The Putnicki Switch may be a joke, but something similar really does exist inside many 1980's Dodges.
In the 80's, Dodge installed a small switch alongside the Odometer, on the back of the cluster, after X amount of miles the odometer would trip the switch, turning on the Check Engine Light.
The "fix" when it would be taken in for maintenance, was to pull the cluster out, reset the switch and the customer would be back again the next time "something was wrong" with the vehicle (next time the odometer flipped the switch)
