our vehicles which will correct the speedo issue and reduce our RPM at cruising speeds.
9% off? Wow.
hmm nice to know.
I thought the car all came with the same tires? Unless during winter, the dealer put on another winter brand, but they were all delivered by Nissan Canada with the same all season tires coming probably from Mexico with those on. I'd guess a skewed factory setting?
Again, if anyone knows of a software that can tweak the tire size, that would be great. Unless dealers are willing to use their tools to change the tire geometry by the offset in order to get the right measure.
I will call Nissan Canada as well.
I wonder if we could just reposition the needle?
LOL. I wish it was that simple. The wheel geometry changes percentage, not a fixed amount. 10% off means 200 indicated really is 180, 100 is really 90, 10 is really 9...etc as an example. I don't think anyone wants to be idling at 10 km/h nor have their odometer 10% higher. I believe the fix can only come from a ECU tweak, where the speed/distance calculations is wrong, it's counting too many revs based on wrong geometry or wrong formula (?).
is it any wonder why stealerships have such sad reputations?
thx for your report, micra man
The car's computer knows how fast it's really going, but it's instructing the speedometer needle to say something different:
Attachment 1208
2015 Micra S manual.
This is the same thing (same speed offset) I saw in the SR automatic.
Now that's interesting. I should be able to see the same using my OBD-II reader as well then.