Americans drive over 1.2 billion miles per year in total, and their vehicles are remarkably reliable machines considering this fact. Along with clear windows and working, properly-adjusted mirrors, a vehicle’s instrument cluster is one of those aids to a driver’s senses that allow for those miles to pass safely and without incident. Like the vehicles they are housed in, modern speedometers, odometers, tachometers, and other instruments are eminently reliable, but they can occasionally break down.
Perhaps the most commonly-encountered problem relating to the instrument panel is a malfunctioning or inaccurate speedometer. Such a failure can not only endanger the driver and others on the road, it can also result in costly speeding tickets for an otherwise dutiful and attentive driver. Speedometers are calibrated to work with a particular wheel diameter and range of tire pressures, and changing either of these can force them to give inaccurate readings. The internal workings of speedometers may also fail from time to time, in which case a trip to an expert in instrument cluster repair in Arizona is the best solution.
Set within most speedometers is a mechanically operated-odometer which ideally keeps a reliable record of every mile a car has driven since it came off the assembly line. Although fairly simple devices, these gauges too can fail, sometimes even doing so at the same time as the speedometer when shared parts break down. Luckily, repairs to this crucial instrument are normally easily taken care of, and many repair shops will re-calibrate the speedometer while doing this.
Although some drivers pay them little attention, a car’s tachometer presents another crucial piece of information. Attentive drivers may notice the tachometer needle jumping unusually at a stop light before they ever hear the audible signs of a rough idle. Likewise does the tachometer provide a strong visual cue as to fuel efficiency; a driver who habitually sends the marker up toward the red zone will learn to associate that movement with increased fuel expenditures before long. As with the other instruments in the cluster, this one can likewise fail occasionally, but a good repair shop will have no trouble addressing any of the possible issues that might have arisen.
