Odometer Reading: How to tell if it has been tampered with?

[tmanish76]

guys, i bought a third hand 2002 accent with 50000kms on the odo. The speedo needle shakes between 30 and 50 kmph. Can I assume it has been tampered with.

[anupmathur]

Not necessarily, IMHO, Manish.
My brand new Gypsy back in 1994 came with a speedo that 'fluctuated' between 20 and 30 kmph, after which range it used to be rock steady.
Drove that Gypsy for over 7 years with same behaviour of the speedo.

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by tmanish76

guys, i bought a third hand 2002 accent with 50000kms on the odo. The speedo needle shakes between 30 and 50 kmph. Can I assume it has been tampered with.

Nopes . Fluctuations doesn't mean that ur odo has been tampered. I have seen many untampered cars having fluctuatin speedo needle.

Another way to find is checkout the odometer reading. If the digits in the odo are misaligned, it MAY mean odo has been tampered. But this is not always true. Coz sometimes meter's being mechanical it may tend to malfunction & odo reading may become misaligned.

[vikram_d]

Originally Posted by iraghava

Nope Vikram, even my car's speedo needle has a shake till it reaches 25 kmph and the meter has never been tampered with.

Does it shake with the engine on and car stationary?

Originally Posted by tmanish76

guys, i bought a third hand 2002 accent with 50000kms on the odo. The speedo needle shakes between 30 and 50 kmph. Can I assume it has been tampered with.

No it does not necessarily mean that it has been tampered.

[panky12345]

my Indica's speedo needle shakes between 40-50 (never tampered), probably what is meant that the tampered ODO meter would have a greater chance of needle shakes, but that cant be taken as a definite proof of tampering!

[FlairBoy]

Will it be worthwhile to ask for Service Register. For example my service centre (ASP only) guys records all services with odo reading also, if this can be done you can be sure. But not sure how many cars would be serviced only at Authorised service centres!!!

[caliper]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

Not necessarily, IMHO, Manish.
My brand new Gypsy back in 1994 came with a speedo that 'fluctuated' between 20 and 30 kmph, after which range it used to be rock steady.
Drove that Gypsy for over 7 years with same behaviour of the speedo.

How do you know it wasn't tampered with by the dealer? I.e., selling a demo car as brand new?

[rr_zen]

I had a speedo unit on my Esteem that started behaving crazy after two months of the purchase. The speedo would read 80+ kmph when I was hardly doing 20 kmph and would show 180 kmph when I used be actually doing 50+ kmph (Must admit I derived a kick out of it though !). Got the entire unit replaced free of cost under warranty at the dealer.

This thread sparks off one more question for me. Nowadays, most manufacturers are in favour of digital odometers (LCD) for their vehicles. Does this mean they are less/more vulnerable to tampering ? And what happens when the battery of a car with a digital odometer is disconnected for long ? (I am assuming that there must be a separate battery as back up that powers the odo just like the one that powers the clock in our computers when it is switched off). What happens if all power is cut off from the odo ? Does it reset itself to '0000000' ? Experts, please throw some light on this.

[sbasak]

The sad fact is that if the odometer is reset by an expert, it is almost impossible to discover that!

This is a nuisance worldwide. There are some companies offer odometer reset service for a small fee.

In most Western European countries, the car's service report and yearly fitness certificate includes odometer reading. So, if you get full service history from car's date of registration, it will become clear if odometer has been tampered with (for the same benefit, cars with full service history cost more than those without).

However, an ultra low mileage car is often less perferable than a moderately high mileage car. As in case of the latter, the internal components are usually in better state

[sushrutha]

Originally Posted by rr_zen

This thread sparks off one more question for me. Nowadays, most manufacturers are in favour of digital odometers (LCD) for their vehicles. Does this mean they are less/more vulnerable to tampering ? And what happens when the battery of a car with a digital odometer is disconnected for long ? (I am assuming that there must be a separate battery as back up that powers the odo just like the one that powers the clock in our computers when it is switched off). What happens if all power is cut off from the odo ? Does it reset itself to '0000000' ? Experts, please throw some light on this.

As per my engineering knowledge its something to do with EPROM (Erasable programable memory)n EEPROM (Electronically Erasable programable memory) i.e. Non volatile RAM
They are not reset when you have battery disconneted for long.
Yes these can be tampered also, EEPROM...
My uncle took his used ALTO from true value n got his odometer reset to 0000 kms

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by caliper

How do you know it wasn't tampered with by the dealer? I.e., selling a demo car as brand new?

I'll NEVER really ever know.
I did all my mountain trips to the remotest corners of Himachal (Kinnaur and Spiti included) and Kumaon. The vehicle NEVER gave me any reason for concern. That, for me, is good enough. I ENJOYED it upto and beyond my expectations, WITH my family always travelling with me.
So, I have no complaints!
You are free to worry about it as long as it pleases you.

[rr_zen]

Originally Posted by sushrutha

As per my engineering knowledge its something to do with EPROM (Erasable programable memory)n EEPROM (Electronically Erasable programable memory) i.e. Non volatile RAM
They are not reset when you have battery disconneted for long.
Yes these can be tampered also, EEPROM...
My uncle took his used ALTO from true value n got his odometer reset to 0000 kms

Thank you for the explanation. So does it mean that the digital odos do not reset themselves to zero (due to lack of battery power) unless they are manually reset/tampered by somebody?

[MaxX]

Originally Posted by rr_zen

Thank you for the explanation. So does it mean that the digital odos do not reset themselves to zero (due to lack of battery power) unless they are manually reset/tampered by somebody?

Only RAM looses its contents when the power is switched off not ROM's. (like your computers hard disk)

[sushrutha]

By the way how to manually reset a analog odometer ?

[sumitkalindi]

Originally Posted by rr_zen

This thread sparks off one more question for me. Nowadays, most manufacturers are in favour of digital odometers (LCD) for their vehicles. Does this mean they are less/more vulnerable to tampering ? And what happens when the battery of a car with a digital odometer is disconnected for long ? (I am assuming that there must be a separate battery as back up that powers the odo just like the one that powers the clock in our computers when it is switched off). What happens if all power is cut off from the odo ? Does it reset itself to '0000000' ? Experts, please throw some light on this.

Though they need techies to be tampered with, disconnecting them is a simple DIY job. They usually take electrical pickup. So you just need to fing the right socket and disconnect it when needed. I had to resort to this method when i was stuck with a job that needed lot of travelling while my bike, PULSAR DIGITAL SPEEDO, was due to be serviced, I had just 20/25 kms left in the odo before it had to be serviced, and my expected running before I could even think of servicing the bike was around 190 KM.