W-126: Odometer stopped.
 

Any ideas?

My '88 420 SEL had its odometer stop turning a week ago at 174,002. Speedometer and tach work fine, as always.

Any ideas where I can check? Anybody had any similar problem with only the odometer stopping?

Thanks.

mine died at 100,011 miles. I have had VDO gauges on my Porsches die at about the same mileage. i think its just one of those things. i look at the oil now to determine change interval.

They often break because people press the trip reset button while the car is moving which destroys the gears. The BMW VDO gauges are the same way. My 500 had never given me any trouble at all.

had the same happen on my '88 300e; youl have to pull out speedo unit out of the dash; while its out, you might want to replace bulbs and such; one youve isolated the speedo unit you maynotice that the speedo gear has derailed itself and just applying some pressure on the exposed end will snap it back.
Im noticing on mine that certain numeric combinations cause it to derail, methinks theres a tooth missing in there.

It is impoosible to work on the odo gears themselves without majorly damaging the speedo; all you can do is carefully re-rail the spindle or send to mr. vdo for professional help.

There are two VDO shops that I've read on this site that can rebuild the odometers.

One is in Hollywood, CA, and the other is in Northern California.

I have the sites bookmarked on my computer at home, but not on my computer here at work. I'll look for them when I get home tonight.

You can try a search on this site for 'vdo' and see what comes up. I know there are several threads on this.

I believe Mike Tangas had his odometer on his 280 SE 4.5 rebuilt, as well. You can try searching his posts, too.

FWIW, I believe it's only about $50-$75 to have it done.

Contiental Imports also does it search for them on this site you will find al kinds of stuff

You mean the shop that one of the moderators, Steve Brotherton, owns in Florida?

Yep

I found the site for the company that repairs VDO gauges:

http://www.nhspeedometer.com/

ODOMETER REPAIR
 

I 've never encountered a broken 126 odometer, but,This is a common problem on older models, like the 107 and 116, and an easy fix.
Remove the instrument cluster from the car and dis- assemble it till you get to the odometer assby. The problem is the gray metal gear on the number stack. It is supposed to be press fitted to the shaft and spin with the shaft, but over years and age and many miles it loosens up from the shaft and fails to function.
Fix it by pushing out the shaft with the correct size drill bit then support the number wheels with the shaft removed. Set the shaft next to the stack and note where the metal gear was positioned.Next take a punch and hammer and make a dimple on the shaft where the gear goes. Press the shaft back through the stack, re-assemble everything and the odometer will now work.
I have done this procedure on several cars and it works great.
Good luck:
Bill