New speedo with different kms?

[Shifty]

In a not-quite-so-hypothetical situation:

Your friend's parents buy a Commodore with a genuine 90,000km on the clock.
They do 20,000km in the car so it then shows a genuine 110,000km.

The speedo unit dies and it is replaced with another. Most of these cars are higher km and a low km unit can't be found - as such a unit with 170,000km is fitted being an overstatement of 60,000km.

A further 30,000km is put on the car, meaning the clock shows 200,000km but the car itself has only done a genuine 140,000km.

So, your friends parents go overseas and sell you the car. You know the story is 100% legit as this is their third car between two people, they sold it to you for a good price anyway, they have no reason to give you any other story and you've known them for nearly 10 years.

Before you get a roadworthy and change the rego over, do you hunt down a more honest speedo? Or do you take the hit of 60,000km for no reason, considering resale, paper value and any insurance payout that might occur in future?

It's not at all dodgy or dishonest, but it feels...... wrong.

[Stix Zadinia]

isn't there something you could do to make it official and get the kms put on a new speedo?

i thought on alot of new cars the odo was stored on the ECU to stop this exact problem

[Shifty]

What you're supposed to do is have it repaired or a new one rewound by a gauge shop, and do a stat dec. But in this situatin I can't really do that as the old gauge is already gone and I would be backdating the replacement.

[carcrazy]

Ive replaced speedos in the past and the gauge shop just wound them to exactly the same km reading as the vehicle was displaying.

[MRMOPARMAN]

what model commode is it? if its got the old dial type get it fixed back to the original kays by a speedo repairer.

if its a later one with LCD screen i call bullshit to the claim, as its stored on the ECU. (you can find people to bring the kays back if you know where to look)

[CussCuss]

LCD type one doesnt have to stored on the ecu exclusively. Soarer has on and that got changed back to 0 when the dash was replaced.

[arcane]

CussCuss, I think the Mopar Man was saying that in Commodores, it's stored in the ECU.

As far as other cars go, though... modern Audi's store the value in the dash cluster, ECU and ABS computer. If you buy a new dash, the value can be wound forward once only.

[JamesB]

Had that problem after the Brisbane flood in '74. A mate had his LJ XU-1 in a panel beaters for some minor bodywork repair ... and the whole panel beater's workshop went under in the flood before the cars could be gotten out. After the water went down, the car needed a complete new dash cluster. Less than a year later he decided to move to Europe, and needed a RWC to sell the XU-1. The workshop doing the RWC refused to issue the paperwork until the odometer had an appropriate mileage figure for the car's age. That night we took the speedo apart and "massaged" a couple of the tumblers in the odometer. The next day he took the car back to the workshop, they looked at the odometer reading and issued the RWC, and the workshop said nothing more about the earlier odometer "problem".