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Anyway to change "Alt Speed Display" to MPH in the USA?

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arijaycomet

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
See attached photo.

My car is a 2012 TDI-Lux (T3). In the cluster as per the photo there is an option to turn on an "alternate speed display" -- and as you can see, it places the kph in the middle-bottom of the display (here it shows "0 km/h" in this photo).

No matter where you go (navigation, radio, etc) -- the speed always shows up. This is a VERY nice feature. However, I live in the USA-- where MPH matters more. I know how to make the BIG (upper) section show MPH-- but when you go into navigation mode, you can't see that anymore. You can, however, still see the ALT display.

Does anyone know how/where in the VAG COM that I could go to change this to always be in MPH instead? When I use the headunit/radio to change units to MPH or KPH, it changes the bigger display again, but it does NOT change the smaller "alt" display readout. I assume there may be a setting somewhere in the VAG COM that would resolve this... anyone know?!
 

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#2 ·
It honestly is working as designed, but I have mph on my Alt speed display in my '10. There has been varying thoughts on how to achieve it. I say change the language to UK English and then just change your units back to standard. Others say it is a VAG change, but mine came to me this way new. Try my way first to see if you can get to work.
 
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Discussion starter · #3 ·
Already tried all that. Played the language and units game. No dice. Btw there is no English UK option. Languages for me are English, Spanish and French. I'm thinking I'll need to tell the car I'm in Canada. So alt= mph. But can't find it anywhere in vag com.
 
#4 ·
I dug deep looking for this info back in November and couldn't find a conclusion.

Subscribed in case you come up with something.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
ConservativeConsumer said:
Don’t you have to change your main units of measure to metric so an alternative to km/h will be MPH? Or it is already set to show digital speed in km/h and shows alternative in km/h also?
Click to expand...
The latter of your two comments would be correct. No matter what you set the main units as, the "alt" display ONLY shows km/h in that bottom spot. If you change your units (via the headunit in my 2012), the larger speed display will change accordingly-- but the "alt" display always no matter what stays km/h.

After spending another 30mins playing around with things yesterday in the VAG COM with a friend, we decided that it seems the setting MAY come from #56 - Radio. However as my 2012 has no available labels for that module, there are check-boxes in the long-coding helper, but no labels. Meaning we weren't willing to just start randomly tapping boxes on/off haha.... I'll have to email ross-tech about what we can do to get labels for that module in my 2012.

I also talked to my local VW dealer service manager, who is a very hip dude willing to get his hands dirty and to reach out for these sorts of custom questions. He was going to research it-- he said he had a 2012 TDI Jetta someone had a similar issue and they contacted Germany and had the same problem, and it was hard-coded into the North American car software. It wasn't something feasible to change on the Jetta, so he thinks same on the Touareg but he is going to look into it. I'll keep this thread posted if/when I learn more...
 
#7 ·
I’ve checked my vehicle yesterday. Yes, that’s the case – while the main digital speed is set to km/h, the alternative digital speed is wrongfully in km/h too. I didn’t know it. I do not use alternative display too much if at all, but this minor issue violates my feeling of order. If you’ll find a fix – please share. Good luck!
 
#8 ·
I bought my 2011 T3 in Canada and the dash info is all in Km's. When I went to the states I switched on the alternate speed function and it was in MPH. No problems. there must be a setting when main dash info is in Km's, alternate speed is MPH and visa versa if dash is in miles, alternate speed will be in Km's. maybe something to do with Canada settings verses American settings. By the way, my digital speed is in Km's too!
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
From what I understand the headunit had major changes in 2012, so my car has an updated radio. But, you should be able to change your big digital display to MPH or KPH. However changing that one doesn't appear to have any affect on the ALT display...

Thanks for the feedback, though. That is exactly what I wanted to hear. It confirms that if this car had been sold in Canada it might have been the other way around. Now I just need to see if my dealer can/will code it to be in Canada or if I can figure it out myself...
 
#10 ·
Thing is the Alt speed is actually working as designed. So unless you are really in with your dealer I doubt they will touch it or even mess with it.
 
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#12 ·
Phew.... I was playing with my VAG today (I just love saying that) and thought I messed something up. I could've sworn in the past ALT would switch to mph if I switched main to kph, but I guess I was imagining things (again). I tried changing "Language" to "English (UK)" in the long coding of module 17, but no luck.
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
ABDUCT0R, we tried changing the language a few places. We played with my buddies 'VAG' (love saying that too!)-- but even when we changed language it didn't help. We even tried to change the language to Taiwanese or something... didn't help LOL ....

(I did see somewhere it said if you change the language on the radio you need to do a hard reset on the radio, which we didn't end up doing so that might be part of it-- but I still think it is something to do with region coding, and I was unable to find that anywhere)
 
#14 ·
My Touareg shows mph in the alternate display, klm/hr in the main one but I have a klm/hr speedo too - Australian version.
For my needs would love to see klm/hr in the alternate display as well as the main one...
 
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Discussion starter · #15 ·
AngryofMayfair said:
My Touareg shows mph in the alternate display, klm/hr in the main one but I have a klm/hr speedo too - Australian version.
For my needs would love to see klm/hr in the alternate display as well as the main one...
Click to expand...
We could probably compare your VAG COM coding to a car over here and figure it out. However, is your instrument cluster even the same? In our cars, on the speedometer (the big mechanical one with the sweep), the MPH is the big numbers and the KPH is the smaller numbers. That has been how cars in the USA have been for decades. Is yours the other way around? From my experience cars produced in KPH-countries often have unique/different gauge clusters.

If that is the case, then the coding/issue may be based on which speedometer you have, and then there will be no resolution. However, if your speedo is visually the SAME as ours here in the USA, then we should figure out a few modules to compare the long-coding and see if we can see anything. Do you have a scan tool VAG COM device there for such?
 
#16 ·
arijaycomet said:
However, is your instrument cluster even the same? In our cars, on the speedometer (the big mechanical one with the sweep), the MPH is the big numbers and the KPH is the smaller numbers. That has been how cars in the USA have been for decades. Is yours the other way around? From my experience cars produced in KPH-countries often have unique/different gauge clusters.
Click to expand...
Correct, my mechanical sweep speedo has klm/hr only, no sign of even any secondary mph markings.
Looks like I am stuck with mph only in the small secondary display - don't have the tools to read VAG-COM and not really interested to that extent - these things are too easy to screw up and I'm sure VAG Australia would love to quote me on expensive repairs no longer covered by my warranty…
Thanks anyway
 
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#18 ·
AngryofMayfair said:
Correct, my mechanical sweep speedo has klm/hr only, no sign of even any secondary mph markings.
Looks like I am stuck with mph only in the small secondary display - don't have the tools to read VAG-COM and not really interested to that extent - these things are too easy to screw up and I'm sure VAG Australia would love to quote me on expensive repairs no longer covered by my warranty…
Thanks anyway
Click to expand...
Same same... In Aussie here and I want KM in the ALT display. Hopefully someone finds a fix using their 'VAG'.
 
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