Who's Winding Back The Odometers?

[Blitz_boy]

Was it the one on Ebay as I was emailed a few cars like that.

nah, this was a while back, it was a 40th anniversary R33

[craigieb00st]

the numbers sometimes dont all line up correctly if they have been wound back.

[TerribleOne]

I know that some places in Japan ask if you want the dash wound back before they send the car back.

"Ok we're sending the car to be shipped tomorrow...how many km did you want it to have?"

I use to laugh alot seeing these beaten to shit Z32's coming into work with 30,000 to 60,000 on the clock and on the timing cover there are stickers saying timing belt has been changed at 100,xxx km and 200,xxx km! Yet the owners seem to still swear that the dashboard is correct.

[l180sxl]

I know that some places in Japan ask if you want the dash wound back before they send the car back.

"Ok we're sending the car to be shipped tomorrow...how many km did you want it to have?"

I use to laugh alot seeing these beaten to shit Z32's coming into work with 30,000 to 60,000 on the clock and on the timing cover there are stickers saying timing belt has been changed at 100,xxx km and 200,xxx km! Yet the owners seem to still swear that the dashboard is correct.

LOL ... Now that's really crap and Dealers here get to sell these "Low K's" imports at Premium Prices ...

What a "Bargain" we are all getting from Dealers ...

[GTR-N1]

I used to play Manila Poker many yrs ago with fellow Chinese Uni. students.

It's a kind of game that allows plenty of scope to bluff > can make or lose a motza.

Some Aussie guys joined in for a couple of months.

One of them came up to me and said, "Do you think you could help me sell my car?"

I said, "Why?"

He said, "'Cause you can lie with a perfectly straight face."

Footnote:- I don't know to this day, whether it was a compliment or an insult!!!

[AndrewJZX100]

I've always found it somewhat humorous that Japanese built cars can have the odo wound back so much and still have less problems/be in better overall condition than a locally built car at a similar amount of kays (on a genuine odo).

Even with the whole odo tampering thing being ever present I'd still be more inclined to trust a decent condish import with 150thou+ than a local offering showing the same.

Edited January 21, 2010 by AndrewJZX100

[Iron Chef]

Good point, I've got an 85,000km Territory already starting to fall apart in my hands lol

[Guest]

Well next HPI has a good write up in the back on winding back odometers, Japan wholesalers and AUS dealers.

[SiR_RB]

good point

ive been scanning some of the japanese auto auctions, and so many skylines both gtst and gtr's have more then 120,000kms on the clock, its soo funny how some people believe the "60k" showing

my mate was looking at r33 gtst's last year, i told him il sell him mine, had a good look at it, couldnt fault it, but didnt like the 140 or so Kms on it

he ended up buying a clapped out 96 model with 70k showing on the dash, and enough steering wheel, leaher boot wear to indicate the cars done well over 150. compression test showed that also haha

it can fool some people though...:S

I've always found it somewhat humorous that Japanese built cars can have the odo wound back so much and still have less problems/be in better overall condition than a locally built car at a similar amount of kays (on a genuine odo).

Even with the whole odo tampering thing being ever present I'd still be more inclined to trust a decent condish import with 150thou+ than a local offering showing the same.

[Dr_GTST]

Correct me if im wrong, helped a mate change his timing belt on a 2000 model stagea at 85k and there was an aftermarket timing belt fitted and water pump. Leads me to believe that the vehicle had already had its 100,000km service.

[Iron Chef]

Fair chance. Sometimes people do change them early though, I bought an Evo 7 for a customer a few weeks back that had the belt done at 78,000km.

[Import Monster]

Many service schedules dictate timing belts are changed at 100k or 4/5 years - whichever comes first

[BASHO]

Is there any way to tell if an odo's been tampered with from any info that may be cumulative in the Ecu ?

[Import Monster]

Is there any way to tell if an odo's been tampered with from any info that may be cumulative in the Ecu ?

nope, an ECU can be swapped out in 10mins flat too.

[BASHO]

nope, an ECU can be swapped out in 10mins flat too.

Hmmmmmmm thought not--just a thought anyway >

[arabian_drifter]

in the market now 4 a gtr 34 vspec

just checked 1 out the other day 34gtr vpec km under 40k

was bought from a importer , which many people would no on her as being a bit dodgy .

anyways the car was immac , went 2 have a quick look under the car , found a massive amount of rust , bog work , clutch had been replaced at least twice , leakin front drive shaft , rust that has been plated and bogged up roughly , the whole undercarriage had been sprayed black 2 hide all the shitt .

good thing i did the inspection , i think every 1 should have the car throughly inspected 2 save the gremlins from appearing when they buy it .

[mxfly]

Even if you cant tell whether the odometer has been wound back, you can generally tell if the cluster has been tampered with.

People generally rip out the cluter for these reasons.

- rice it up with carbon/chrome surrounds and garnish

- upgrade it to a Nismo unit

- plug a console in to change the numbers

When you take out a cluster, look at the screws and screw holes. Have they been removed before? Once you remove all the screws, pull out the cluster and take a good look at the clips that connect the loom to back of the cluster. These are very tight and needs a flathead screwdriver to separate it. If the clips looks mangled up, you know someone has pulled out the cluster in the past.

[floody]

Often as not businesses/individuals buy the car at auction and specify what kms it should have when it arrives out here. I can't cite a link or recorded conversation or anything but it is what can and does happen.

After all, the inspecting mechanics who are engaged by many importers really do know the cars inside and out...

Never read the odo, always read the car.

[DJRIFT]

Ive had 2 r34 gtt's now with dash cluster faults caused buy the odometer being wound back. the cluster is electronic and has its own computer as such and the 2 i have worked on have been tampered with visually.

the dash boards had been tampered with some 6-12 months before a problem accoured. the first one i did had been through the nissan dealer ship and they were unable to fix it and after some time i worked out the dash to be causing a running issue with the car. sent the dash off to be repaired and it was completely stuffed because of what had been done to it. i sourced and fitted a second hand cluster and the bloke was funny about doing that because the Kms read 20k more. i was like well your old dash wasnt right either.

the second time around was causing different faults with the car and the dash was able to be repaired.

A friends 300zx had the odometer tampered with and it was broken. he brought it with 99.000km on the clock and after 1000 more kms he found that it went back to 99.000kms. he just left it like that and probably did 50.000 more kms then on sold it.

its funny how people care more about how low the kms are and not the fact that the under side of the car has been painted flat black to hide all the rust ect.

[KrazyKong]

the numbers sometimes dont all line up correctly if they have been wound back.

I've heard this too and always thought that to be the case. But it's not always so. Sometimes the numbers don't line up so good and the miles are genuine.