Originally Posted by NeverEnough
Ummm, this isn't 1970 anymore. What you are thinking could happen, can't happen. The odometer mileage isn't stored in the instrument cluster on newer cars with digital odometers. You can switch out as many speedometer clusters as you want, weather they be NEW, USED, 0 miles or 150,000 miles, and each one will read the same.
The Odometer mileage is actually stored in a few place within the electronic lexicon of computers and controllers. It's stored in the ECU, The ABS Control Module, the Body Control Module and another undisclosed location that can't be traced. That way, even if you had to replace all three of those mentioned parts, the car would still show accurate odometer mileage. Rolling back the odometer on one of these cars would take MB Engineer or a Rocket Scientist/Super Hacker with DBR machine...
Rest easy, your chances of being a victim of odometer fraud this day in time are about as good as winning the Mega Millions jackpot. Consumer Protection groups like consumer reports and Carfax still preach to beware the evil car salespeople and shady mechanics. The only reason they do is the same reason that you only see bad news on TV, fear sells and Carfax and Consumer Reports are not non profit companies, so they need to sell...
If this is the case, then I better never sell my car. I had the instrument
cluster replaced when the gas gauge low indicator illuminator went out.
When I got the car back, I found that it had about 1500 miles less on the
Odometer than when I had brought it in for service.
The reason this happened is this... I had taken the vehicle in to have a "light" replaced, and was told the instrument cluster would have to be
replaced. There was not one in stock, and I didn't feel like leaving my
car with them for a week while we waited for the cluster to arrive. I drove
the car an additional 1500 miles (roughly) between the time the cluster
was ordered and when I brought the car in to have it installed. When I
asked about the difference I was told that the mileage displayed on the
cluster was set at the distributor at the time of order, and that the car
was expected to be "down" between order and installation so that the
mileage would be correct. As I had continued to drive my car during this
period, the mileage displayed on the new cluster was off by a little over
1,500 miles.
So, am I screwed if I sign an odo statement at the time of sale?
Coyote