I know, I know, its illegal. Im not doing this to scam anyone or cheat the insurance company. Im doing this because Im stripping my car down to a bare metal chassis, rebuilding the whole car, and putting a fresh V8 in it. By the time Im done (Im hoping before 2008) it will be a brand new car pretty much. I did some searching and found some threads on how to fix a broken odometer, but not how to reset it to 0. Would I just have to get my hands on a new digital unit and swap it in?

 

The odometer is suppose to be the mileage on the chassis. Whether you put a V8 in it or a new rotary, its the same chassis so the mileage doesn't start over.

Having said that, your best option would be to get a new gauge cluster (I believe its all sold as one unit).

 

The V8 has nothing to do with the mileage. Im stripping the car down to bare metal and starting fresh. New paint. New underbody coating. Every single line (brakes, fuel, etc) are getting replaced. Interior is all new. I mean, at the level Im going right now Id rather register this as a kit car than a mazda, but i dont think thats possible. And Im a perfectionist, so it'd make me happy that it says 0. Not like Im gonna sell this to anyone anyways.

And if i do have to buy a whole new cluster....****. Ray might as well just chop off one of my limbs as payment.

 

if you are going new everything else i doubt a new cluster is really going to add that much more $$ to the project.

 

Based on what you have given us it's not justified enough to have the odometer tampered. Mileage is a metric used to measure the age of the car entirely not just the engine.

And did you really believed that some one would tell if they actually know how? Would that put them on the spot of being dishonest?

 

If you read my message, it says it doesn't matter whether its a V8 or another rotary (i.e. saying that the V8 has nothing to do with the mileage already). You are using the same chassis that already has miles on it. Regardless of undercoating or anything else, its the same chassis and thats what the odometer is counting.

A lot people say that. Rarely does anyone take a car to the grave with them (unless they have a terminal disease or are already at their life's end from old age).

 

This is a few months old...

But what do you do when you replace an odometer? Like if I just want to buy a 99 spec odometer for my 93. Is it possible to set the new odometer to read the mileage on my odometer? Do I just have to keep both odometers so I can say "here is the original mileage on odometer A, plus the mileage on odometer B? That's a several hundred dollar part I'd have to keep with no intentions of using (except to prove mileage).

Or would I just install the new odometer & saw screw it... they can beleive me about the actual miles if they want... if not, I'll find someone else...

NOTE: I'm NOT looking to roll back the mileage... rather put the accurate mileage on a new odometer (which I don't think is actually possible, but it doesn't hurt to check)

 

I think you have to report it to the DMV, and it will reflect on the cars history that the ODO is not accurate.

 

Yes, you report mileage to the DMV before swapping out the cluster. And you can't set the new cluster to a set value.

As to the OPs question....give me a break, the smell of BS is strong in the air.

 

when my gas gauge needle broke in my prelude...they made me buy gas, and odom. gauge both together....and they set the mileage before i took them home

brad

 

^^ Interesting. Maybe this is something a dealer could do? I wouldn't mind paying some extra $$ to have a new odometer with the correct chassis milage.

 

Did your Prelude use a mechanical odometer or a computerized one like in the FD?

 

^ ahh... good point...

 

mechanical...honda's to cheap for that high tech $#!t ....

brad

 

^^ Dang.... you got my hopes up & everything!

 

My prelude has a digital cluster, just like the FD. They did it from between 94 and either 96 or 97, depending on when the 4th gen ended.

Regardless, it doesn't matter. When I did my swap, I used my old cluster, and it doesn't bother me. I just drop 70,000 miles from it to guess what my mileage on the car is.

 

so................................................ ..............
























does anybody actually have an answer to this question... ??

 

Id say no go, ive been trying to find an answer to this for a while, for my suby, want an STi cluster, i think dealers can do it, but pretty sure they wont mess with mileage for sme kid who wants diff gauges.

 

^ If I took my car into a dealer & said "my old cluster isn't giving accurate readings anymore (it does have 125k miles on it; they do breaK). I bought this new cluster to replace my broken one. Could you put the accurate mileage that is on my old cluster, on my new one so that I have accurate mileage?

I think that SHOULD be the one time they would do it... if they can. After all... I'd be doing the RIGHT thing. It's not like I'd tell them... install my new cluster... but knock a few thousand miles off the odometer.

 

Mileage on the odo reflects the mileage of the VIN; ie the chassis itself.

If the odo for some reason doesn't display the correct mileage it should be reported to the DMV.

If I needed the mileage increased on an electronic odometer I'd pop the speed sensor out of the tranny and chuck it in a drill. Turn on the key and hold down the trigger of the drill until mileage is where you'd like it...

 

nicely worded

 

Has this ever been done? How long would it take to run up 1,000 miles? Cuz if I'd have to sit there for a week with the drill running to make the mileage show 125,000 I might go nuts

 

I have no idea. You might go nuts The first thing is to find out the maximum rpm you could spin the sensor and still get a good reading at the odometer. It would take some time though. Even if the odometer was capable of understanding a road speed of 300 mph it would take over 3 hours to put 1000 miles on the odometer.

You wouldn't need the entire car though. All you'd need is the dash display, the speed sensor, 12v of power and a drill. You could hook it up to a power supply and leave it on a workbench for a week.

Not an elegant solution, but feasible.

 

I looked into having this done. I called the PA DMV, and a couple local non-dealer shops. One local shop said that they would roll the odometer if you provided reasonable proof that you're doing this for legitimate reasons. One way would be to bring in the old cluster and have them roll it to match that mileage. Also, bring in the latest registration or inspection papers as further evidence that you're not trying to tamper with things.

Dealers will do this but only if you buy a new cluster from them. Just like anything else with parts, they won't install or work with any part that wasn't bought from them.

The PA DMV said this sounded perfectly fine with them, and nothing would need to be recorded with them or on the title. I recommend you call your DMV about it, although if you find a local shop that does odometer changes they probably know the rules too.

Dave

 

Cool. Sounds like there is hope for this after all.