Melting Gears?

The odometer on my e30 doesn't work, and I have heard that there are gears in there that melt in the heat. Does anybody know how to fix it?

You can buy replacement gears online, it isn't so much that they melt but they crack and disintegrate with age

When I took mine apart I counted the teeth and found Nylon gears at a hobby shop that matched diameter and teeth number for $5 instead of the $40-$80 online vendors want for them.

And don't try the reset while your rolling.

Is that all it is? I've owned ONE e30 out of FOUR with a consistently working odometer.

It's a common problem with older BMWs, e28 5 series cars do the same thing. You can get the replacement gears from http://www.odometergears.com/. There's a good writeup on the replacement procedure at http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=26424

It you have some JB Weld and iron filings I'm sure Per could show you how to make your own gears. He's still got about a week of free time left.

Thanks for the help, I'll replace the gears when I replace the dash.

You're lucky, on Toyota transaxles (at least the older ones) the replaceable gear on the speedo drive is made of a harder material than the non-replaceable ring on the diff that drives it :(

Much quicker/simpler to buy than to make.