Odometer

[madog7200]

I'm rolling back my odometer since I swapped engines and I was just wondering if anyone has a pic of what the trip meter looks like when functional... my bottom gear spins but the numbers don't roll over....

 

Also might be interested in buying an analog odometer if anyone has one lying around

 

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[86XL]

Um that's illegal. Mileage is for the vehicle, not the motor or any other part.

So swapping motor for bad or better doesn't constitute the turning back the odometer.  At least not tell anyone about it.

Say if you just paid a whole lot of money for a pristine 1500 mile, garage kept, original tires, interior, paint 62 Corvette. 

But the original owner lied, and took a wrecked burnt destroyed car and made it into the vehicle you just bought for 300k.

How would you feel? 

It would devastate the resale of vehicles. 

My 1960 Ford f350 barn find is used, but the odometer is intact. 71565 miles I know that its has twice as much. I think it the late 60s they started adding the 100,000 odometer. 

[Pete M]

yeah, I'm a bit confused.  the odo goes with the body, not the engine. 

[gogmorgo]

Yeah, the only reason to be doing this would be if you were resetting the odometer after moving it to another vehicle with a malfunctioning odometer. Even then I think what you're supposed to do is swap directly and then put a tag on it that tells how to correct the reading to what it should be. 

As it is the axles, suspension, and chassis have whatever mileage is on them. Changing that to reflect otherwise is fraud and is illegal. Presumably no one will find out unless you sell it, but it's still not exactly kosher. 

Make a note of where mileage was you changed the engine, and leave it at that. In my mind a higher-mileage vehicle that looks like it's been maintained well is worth more than one with low miles that looks like it hasn't, or it's got tons of miles on it. 

[madog7200]

Guys I understand completely that it is not only illegal (not to mention completely morally wrong) if I'm doing this to try and sell the truck to someone under false pretenses.... I simply don't want to have to do math every time I think to myself "I wonder how many more miles I've got until my next oil change?".... on top of that, I never plan on selling the truck in the first place, and even if i did there is no way i would be able to live with myself knowing that I had lied to someone...



1991, 4.0 HO, 4X4, 5 speed, AX-15
Short bed, Rusty's Offroad add a leaf

[Strokermjcomanche]

5 minutes ago, madog7200 said:

Guys I understand completely that it is not only illegal (not to mention completely morally wrong) if I'm doing this to try and sell the truck to someone under false pretenses.... I simply don't want to have to do math every time I think to myself "I wonder how many more miles I've got until my next oil change?".... on top of that, I never plan on selling the truck in the first place, and even if i did there is no way i would be able to live with myself knowing that I had lied to someone...



1991, 4.0 HO, 4X4, 5 speed, AX-15
Short bed, Rusty's Offroad add a leaf
 

Oil change sticker 

[madog7200]

Oil change sticker 

Saw that one coming.... and how do I fix the trip meter?

1991, 4.0 HO, 4X4, 5 speed, AX-15
Short bed, Rusty's Offroad add a leaf

[gogmorgo]

On my ZJ I just adjusted the interval schedule by changing the oil early, so now I just need to change it when the odometer hits multiples of 5,000km. It's a little more work cause miles are dumb, but that could easily be adapted to a 3000 mile interval, or whatever you choose. 

Cabt really help with the trip meter beyond suggesting changing it out for another. There are threads out there in the general internet about adjusting the reading to reflect vehicle miles. I think we've all been thinking you were wanting to turn it back to zero. 

[Eagle]

1 hour ago, gogmorgo said:

 

 I think we've all been thinking you were wanting to turn it back to zero. 

 

I think he is. And it's still illegal.

[schardein]

When I got my 1991 XJ, the trip meter did not work (along with just about everything else...).  I sourced a replacement speedometer from the junkyard that was within 10,000 miles of my original speedometer.  I adjusted the mileage on the new speedo to be correct for my Jeep, which took some creativity with an electronic speedometer.  However, in the end, I accomplished it.

 

So, no idea on how to repair the trip meter, other than replace it.

 

 

[tugalo]

There was a writeup on the NAXJA forum on how to reset the odometer, but it was quite some time ago.............

[AZJeff]

OP's question aside, I have owned enough older vehicles without a trip odometer that I have always just used an oil-change sticker or the like to keep track of maintenance schedules.

 

On MJ's which are a bit more maintenance intensive than more modern vehicles, it makes sense to use more than just the trip-meter to keep track of what was done and when.

[gogmorgo]

Unless you're changing the oil every 1000 miles or more often, I'm not sure the trip metre on its own will do you much good for maintenance tracking. 

I mostly use it as a confirmation of my gas gauge. Reset it every time I fill up. It's pretty handy to know how driving conditions affect how far you can go on a tank.

[Minuit]

I keep track of my vehicle maintenance with a binder full of "worksheets" where I write down mileage and date of fluid changes, etc. I add a new sheet about once every two months and keep track of fluid level and condition, tire tread depth and so on. I can share the sheet template if anyone would be interested.

 

I would never roll back my odometer to 0. I know you don't mean to cause any misdirection by it, but it would personally sketch me out if I were to do it. I'd probably source a replacement gauge with as close a mileage as possible and either live with that or have the mileage adjusted to be correct. It's not like those gauges are hard to find after all. But that's if having a correct odometer matters to you, which it does for me. 

[86XL]

Now I have a confession. 

Madog 7200.

I understand that you wanted to lower your mileage. New engine, new transmission whatever. 

I guess that God is teaching me to not worry about the speck in someone else eye when I have a log in mine.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Luke 6:41 NIV
Basically Jesus Christ was teaching his disciple to not be a hypocrite. Say something about someone else wrong and you do it anyway. 

So, 

I have a 1985 Cherokee parts truck. 

My 1986 Comanche had a bad trip odometer, and now a temperature gauge. 

So I grabbed my 85 odometer and noticed the mileage is 300k plus and my 86 is 100k.(yes its actual).

I to reworked the 85 odometer to match my 86.

So forgive me. Everyone. 

[86XL]

Cherokee bottom 

Comanche top.

[86XL]

First remove odometer from guage cluster. 

Carefully use flat blade screwdriver to pry up on pointer.

Remove screws on faceplate. 

Small e clip on side of odometer.

Remove e clip. 

Slide end retainer over a hair. The slide each number over to unlock gears to turn reset numbers. 

Assembly in reverse. 

I Don't live in California. I'm in the Cayman islands. Living off grid.

[omega_rugal]

that´s a stupid law considering anyone can tamper an odometer...

[GreasemonkeySC]

Just to chime in on the legal side of this.....

You can adjust, replace, reset, zero the odometer. It's not illegal unless you are selling the vehicle, and are misrepresenting the milage. You are perfectly legal so long as you clearly mark the title. There's every a spot on every title I've ever seen for you to mark the vehicle milage as being in excess of the mechanical limitations.

[dustytony]

Just to chime in on the legal side of this.....

You can adjust, replace, reset, zero the odometer. It's not illegal unless you are selling the vehicle, and are misrepresenting the milage. You are perfectly legal so long as you clearly mark the title. There's every a spot on every title I've ever seen for you to mark the vehicle milage as being in excess of the mechanical limitations.

That particular part of the title is meant for the cases with 5 digits and it cracks 100k. There is typically another section that you mark whether it is actual mileage or not. That’s the point where if you’ve previously zeroed it and mark actual that you are in legal trouble.

[86XL]

Yes, I agree. 

[Manche757]

As everyone knows, odometer certifications on the sell of autos are a DMV issue by state.  But have a look at the Federal Fraud Statute, 1994,  which has even been heard by the US Supreme court.

 

https://www.justice.gov/civil/case/federal-odometer-tampering-statutes

 

Does anyone know it there is a legal requirement when replacing a speedo/odometer to reset it to the reading on an old one?

[Green Mesa XJ]

On the odometers it’s illegal to adjust/roll them back, however in my state since it’s so old and had so many miles already most of these old Jeeps are mileage exempt meaning the state no longer logs of mileage at registration usually because it over 100k miles or the last time it was registered mileage wasn’t certified as accurate by the state. I have a car that is pristine one owner car with low mileage that is mileage exempt in our state because the previous owner didn’t make sure mileage was certified by her new state when she moved.
In my case the XJ I swapped clusters to get either tach and gauges or just working gauges again are lower mileage than the body the vehicle but FL doesn’t care as long as I don’t misrepresent the Jeep if I sell it, mileage exempt means any new owner should consider it very high mileage.


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[Manche757]

9 minutes ago, Green Mesa XJ said:

 

I see you are in North West Florida. Were you in harm's way of hurricane Michael?     Is Green Mesa a variation on Mesa Verde and the cliff dwellings?

[Green Mesa XJ]

BTW newer car with digital clusters do have requirements to match up the mileage most are recorded in the PCM now, most of those have ways of correcting them through the obd II ports with the correct software even if the data is saved in the cluster or another body module. These newer cars are also sensitive to the vin matching between PCM and other computers.
Mechanical gauges usually are exempt from trying to match up mileage to discourage tampering (IMO dunno if there’s another more accurate reason) .

I do know people who rolled back mileage, lots of ways to do it, my gut instinct is to leave the mileage be, but on a 30 year old Jeep as long as it’s not to defraud somebody I doubt anyone cares much.





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