| bomberman |
| i have heard that if youget your speedo checked and it isoff you can fight tickets due to a faulty equiptment basis. I just got a new engine put in my car, and within the first 3 weeks got 4 tickets all 66-69 in a 50 zone. I really dont think i was going those speeds. Any info????? |
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| dtjohnst |
You MIGHT get some slack on the first one.........but after that you either should have slowed down or realized your speedo was off. At least that's the take I've usually seen on it.
Take your car in and get it checked, and if it's off, go to court and see what the judge says. I'd try and talk to the prosecuting team before the court date and explain your speedo was off, show them the form saying it was off and that it's been fixed, and try and get slack from them. If they cut you slack AND the judge cuts you slack, you'll be a lot better off. |
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| bomberman |
| i got one lase radar and three photos all before the first photo came in the mail, on the first laser i didnt think much of it. |
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| TrevorK |
You may have to explain why you feel ignorance is an excuse.
And, as far as I know, an engine swap doesn't affect the speedometer because the speedo gears (or whatever sensor you have to calculate speed and such) are located within the transmission. |
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| dtjohnst |
quote:
Originally posted by TrevorK
You may have to explain why you feel ignorance is an excuse.
And, as far as I know, an engine swap doesn't affect the speedometer because the speedo gears (or whatever sensor you have to calculate speed and such) are located within the transmission.
I'm pretty sure the only way would be if you somehow damaged your speedo or if you changed the overall diameter of the tire. But there's charts to find out the margin of error. Also, something many people don't realize, there are ways to determine the accuracy of your speedo. The sensor is on the axle (I think), and it checks shaft rotations, then converts that to km/h based on the stock tire size.
You know those "mile markers" or "odomoeter checks"? They really have little to do with your odomoeter, they're designed to allow you to verify your speedo. If in 10km your odometer is indicating you only travelled 9km, then your speedo is indicating an error of 10%. If it says you're doing 100km/h, you're actually doing 110km/h. Afterall, your odometer is based on your speed and tire size (or speed is based on your odometer and tire size, I can't remember which came first. It's one of those chicken vs egg arguments). Just remember "If you're low, go slow." So if you're odometer is less, then you need to go that percent slower to drive at a desired speed (in our case, you need to go 90 to be doing 100). |
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| S2KPWR |
I tried the whole "my speedometer is off" thing before. Only thing that happened was the Cop threatened to tow my vehicle cause it wasnt "road worthy".
I have a feeling my speedo is off by like 5km/h on my lude.. Or the car feels slower than it actually is. Is there a place in the city where they can fix this? |
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| Bad Egg |
I plead guilty with cause in Manitoba for a single ticket like this and was let off. The officer that wrote the ticket actually told me how to do it, because I was genuinely surprised to be getting a ticket at the speed he reported. Like most people, I thought I was safe in that fabled "10 KPH over" buffer zone that you almost never get a ticket in. Turns out that I needed a 20 kph buffer zone, because my speedo was out by 6 kph.
He told me to get my speedo checked by a certified shop and contest the ticket. (It's amazing what people will do for you if you treat them half decent.) You will have to look around to see what shop is qualified to do this. Loveseth's downtown used to do this kind of thing, and that was where I found out that at a reading of 100 kph, my bone stock, two year old POS Ford ToreAss was really doing 106.
So the net result of my cruise control set to 109 + 6 error = 115 ticket from the highway Mountie. We were allowed to send in a written plea in Manitoba with our ticket and I sent the Loveseth's receipt along with a note explaining that I had no intent of speeding, and that I had no knowledge that my speedo was that far out of calibration. They cancelled the fine and gave me a discharge. The sneaky Manitoba provincial Autopac insurance still used it against me, but that is a different story.
My experience indicated to me that this will likely be a one-time excuse for most people. If it is a sincere error on your part, the court will make reasonable allowances, but I would warn against anyone trying to BS this kind of thing in a court setting. |
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| DarrylBleau |
quote:
Originally posted by Bad Egg
He told me to get my speedo checked by a certified shop and contest the ticket. (It's amazing what people will do for you if you treat them half decent.) You will have to look around to see what shop is qualified to do this. Loveseth's downtown used to do this kind of thing, and that was where I found out that at a reading of 100 kph, my bone stock, two year old POS Ford ToreAss was really doing 106.
I'm not sure if there is a specific 'certification' needed, but we can definately do speedo checks on our dyno on pretty much any vehicle, even awd of course. |
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| dtjohnst |
| Oooh. Lucky. Yours was only 1 km/h outside allowable limits. 5% would've been 105 in a 106 zone and you would've been hung out anyways. Also remember if you're from a different province, you get more leeway, since it's so much harder to appear in court. |
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| Bad Egg |
quote:
Originally posted by dtjohnst
Oooh. Lucky. Yours was only 1 km/h outside allowable limits. 5% would've been 105 in a 106 zone and you would've been hung out anyways. Also remember if you're from a different province, you get more leeway, since it's so much harder to appear in court.
It wasn't as much a victory as you might think. I was in the process of moving to Manitoba at the time and despite the fact that I was a low risk driver in Alberta private insurance, I became a high risk driver according to Autopac guidelines with that little "semi-quilty" item on my record.
It didn't end up costing us a lot of money, but we did have to change the registered ownership of our family car to my wife's name. |
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