oodometer fraud, where do you report it?

llanell

I believe my odometer has been tampered with. I need to know how to check this and who to report it to.

zueslewis

state police - if they cannot inspect the car, they will know who can. The rest is between you and who you bought the vehicle from.

malachy72

as well as the state's attorney would be appropriate as well.

Mr_Shiftright

Yes, start with DMV and make sure you have your facts straight. They have the mileage records most likely. You don't want to go accusing someone and have to eat your words.

mtyf

Hi there,
what are the laws on odometer tampering etc.? My odometer has stopped turning and I was planning on getting it fixed, but I'd heard somewhere that that was illegal. I'm in CA if it makes any difference.

Thanks...

swschrad

however, you have to certify that you can't certify the vehicle mileage afterwards. in Minnesota, that is done with check boxes (actual mileage or mileage unknown) on the title document. you sign thereafter and date it, and then you are liable. no signature, no transfer, no sale.

there is supposed to be a little horizontal bar that drops across the top of the odometer wheels in a mechanical unit since the 1970s to signal odometer tampering. all the used car guys have that one figured out by now, it's alleged to be no worse to do than lockpicking. have no personal knowledge of the technique and wouldn't print it if I had. the electronic indicator modules probably just fail dark.

these days, "repair" is putting in a new wheels unit, of course, they are plastic and not dissected and tweaked any more. lots of failures are related to the Bowden cable that drives the odometer wheels, and those are easily fixed by either snapping the cable back on, replacing the pinion gear in the tranny that drives the other end, or replacing the cable.

kinley

an organization I belong to bought a used 15 passenger Ford van that came from Canada with kilometers on the odometer. The dealer sent the kilometer odometer to the Ford place and it came back with the appropriate miles. So, when the speedometer was replaced in our 95 T Bird, under warranty, the new odometer said only 5 miles. The dealer placed a sticker on the door jam saying to add 23,648 miles. Why couldn't the new speedometer's odometer have been set correctly???

swschrad

to move the wheels without dropping the warning bar. now, they could have decided not to get involved in that stuff at all whatsoever on advise from their lawyers, or somebody could have just confiscated the lock picks or whatever and fired the holders. AFAIK it is not illegal to set a replacement odometer to the fixed number on a broken one. but it could be a violation if the car had moved at all ahead when the odometer was broken. the dealer doesn't know, and probably decided to stay out of the fray by not presetting the new wheels.

ain't second-guessing lawyers fun?

kinley