Any problems registering a car with a MPH speedo?

[Rod.911S]

Hi,
The '77 911 that I've just bought in BC is originally a California car and still has it's MPH speedometer. Has anyone ever had a problem registering a car that doesn't have a KPH speedo? Seems to me that I've heard about it happening? I'm bringing it to Sask.

TIA,

[Tim Polzin]

I wouldn't worry about it. If Sask is like Alta, the speedo could in in fractions of the speed of light and it wouldn't make any difference. I assume you will need an out-of-province inspection to register it.

Having said that, one of the things I did with mine was buy a replacement speedo head and have it converted to metric. If and when I should ever sell the car, I have the original speedo in a box, plus the metric one in the dash.

Works for me.

Tim

[gorfllub]

When I brought mine to Sask, they failed it because there was no shift pattern visable to the driver (it has a Momo shift knob). I thought that was pretty Anal. The Fix: A sticky note to the dash with the shift pattern. After inspection, Sticky note was promptly removed.

So, If they do give you grief over your speedo, I have 2 solutions for you other than changing it out.

1 - Make KMH markings on some sort of label, and stick it to the speedo. Remove after inspection.
2 - I knew a guy who put a small GPS on the dash (A little Garmin or something) It shows KMH based on the GPS sats! He didnt do it for inspection, but just because he was always speeding with the MPH speedo.

[stevef]

My 69 has an KPH speedo and my 71 has a MPH speedo. Never had any problem here. I think the mechanic who certified my cars sees the speedo purely for the enjoyment by the driver. It is the drivers responsibility to comply with the speed limits irrespective of what the speedo says. I use a hand held GPS to calibrate the speedos. I also registered both cars as historic vehicles. They don't even want to know what the odometer says on a yearly basis anymore

[dvkk]

This is a bit late, but in 1977 all cars sold in Canada had MPH speedos. We didn't officially go metric until Sept 78. There is no requirement to convert your car to a metric speedo.

[jeffgrant]

Interesting... I could be wrong, but from what I've seen in the regs, the BC Inspection calls for having metric speedo, even if it's just kph stickers on the speedo. They even say that the inspection facility will provide them.

That being said, my '82 passed without any metric stuff at all.

I get the impression that it's on the books, but not enforced.

$0.02

[Rod.911S]

Thanks, guys. There was no problem when I registered in Saskatoon. I'm not sure but they may not yet know that Canada has gone metric...

[jeffgrant]

Good to hear! Now you should plan to make it out to our Whistler Weekend

[dvkk]

Originally posted by jeffgrant
I could be wrong, but from what I've seen in the regs, the BC Inspection calls for having metric speedo, even if it's just kph stickers on the speedo.
I get the impression that it's on the books, but not enforced.

It is a law, but only applies to cars made after a certain date. With many older cars there doesn't exist a metric speedo, so passing a law demanding something that doesn't exist is fruitless. There is obviously a certain year that after which you have to swap the speedo. What this year is, I don't know.

I talked to a friend who brought in a 74 BMW '02. They said nothing on his inspection.

Here's an example of Canada Customs stupidity. 5 years ago I took a '74 VW south and did extensive restoration work on it, including swapping out the mph speedo in favour of a metric one. When I got to Canada Customs, I declared all the work and had the bill to show them. The customs officer went out to look at the car. I could tell he didn't like the work I had done. He was dragging his ass about doing up the paperwork. Finally he admitted he wanted to deny my car, stating that I had changed too much. He said a 74 didn't have EFI with a CAT. He also didn't like the fact that I had changed the speedo to a metric one. I couldn't believe how stupid this guy was. In the end he reluctantly took my $1500 in taxes, admitting that since the car was already registered in BC there was nothing he could do. Moral of the story: tell them nothing, drive right through.

[Owain]

Just as an addendum to this, all cars delivered in Canada before MY 1978 had MPH speedos. I'm sure you wouldn't have had a problem, even if they had checked (unless they were trying to be *****s, like above :P).

My car's a 1987 with an imperial speedo and it passed in BC with no problems. Looking around at the locally owned Porsches it seems most have been brought up from the US, with their speedos intact.

Having said that, I'd rather a metric speedo.

[Zero10]

I do believe, that if you import a US car, and they don't like that it has a MPH speedometer, they have to provide KPH stickers for the speedometer. That's what I was told at the border when I asked about that rule.

[andrew15]

If the 77 takes a mechanical speedo, you could always buy mine!

FS: KPH Speedo

Regards,
Andrew M