Tacho issue - Charity

[Phild2gb]

Hi all, 1st post, so I hope it's in the correct place.

My local charity (Air Cadets) has a Transit minibus 2009, it came fitted with a tacho (VDO 1381 v1.3 12 volt, which they are exempt from using under their insurance.

Due to Covid, the bus sat for a few months, the battery went dead and the tacho now doesn't work which I'm told is common as the internal tacho battery was never replaced.

The mileage now doesn't display on the dash or the tacho, which is needed for MOT, insurance and the logs the charity has to keep.

A local company quoted £875 to replace it and calibrate it.
Ford said they can't remove them if they have been fitted, legal issue?

All they need is the miles to be displayed, so my question is 3fold.

Can I bypass the and get the miles back on the dash without some sort of OBD / CanBus cable. I.e unplug and plug in somewhere else.
Can I buy a used of eBay or similar for £150 and just install it without calibration, would that display the correct mileage
Is there any companies you can recommend that wont want £875, the charity can't afford it and they can't use the bus to take the children to events etc.
Is there any form of digital display available that would plug in and display the mileage?

Hope you can help.

Many thanks

Phil

[Uncle_Fester]

Just had my tacho removed and a remap done by a chap known on here, so I now have much improved performance and a spare fully working tacho

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[Chug]

Contact https://vantuner.co.uk/ martynx a member on here runs the company and will be able to help you.

[Uncle_Fester]

Contact https://vantuner.co.uk/ martynx a member on here runs the company and will be able to help you.

I second that, Martyn removed my tacho, speed limiter and remapped the engine on my mk7 jumbo yesterday the difference in performance through the power range is quite noticeable, also he's a very nice chap, thanks Martyn.


Fester.

Sent from my SM-G781B using a Jedi mind trick

[dumper]

You need someone like Martin if not near enough Ford did mine but only when I had a logbook with motor caravan on it but if you can’t find anyone local to you it’s well worth the trip to Martin you can buy a lot of fuel for the price of a taco. I will have to have another trip to Martin my van has been in to Ford and lost the remap he put on just gone back to Ireland for a spot of fishing and it’s lost 3 to 6 miles mpg and with me changing the crownwheel and pinion to a 3.7 from a 3.1 so still pulls reasonable but a Martin remap is absolutely brilliant I will have to make the trip again.