Toyota Prius Hybrid - Calibrating Speedos - colin75

I recently read that police cars have their speedos calibrated and would like to get my prius calibrated as it currently under reads by 3mph at 30 and 5mph at 70 as checked by gps on a level surface.

Can anyone advise me on where to go for this adjustment to be made.

Toyota Prius Hybrid - Calibrating Speedos - skidpan

I recently read that police cars have their speedos calibrated and would like to get my prius calibrated as it currently under reads by 3mph at 30 and 5mph at 70 as checked by gps on a level surface.

Can anyone advise me on where to go for this adjustment to be made.

Car speedo's can never read under, its illegal. They all read over, normally by about 4 mph at 70 mph, this take into acount variances for tyre wear and manufacturing tolerences.

The international standards are:

  • The indicated speed must never be less than the actual speed, i.e. it should not be possible to inadvertently speed because of an incorrect speedometer reading.
  • The indicated speed must not be more than 110 percent of the true speed plus 4 km/h at specified test speeds. For example, at 80 km/h, the indicated speed must be no more than 92 km/h
  • If it is really under reading and the garage will not sort it contact trading standards or the DVLA.

    Toyota Prius Hybrid - Calibrating Speedos - Collos25

    The police used a public measured mile there will be one near you.

    Toyota Prius Hybrid - Calibrating Speedos - coopshere
    Calibration of speedometers on police vehicles is only for those which are used for speed related monitoring. It is not available to the public under normal circumstances. It may be available from specialists at high cost. If the police use a speedometer for speed related offences it must be checked for accuracy which can be using a combination of stopwatch and a measured mile as mentioned by Collos25.

    As also stated above the speedo must read high or fast by law. In normal motoring conditions it would be unwise to have a speedometer that was supposedly accurate as that would give you no room for error at lower speeds thus making it possible for you to exceed a speed limit.

    If you have checked your speedometer over long distances on the flat at constant speeds via GPS (short distances can be unreliable) then the simplistic answer is to accept that difference and drive accordingly. If however your speedometer is reading slow then you need to get it replaced.
    Toyota Prius Hybrid - Calibrating Speedos - gordonbennet

    Once you know the correct speed as per GPS device, it can't be that difficult to drive at 33 for 30, 75 for 70 etc.

    Oddly enough our Outlander speedo is the most accurate one not fitted to a lorry i've ever known, on half worn tyres it shows 70mph when the actual speed is 68, when the tyres get replaced i think it will be exact.

    Lorry calibrations are very accurate, tyres are measured and the speedo is calibrated exactly, obviously its forst claibration when new is on new tyres, by the time they are recut the actual speed will be 53mph when speedo is showing 55.

    Toyota Prius Hybrid - Calibrating Speedos - skidpan

    Once you know the correct speed as per GPS device, it can't be that difficult to drive at 33 for 30, 75 for 70 etc.

    Oddly enough our Outlander speedo is the most accurate one not fitted to a lorry i've ever known, on half worn tyres it shows 70mph when the actual speed is 68, when the tyres get replaced i think it will be exact.

    Lorry calibrations are very accurate, tyres are measured and the speedo is calibrated exactly, obviously its forst claibration when new is on new tyres, by the time they are recut the actual speed will be 53mph when speedo is showing 55.

    That is fine when the speedo reads more than the true speed but the OP is saying his speedo reads lower than the true speed. As said above (twice) that is illegal.

    Has the OP or a previous owner fitted non standard tyres/wheels which have a larger diameter. This would make the speedo read potentially slow but it would have to be a big change to make the difference. A change from say 55 to 60 profile would probably not be enough,

    Toyota Prius Hybrid - Calibrating Speedos - Collos25
    Calibration of speedometers on police vehicles is only for those which are used for speed related monitoring. It is not available to the public under normal circumstances. It may be available from specialists at high cost. If the police use a speedometer for speed related offences it must be checked for accuracy which can be using a combination of stopwatch and a measured mile as mentioned by Collos25. As also stated above the speedo must read high or fast by law. In normal motoring conditions it would be unwise to have a speedometer that was supposedly accurate as that would give you no room for error at lower speeds thus making it possible for you to exceed a speed limit. If you have checked your speedometer over long distances on the flat at constant speeds via GPS (short distances can be unreliable) then the simplistic answer is to accept that difference and drive accordingly. If however your speedometer is reading slow then you need to get it replaced.

    The measured mile is always a public road for all to use with a stop watch it is easy to find out if the speedo is correct or under or over reading instead the OP uses a GPS which depending on the algorithm installed can be pretty inaccurate on other than flat land.

    Toyota Prius Hybrid - Calibrating Speedos - jc2

    Not always a mile-our local one was a quarter mile-perhaps some forces have problems multiplying by four.