Altering milage on instrument cluster

Jono · 12 Aug 2017 at 12:19

Is there any time this is legal?

Found some guy doing it on FB, but just wondering if like... digital odometers get faulty and report the wrong reading?

MissChief · 12 Aug 2017 at 12:25

It's illegal to misrepresent a cars genuine mileage. It's called clocking and any car I saw with evidence of this would make me walk away immediately.

MagicBoy · 12 Aug 2017 at 12:28

^^^
This

It's not illegal to alter it. It is illegal to sell it on with a misrepresentative mileage reading.

Glanza · 12 Aug 2017 at 12:29

If he's offering to roll mileage back this is clocking that is illegal and needs reporting.

MagicBoy · 12 Aug 2017 at 12:30

Did you read the other posts? :rolleyes:

MissChief · 12 Aug 2017 at 12:31

I suppose it could be 'legal' ish if an instrument cluster was replaced with a second hand item and the mileage needed to be amended to reflect the cars real mileage but how often does this happen? Not on digital odometers anyway, that data is stored on the ECU.

MagicBoy · 12 Aug 2017 at 12:33

Older cars with early digital odometers held the data on the cluster itself, but that was the early 90s...

adolf hamster · 12 Aug 2017 at 13:51

maybe for an engine change? not sure if the milage reading is meant to follow the chassis or the engine

because you could theoretically replace everything with brand new parts and restore the bare chassis and it'd practically be a brand new motor

semi-pro waster · 12 Aug 2017 at 14:00

Would there be a use for this with imported cars for changing km to miles on the odometer? Or is there some sort of switch/option with modern cars to toggle between the two so it can be adjusted correctly and easily?

blueboy2001 · 12 Aug 2017 at 14:03

The act of changing the displayed mileage is not illegal.

Misrepresenting the mileage when selling the vehicle, or claiming on insurance would be illegal.

MissChief · 12 Aug 2017 at 14:15

semi-pro waster said:
Would there be a use for this with imported cars for changing km to miles on the odometer? Or is there some sort of switch/option with modern cars to toggle between the two so it can be adjusted correctly and easily?

It would still count the distance covered by the car in Km, making it completely inaccurate.

Kaeo · 13 Aug 2017 at 01:08

If it's an import where you took a cluster from a UK or such like car that counts in miles it would work. Like Jap ->UK or whatever. Would have to convert and be very lucky finding one to match though.

Nasher · 13 Aug 2017 at 02:05

You need to be able to do it in case you have to change the counter or ECU. But on a modern car it's stored in more than once place and unless you change them all, people can find out and sue you later on

MrKnifey · 13 Aug 2017 at 07:45

Happens a lot on Transporters brought over from Ireland - Van reads 100K or so, when checking on ODIS all the other ECU's are logging 200k+!

xs2man · 13 Aug 2017 at 09:23

I'm looking to have my cluster in my Golf GTI replaced. Moving from a midline to highline cluster. At this time, I'll be looking to have the mileage adjusted to the correct mileage for the car. So there is a genuine use for this service.

adolf hamster said:
maybe for an engine change? not sure if the milage reading is meant to follow the chassis or the engine

because you could theoretically replace everything with brand new parts and restore the bare chassis and it'd practically be a brand new motor

Pretty sure the mileage follows the chassis.

MissChief · 13 Aug 2017 at 09:25

xs2man said:
I'm looking to have my cluster in my Golf GTI replaced. Moving from a midline to highline cluster. At this time, I'll be looking to have the mileage adjusted to the correct mileage for the car. So there is a genuine use for this service.

Pretty sure the mileage follows the chassis.

Why would the mileage be incorrect?

johnny6 · 13 Aug 2017 at 09:29

MissChief said:
Why would the mileage be incorrect?

I assume because he would be using a cluster out of another vehicle so wouldn't represent the actual mileage on his vehicle.

Jez · 13 Aug 2017 at 09:32

xs2man said:
I'm looking to have my cluster in my Golf GTI replaced. Moving from a midline to highline cluster. At this time, I'll be looking to have the mileage adjusted to the correct mileage for the car. So there is a genuine use for this service.

Pretty sure the mileage follows the chassis.

I have thought about doing the same with my E-Class. There is a newer style cluster which is plug and play, has a nicer screen and dials etc. Apparently if you do this though, with a used cluster, and don't change the cluster mileage, the car has a fit and records a mismatch with the ECU mileage. Put me off doing it as none of these mileage correction services fill me with confidence of their ability.

xs2man · 13 Aug 2017 at 09:33

MissChief said:
Why would the mileage be incorrect?

johnny6 said:
I assume because he would be using a cluster out of another vehicle so wouldn't represent the actual mileage on his vehicle.

Yes. This. It's either going to be from a different car (most likely), or brand new. Either way, the mileage on the new cluster isn't very likely to be exactly the same as the mileage on my car.

I actually have a highline cluster already, but as it's from a lower model, the mph display only goes to 160 instead of 180. So I don't know if I want to use that one.

Jez · 13 Aug 2017 at 09:36

Xs2man - certainly with Mercedes, brand new clusters come in a state whereby they are "virginised" and will take the data from the ECU as a one time read. They are then as per every other used cluster where you'd need to get the mileage and coding adjusted. See my post above as to the background, I've looked into (Mercedes) clusters a little bit. This may be the same with VW, ie you may not need to worry about doing anything with a brand new one.