pltdsubaru Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 I have an 06 LGT wagon and an 06 Legacy OUTBACK wagon. Recently while on a trip that was 105 miles, the LGT odometer showed 131 miles traveled and the outback was 105.7 miles. Tires on my LGT are factory OEM as well as the Legacy Outback I tested the LGT against another car and again the LGT mileage was a lot higher than the actual distance traveled. Which one is correct? Subaru is ripping us off if this is true, for both trade in value and warranty!!!!!!!!! Subaru used to put 205/50/17 on the wrx and other vehicles with 17 inch rims. Now Subaru uses 45's, which rotate many times more a mile. Let me know what you find. What is the deal? I checked it with a garmin gps - the speed and mileage on the gps is less than the LGT. Losing money by the mile!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Fan Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 The only way to check it "Accurately" is with a GPS over a long trip. The difference between 215/45/17s and 205/50/17s is so small that infation pressure could give you a false reading...it is about 2% on most tires......the error you have is more like 25%....Not sure about Subaru odometers, but most "NEW" cars have an adjustment that can be made by the dealer to get it accurate. My brother drives a PT Cruiser...UGH!! and when he found an error in the odo readings he just took it to the dealer and they went for a drive using a GPS and then reset it...0% error now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recuomo Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 My bone stock '05 GT Ltd has a 2% error over 500 miles as recorded by 2 separate Garmin GPSs, 330 & 340 running the same time over 3 different trips. My '04 OB wagon has less than a 1% error. More miles = higher computed MPG, think they are playing games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qikslvr Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 I will have to go with you on the error in milage. I have done several 12 hour road trips with a Garmin iQue 3600 and have found that the numbers don't match and have even been so far off I thought that I had forgotten to reset the TripA odometer. You must also check your speedo. Mine is 1-3 miles per hour fast as compared to the gps with cruise set at 60 Mph. This would mean that you would be off by at least that much per hour driven. So what does this do to the actual gas mileage? Let's kick this pig! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brady Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 1-2 or even 3% is very minimal, and as noted, can even be due to things like tire inflation. 3 mph is starting to push it, but isn't unheard of either. I wouldn't worry about those things as much as I would when you're getting around 25% as in the case of the OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qikslvr Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 I don't know if everyone is aware that most car manufacturers do actually set the speedo off by at least 1 MPH in your favor. I know from personal experience that most FORDs(5 Mustangs and 3 Trucks) are 1-2 MPH fast, most GM products including Caddy are 1MPH (don't like to admit to owning one, but I have) fast, Toyotas are balls on(3 Camrys and a 4Runner), Mazda very close <1MPH +_(MPV the mini-van). Jeep products (4 Cherokees 2 Wranglers)usually show 1 MPH faster than actual speed. This is to be expected, but as stated; I would get a little concerned with a 25% spread. Did someome forget to reset thier trip-od when they left the driveway? Let's kick this pig! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tytek Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Many cars have some error between indicated and actual speed. A lot of European car magazines provide these errors in a table along with their car tests. The difference ranges from about 2% at low speeds (~20mph) to almost 10% at highway speeds (~70mph). Some manufacturers are better than others, but generally, an average error of around 5% is a given. In your case, a 20+% difference is a cause of concern. Check with your dealer, they can recalibrate it. But why... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qikslvr Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 The reason for the discrepancy is due to the electronic speedo which is a calculated MPH based on the signal given from a sensor rather than a mechaniclal cable driven system from the days of old. There are two factors that will throw this off. First is a plastic gear that spins to generate the signal (hard to believe they threw an oddball in one car on the line. The other is software. The computer takes that RPM signal from the drivetrain and does some math on it and spits out your MPH. It is very believable that the software is to blame! This just takes a little fine-tuning from your dealer and it can be corrected. I know that on my 92 Cherokee the speedo got way out of whack when I went from 235/60/15's to 31/10.5/15 that my speedo was off by basically 10% at speeds over 45. There are two solutions for this. Replace the plastic speed sensor gear to accomidate the new tire size. The other is to get a box with a dial on it that allows you to hack the signal and dial it in. Once again, most of us know that our speedo is only a semi accurate estimate of our true speed and accept this fact. If it is really that far out of whack; I would get that fixed at the dealer and have them document the milage and how far off you think it is. Let's kick this pig! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qikslvr Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 I have an 06 LGT wagon and an 06 Legacy OUTBACK wagon. Recently while on a trip that was 105 miles, the LGT odometer showed 131 miles traveled and the outback was 105.7 miles. Tires on my LGT are factory OEM as well as the Legacy Outback I tested the LGT against another car and again the LGT mileage was a lot higher than the actual distance traveled. Which one is correct? Subaru is ripping us off if this is true, for both trade in value and warranty!!!!!!!!! Subaru used to put 205/50/17 on the wrx and other vehicles with 17 inch rims. Now Subaru uses 45's, which rotate many times more a mile. Let me know what you find. What is the deal? I checked it with a garmin gps - the speed and mileage on the gps is less than the LGT. Losing money by the mile!!!!!!!! How is your speedo accuracy? What kind of mileage do you get? If it is off that far you should get 500+ miles to the tank. (I get about 400)? ...Then again I average 24.3MPG intown and 27.1+MPG and yes I do get on it; I just don't don't have the gas pedal super-glued to the floor between red lights! Let's kick this pig! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LotusSeven Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 A 25% error is definately a defect. Bring it back to the dealer and complain. Our 05 LGT with GSD-3 tires in stock size has an odo error of +1.2% and a speedo error of +1.6 mph at 70 as confirmed by GPS. Heavy Metal Killed Beethoven Support Classical Music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fweasel Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 My 06 (stock wheels and tires) LGT is about 2mph over at 60mph according to my GPS as well. This seems to be a common trend. Your difference does appear abnormally large and I too would have it looked at by the dealer. ignore him, he'll go away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallispec Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 I have also noticed that my speedo reads higher compared to a GPS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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