Town & Country V6-4.0L (2008)
Speedometer Head: Description and Operation
Description
DESCRIPTION
A speedometer is standard equipment on all instrument clusters. On Dodge vehicles, the speedometer is located in the center of the instrument cluster.
On Chrysler vehicles, the speedometer is located just to the left of center in the instrument cluster, between the tachometer and the fuel gauge. The
speedometer consists of a movable gauge needle or pointer controlled by the instrument cluster circuitry and a fixed 230 degree primary scale on the
gauge dial face that reads left-to-right either from 0 to 120 or 140 mph, or from 0 to 240 km/h, depending upon the market for which the vehicle is
manufactured.
Each version also has a secondary inner scale on the gauge dial face that provides the equivalent opposite units from the primary scale. Text appearing
on the cluster overlay directly below the center of the primary scale abbreviates the unit of measure for the primary scale (either MPH or km/h ), and
directly below the center of the secondary scale abbreviates the unit of measure for the secondary scale.
On Dodge vehicles with the base cluster, the speedometer graphics are gray and black against a black field. On Dodge vehicles with a premium cluster,
the speedometer graphics are gray and black against a white field. On Chrysler vehicles, the speedometer graphics are gray and black against a silver
field. In each case, the graphics are clearly visible within the instrument cluster in daylight. When illuminated from behind by the panel lamps dimmer
controlled cluster illumination lighting with the exterior lamps turned ON, the Dodge gauges all retain their unilluminated colors and appearance, while
the Chrysler gauge fields acquire a blue-green appearance from the blue-green colored electro-luminescent lighting.
The Dodge base cluster uses an orange gauge needle that has internal optical illumination. Gauge illumination for this cluster is provided by Light
Emitting Diode (LED) units soldered onto the instrument cluster electronic circuit board. The Dodge premium and Chrysler clusters also use black gauge
needles, and are not illuminated. These clusters are illuminated by an integral electro-luminescent lamp, which illuminates the gauge field and causes the
gauge graphics and gauge needle to appear silhouetted against the field when the exterior lighting is turned ON.
The speedometer is serviced as a unit with the instrument cluster.
