Odometer Security

For a Gen2 Prius, "all" someone would have to do is swap out the Combination Meter (speedo cluster). It's possible to rewrite the chip, but much easier to put in a different CM.

If you are looking at a car, get a Carfax report, run the VIN through Toyota to get their service and recall history.

Also look at wear on the interior of the car- see if that jives with the odometer.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Wear on brake and gas pedals, the latter in particular.

 

Prius odometer correction / Prius combination meter reprogramming.

 

and because the combo meter is often defective, there are a ton of used prius with replaced odo's.

 

So, 30~40 years on from the days of mechanical odometers, rolling back the miles is easier?

With the digital displays dying, almost necessity...

 

When I was in High school, you'd hook a drill up to the speedometer cable and run it in reverse to reduce mileage...

 

The original Gen 2 Prii (I had a 2004) ODO stopped at 299k miles and the ODO had to be replace to track any additional miles.

JeffD

 

I see this every once in a while. Is this just for 2004 and before? Or is 2005 and beyond?

 

2004 and maybe 2005. There were updates to the 2006 that may have fixed the 299,999 mile issue.

JeffD

 

It’s actually not usually illegal to tamper with the odometer; in most countries or
states etc. what’s illegal is trying to sell it with a misrepresentation of the product (vehicle) by lowering the mileage and increasing its value. So it’s fraud and a bunch of other stuff. Maybe theft by deception if someone pays alot for one with very low miles tampered with. Few things we buy and sell literally say how much they have been used in an actual tangible number that can be compared to others like it. You buy a used TV there is no list that I know of- on some screen that says how many hours or days it’s been used. It’s just weird

 

That's incorrect.

THE FEDERAL ODOMETER TAMPERING STATUTES | CIVIL | Department of Justice

https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/blog/criminal-defense/odometer-tampering-is-a-federal-crime/

The Legality of Odometer Tampering Comes Down to a Sticker

 

I said in most.

also - if you wanna play with your odometer of your own vehicle and mess with it as long as you don’t try to sell it no one’s going to stop you or care. You just can’t try to sell it. All I meant.

 

in ma, you just check 'unknown' on the title for mileage. of course, an intelligent buyer would balk if the seller had represented the car with known mileage.

 

most cars like BMW or Mercedes has tamper proof indicators that the mileage was tampered with or doesn't match with what's in the ECU. BMW will have a dot and Mercedes will not show up the mileage. Typically it's not tampering when you're trying to fix the odometer, I have a Ford Sport Trac that has bad odometer (known failure) causing the fuel pump not to display correctly and the whole thing just shut off randomly. I replaced it with a working odometer which is 14k miles less and as long as you disclose the issue when selling it's okay. I sold it to my friend telling him that the odometer is not correct and you have to add, not sure if he disclosed it to the dealership when trading it so that where's the deception starts. Dealer will just sell it as wholesale and these smaller shops or guys from auction will buy the car without knowing the history and then resold back to the masses.

For the mustang, can't swap the instrument cluster since it has the security chip in it, so you need to do more work on syncing the keys and immobilizer. For Volvos, the instrument cluster can be swapped without any issues. I have a 245k mile Volvo XC90 with 124k miles on the swapped instrument cluster, no issues with the swap. It was swapped because the lens is cracked and its better to just swap the assembly without messing with the lens and the instrument cluster look clean than the old one. I am still driving the Volvo because of its low mileage..

 

Odometer roll-back might also be for warranty reasons, and the manufacturers would care about that.

It's too bad it can't be made bullet-proof, cus there's a host of reasons to do it, none of them commendable.

 

Odometer fraud does occur on older Priuses, it's sort of unintentional. People are just swapping instrument clusters to restore basic function, and winding up with inaccurate odos.

Thing is, that's really only happening on the oldest ones, you (probably) wouldn't want to start there anyway. Writing this in 2022, I would suggest 2015 or newer unless you specifically want a project.

 

I recall our son had a Maxima with a flakey display, dealership replaced for free, set the miles back to zero, and there was a note in the records as to the miles it was changed at. No way to run a Navy, lol.