susspected large scale odomiter fraud

I need some help here people! I am pretty sure that the auto mechs. & head management at my work (an unnamed car rental agency) are doing something fishy with the milage on the cars. I swear I turned a blue sunfire w/ 21,000 miles on it into the mech. for a scheduled oil change and it came back with 989 miles on it! I have seen a lot of other stange stuff with the cars we rent out. Some people have told me that it is impossible to change the milage on a car with detection, but I'm sure anything is possible if you try hard enough. What do I look for, and how can I legaly proof this? Am I just paranoid? HELP!

there is always some way, some are just a lot harder then others, most cars today use digital display odometer, reprograming then normally requires a special scantool and computer that only the dealership has access to. most manufactiors also require a special approval to reprogram the mileage(which i imagine is a form of proof the BCM, gauge cluster, or similuar component was replaced) the analog roller style(whether it be cable or stepper motor driven) can still be disassembled and altered manually, with a lot of work done. or replaced with a low mileage unit from a junkyard.

if it was the digital type, many these days share the odometer and trip counter on the same display, and the display is toggled with a near-by button. is it possible that the odometer was set to trip when it was returned to you? a won't say its impossible, i have heard of funky stuff happening with fleets before(like the dealership sold a number of vehicles to a out of state fleet, kept the VIN numbers, and made a ton of bogus warrenty claims, they got caught when the manufactior found out the vehicles where never even in the same state as the dealership)

if you are really consurned, i would start making a hush-hush record with the vehicle year/make/model/color, licince number, VIN number, current mileage and date.

All of our cars have digital display odometers. I didn’t mix up the trip counter with total miles. When I took the blue sunfire back and first thought the miles were changed I gave the car a very thoughough inspection. The car was totally warn in, the carpet was matted and being torn out! Not anything like a newer (less than 1k miles) car would be. I was sure this car had more than 1k miles. I have been working at my job for a while now and I can usually ballpark how many miles a car has on it.

This was not the last time I've suspected something fishy. I remember a red SUV getting worked on by the head mech. I ask a shutter (my co-worker) what was wrong with the car and he said "Oh, well someone accidentally put on the wrong plates and VIN number on, oh well" Than there was this Blue Malibu MX. The head mech. had apparently just changed the oil on it and put it in the line of dirty cars to be cleaned. I was baffled by this car when I cleaned it. It was spotless, factory fresh, but it had over 5k miles on it. The engine was SPOTLESS, and the car gave off a funny smell in the exhaust (Like our new cars do). I could tell there was no way in hell this car was driven for more than 10 miles. Believe me, when you spend hours everyday stripping and prepping new cars you know what they look and smell like. This was a new car, I'm 100% sure of that. That was not the weird part either. After I "cleaned" the car I put it in the row of clean cars to be shuttled to the rental counter. A few minutes later the mech frantically came out asking where the car was and if I cleaned it yet. He said we forgot to put a PM (oil change record) sticker on it. I pointed the car out and he walked off, I was not able to watch him. The thing is we do oil changes after 7500 miles on Chevy’s, why did he just do an oil change on a car with 5k miles on it? They never do oil changes THAT early. I could see the car getting an oil change after 7200 miles, but no way would they waste time on car with 5k miles.

I’m not sure what they are doing, but I know they are up to something. I think they might primarily be putting more miles on the cars we send to used car dealers of other fleets. We cycle through so many cars just making a few lemons could make them a lot of money. I’m going to start logging lots of info and keep an open eye. With any luck I can send these pricks to jail!

"most cars today use digital display odometer, reprogramming then normally requires a special scantool and computer that only the dealership has access to."

So the cars are designed to be able to have the mileage changed. The mechs know a lot of people who work at dealerships, glass repair shops, scrap yards, etc. I imagine if they really wanted the tools it wouldn’t be that hard to get them.

I just really want to know if I can maybe look for telltale signs on the cars computer to see if it’s been tampered with.

I know a guy who paid $300 to a dealer to change his odo on 2002 accord from 220000 (he drova A LOT) to 65000. Sold the car then for a good price. So it is possible to change the odo even on newer cars.

Ok, so I know he has a TECH-2 and a CANdi adapter for the newer CAN buses on the new computers. I guess he could have a model for general diagnostics, but it might be a "master version" that can reprogram the car's EEPROM with data such as OBDII codes and odometer readings. How can I tell is his TECH-2 is enabled to rewright odometer readings? Should I try to get some serial #s, and manufacuring dates? how do I tell the diffrence?

If you want to do something about it, log in each vehicle that goes through your hands, then check the mileage later. Once you have several weeks and numerous vehicles that have been altered, contact your local police to report the crime.

The technology exists to change odometers easily. I had to have a new dash installed under warranty on my 96 Impala SS with a digital odo and they had to program the new one with the correct mileage.

The tech is easy, its the question of whether or not its being used unscrupulously in your case.

I need some help here people! I am pretty sure that the auto mechs. & head management at my work (an unnamed car rental agency) are doing something fishy with the milage on the cars. I swear I turned a blue sunfire w/ 21,000 miles on it into the mech. for a scheduled oil change and it came back with 989 miles on it! I have seen a lot of other stange stuff with the cars we rent out. Some people have told me that it is impossible to change the milage on a car with detection, but I'm sure anything is possible if you try hard enough. What do I look for, and how can I legaly proof this? Am I just paranoid? HELP!

Hi JReb,

I may be able to get some positive proof if you can get me the VIN number, especially if it's had any warranty work done before.

Things like this really perturb me, it happens all the time, and leaves consumers with the repercussions. :mad:

I'm not sure about all makes, I do know for sure that GM dealerships do not have the tools and equipment to re-set odometers.(Not Legally Anyway)

When one is repaired, it's sent out to an authorized center and they will repair and send back. Many cases they will send a new cluster with 0 miles and inlcude a sticker for the door jamb that is required.

However, It's not surprising with today's technology that this is happening.

Let me know the vin# if you can

Jerry Christopher