Odometer Tampering

[33Sedan]

I have a feeling my odo has been tampered. Not by the importers but by the dealer in japan. I got it with 76,000k'm's on the clock, replace the clutch straight after, the rear shocks soon after that, and now at 99,000km's im having big gearbox problems (note that my car has only a new exhaust fitted by the importers)

After looking into alot of my interior was worn out in weird ways for a 76,000km car, especially the leather on the gearstick boot, knob and steering wheel. After some more research i foun dthat if your odo numbers don't corectly line up straight, then it has been tampered with. So all this makes me to belive that it has been tampered with.

Now my question.....Who could i take it to to get it inspected and a written document confirming it has been tampered with?(if it has been ;-) )

[Baconer]

mine said 74,000km when i bought it but had the timing belt '100,000km sticker'. I would never take the odometer on a jap import as genuine unless there is lots of documentation.

It would probably cost a lot of money to get the inspection and documentation and in the end there wouldn't be much you could do about it

[33Sedan]

Well in the end i have a feeling there is abit to do, as the importer has many liscences of which can be taken away for them for selling me a vehicle which they said had done a genuine 76,000km's. And also since the car was purchased from a dealer in japan, and knowing how illegal it is to wind back cars up there, i'm sure they also have some money to loose if i bitch about it.

I have to replace my gearbox shortly and ontop of all the other crap i bought, i dont' want to spend it as the car was sold to me on the premise that it is very "new and wouldn't need anything done to it". i know it is an old car ladida bla bla, but in the end I bought the car under false pretexts told to me by the importer. Its their job to find the car that i want, and make sure it all works out...

Most of the auction cars from japan are put through strict investigations to make sure the cars do have true ODO readings, if they don't they can't be sold through auction.

[black_gtst]

what are you trying to achieve knowing it definetly has been tampered with mate? have a crack at the importers you got it through or for your own peace of mind knowing how many ks are on your car?

brett

[33Sedan]

i guess i just wanna know if it has been tampered with first of all, then have a crack at someone to see if I can get some sort of help ;-)

[black_gtst]

dont think you will get very far tryin to point the finger at someone. its been discussed on the forum a fair bit about weather ks are genuine or not. generally comes down to overall condition of ya car i think!

[33Sedan]

condition is good, but just feels like its way older than what it is. Feels like its done way over 150,000km's. the amount of little things gone wrong and the fact the gearbox is rooted is abit weird, people i know have had their standard gearbox with extra power put through it and had no troubles beyone 200,000kms. And myne needs replacing at a supposidly 99,000km's......

I just think its wrong to do this, and I at least want to try to do something about it, as I am in a hole now of which i will prob have to sell the skyline as there may be more problems with it. And i don't want to give the skyline up. I don't think I should have to when it isn't my fault. Someone along the line has lied and broken the law to get some extra cash... I think its fair enough they should at least be investigated.....

Anyway does anyone know where I could take it? Im going to call NRMA to see if they know tomorrow. Ill also call my mechanic but i simply just wanted to know if you guys no where I could take it (in canberra)

[R33_ACT]

maybe try Premier instruments in Dickson they maybe able to tell u if the odo has been tampered with

[S T A R 3 3]

Hey dan! it's been awhile..

I was in the same position as Baconer where the odo indicated it had only done 80xxxx kms but had the 100,000 km sticker on the engine. I didn't really care, I always thought that it's too late now and to buy a skyline in that condish was awesome.

Perhaps the ones that slip thru the strict investigations are the ones we've bought, and I reckon the importers can only go from the information provided to them and can only assume/hope that the info legit. I'm sure that importers know of this stuff happening.. its a question that is always raised!

Altho I would like to know how this all ends..

[33Sedan]

Sweet thanks, will give em a call.

Yea I saw the 100,000km sticker on myne and i asked the importers and they said that it didn't mean anything.

Im just angry cos i trusted them after i said all the stuff has been going wrong etc. They said it was nothing to worry about etc.

Im willing to go lawyers and that cos I think this is something fair trading would be interested in. Considering it is illegal if the dealer sells me a car knowing that it has been wound back. And if they have any knowledge in importing then they would have known.....

[Michele]

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but, I have seen other threads on SAU that suggest that the 100k sticker really says that you should do the full service (timing belt etc etc) at 100k and its not a sticker to say that its already been done.

[R33_ACT]

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but, I have seen other threads on SAU that suggest that the 100k sticker really says that you should do the full service (timing belt etc etc) at 100k and its not a sticker to say that its already been done.

thats what i thought the sticker was for aswell....change the T-belt at 100k

[TiTAN]

There are two different stickers.

The first one is a sticker saying change the timing belt at 100k km

and one that says the timing belt has been changed at XX KM

Sorry about the picture quality the camera phone doesnt do overly fantastic low light shots, but it should show you the difference in the stickers.

[33Sedan]

I don't really mind if its done something like 120,000km's, i would expect them to pay for the repairs to the gearbox and i would be happy. But if the car has done way more i think i'd deserve abit more.

[S T A R 3 3]

According to the pics above.. mine was the 2nd one.

In the end, no matter how nice they appear to be.. I guess they're like the stereotype used car salesman and have sold the car.

[R3sp3ct]

There are two different stickers.

The first one is a sticker saying change the timing belt at 100k km

and one that says the timing belt has been changed at XX KM

Sorry about the picture quality the camera phone doesnt do overly fantastic low light shots, but it should show you the difference in the stickers.

Thanks for the photos, so they would take the 100k sticker off and replace with new stickers showing kms when belts were changed. Thats saved me some worry.

33sedan, I think you should do what you can to catch these bastards out, but I can see it being a very long and painful process. Especially if you are trying to contacted japan and getting someone over there to investigate the dealer/importer.

Goodluck anyway!

[wildturkey72]

mate that sucks good luck with catching the bastards.

Btw who did you import your car with?

As for the odometer not lining up straight - i don't think anyone's odometer lines up straight at 99 000km's cos it's just about to tick over.

I'm not 100% on this but I reckon it should line up perfectly straight at either 100 000 kms or 155 555 kms

[33Sedan]

For now I won't say who I got it through untill I know for sure if it has been tampered with etc. And then ill also write back how they dealt with it etc. I'm calling a few places today to see if they know where I can get it checked out.

Thanks for the help guys

[33Sedan]

Sorry about the odometer, My mates is at 97,XXXkm's, and his lines up perfectly. So should everyone elses, once they last dial on the right ticks from 9 to 0, the rest tick over, they don't gently roll.

Myne is pretty bad, at 97,967km's, the first 7 is hanging down, the 6 is only half visible and the others are not perfectly straight. Also I just picked up the lastest high performance imports which has a special on buying skylines, and guess what, has the same conclusion about odometers being straight.....

[ZENNON]

im shocked!

that is all