A common issue on several classic cars is the malfunctioning of the total odometer and trip meter (the counter that shows the mileage or kilometers travelled by the vehicle), which could be stuck or not working, while the rest of instrument cluster, such as speedometer or rev counter, works fine.
In most cases, this problem with the odometer is caused by the wear of one or more gears inside the gauge itself: these gears, due to the passage of time and the type of materials they are made of, can wear to the point that they could be literally crumbled, preventing the odometer from working as it should.
Prestigious makes like Mercedes are not exempt from this issue: time is passing by relentlessly for everyone!
To fix this problem you may think to replace the whole instrument panel, but it’s an expensive and complicated solution. We offer a less expensive and simpler solution instead: repairing the odometer replacing only the worn gears inside the gauge.
In this case we’ll talk about the odometer of Mercedes S-Class W140, S-Class Coupé SEC C140 and SL-Class R129 instrument clusters.
So, what to do if Mercedes SL R129 odometer stopped working or Mercedes S-Class W140 odometer and trip meter are stuck while the rest of the speedometer works fine? All you need to do is remove the instrument panel from the vehicle, disassemble it, remove the broken gears and replace them with the new Minitools gears.
Here’s a video tutorial that shows the repair step by step: