My Odemeter/ Tripmeter appears to be measuring in kilometers?

[drsteege]

Hello all I am a proud owner of a 96 4 cyl automatic. I recently fixed her after an accident (escalade ran a stop light and I t-boned that orange b$$$$ good) Anyway the damage was all cosmetic front end, bumper cover, headlights, brackets, impact bumper and foam bumper. And it would seem that now my camrys miles are being read in kilometers not miles. I would have been getting 23-27 mpg in mixed driving before and had a 70 mph average of about 34. But now I am reading 33mpg in mixed driving and 36 or more at 70.
Now if this was the case the only way i could imagine this happening is because I lost some bolts and have been to lazy to get new ones to refit the wheel well linings and the plastic bits that go from the bottom of the bumper cover back to the crossmember. But I didnt think that would equate to a mpg increase like this even if it helps the aero. Which I am unsure of.
So I dug out my gps and as long as it reads correctly I am measuring 6.3 miles on my trip meter for every 10 on my gps. I know that the same basic car is sold all over in markets with kilometers instead of miles. But I am fairly sure the parts that would change the reading would not be on my car but would have been installed specially for those locations.
Any ideas on what may have caused this issue or if you think I might need to do further investigations involving another gps or running the same routes in another car. Because if it is actually getting an average of 33 mpg then great but I need to know.
I will be doing a few more tests in the next few days to see if I can figure it out, but in the first few tries the trip meter was reading slightly different for each run with my gps. It would seem to read accurately then would read in kilometers then it would read about 8tenths of a mile for every mile read on my gps.
Any thoughts would be great will respond to this post in the next day or two with any updated findings. Thanks.

[fenixus]

interesting!

perhaps there is one pin (or wire) that needs to be grounded so ECU (or combo meter) converts into metric mode (KM)? not sure. is the odometer still displaying the same "mileage" as before?

[drsteege]

The odometer appeared to be stuck imediately after the accident. But it came back to life after a few hundred miles.

[BMR]

This problem has popped up before, and I don't think it was ever resolved. Please post the solution if you ever figure it out.

[drsteege]

so yep it is definitely reading in kilometers per hour. I used a stop watch and timed the tenth of a mile several times at 20 30 40 and 60 miles an hour. I used my gps and ran a route then switched to my other car and ran the identical route and the gps read the same amount of miles. and the other car read one mile for every sixth tenths of a mile in my camry. So I guess the moral of the story is if you dont want your car to start reading in kilometers then dont get into an accident with an escalade. But still if anybody can tell me anything to check on my camry please do.

[fenixus]

Originally Posted by drsteege

so yep it is definitely reading in kilometers per hour. I used a stop watch and timed the tenth of a mile several times at 20 30 40 and 60 miles an hour. I used my gps and ran a route then switched to my other car and ran the identical route and the gps read the same amount of miles. and the other car read one mile for every sixth tenths of a mile in my camry. So I guess the moral of the story is if you dont want your car to start reading in kilometers then dont get into an accident with an escalade. But still if anybody can tell me anything to check on my camry please do.

I LOLed when reading the moral

did you by any chance checked the speed sensor plug on top of transmission (differential) if it's secure and visually checked wiring between it and combo meter behind dash?

perhaps something is loose or wire insulation is stripped somewhere and one of wires shorted to ground maybe?

I can email you (PM me with your email) electrical schematics for 99 camry solara (gen4 camry) or 01 camry solara (gen4.5 camry), the combo meter area is same. with it you should be able to check the odometer / combo meter circuit thoroughly.

[gyjoe]

This probably won't help fix it, but if for each actual mile driven your odometer reads less than one mile, it isn't reading in kilometers. If it were reading in kilometers, it would read about 1.6 in one mile.

[fenixus]

1 km = 0.621371 mi.
1 mi. = 1.6 km

[Gothmog3VZ]

Originally Posted by fenixus

1 km = 0.621371 mi.
1 mi. = 1.6 km

I was just thinking that as I was reading...
if 62mph = 100km/h
then 6mph = ~10 km/h
and so on lol

sounds like someone has a damaged odometer, or possibly VSS cable/system

[iovaykind]

Same thing with my vehicle. The speed reads in MPH, but the trip odometer reads in km. Spoke with some mechanics about it, and they said its impossible but heck.. my odometer shows almost 260k but its actually only around 220k