Odometer roll back

[James <nyb@xxxxxxx>]

A couple questions:

Don't a lot of speedos have a blackout feature if tampered with?
Would it not be easier to simply advance the 'new' speedo to the correct 
mileage?  I have heard of this being done with a drill, but I don't know 
if this is myth or not, or if going in reverse works.

I don't really think it's a crime to change a new speedo to show the 
correct mileage for the car.  This is actually a really honest thing to 
do.  Changing a speedo that accurately tells the mileage of the car to 
show a lower mileage  may not be illegal on an old car, but is certainly 
cretinous.  All told, it doesn't really matter what new the speedo says 
as long as it's well documented.  My car does not have the original 
speedo, it was replaced by the original owner.  However, he used the car 
as his business car, and so the number of kms on the old speedo, and the 
new speedo when it went in were noted in a log book and service 
receipts, so I do know how many miles/kms are on the car.  For me, 
having a newer speedo (the 'new' one was from a 78, while my car is a 
76) actually does me a favour since the 76 speedo was only in miles and 
the 78 has km/hr as the primary unit, meaning no head math or little 
stickers for me.

I do agree with Paul though, the most frequent mileage misrepresentation 
is when people claim that the odometer has never rolled over.  I have 
seen more than a few cars that had definitely rolled over at least once, 
sometimes twice (either that, or the owner made a point of parking it in 
a pool of saltwater and buffing the interior with sandpaper), even 
though the sellers claimed that they hadn't.  I try to give these 
sellers the benefit of the doubt and believe that they are just 
incredibly daft, and not out to screw someone, but sometimes it's hard 
to convince myself.  Whether or not it has rolled over is easier to 
distinguish on a car whose odometer is in miles.  There is a much larger 
difference in condition between 70 000 miles and 170 000 mi, than 
between the same numbers in km.  It can sometimes be hard to tell if the 
car has been driven more, or had a hard life.  Then again, a lot of 
people buy an old car based on condition, not mileage.

James

RandalPark@xxxxxxx wrote:

>If the odometer doesn't work, that usually means that there is something wrong 
>with a part of the speedometer itself.
>
>I think that the point of the original question is that if you have an old 
>Imperial, and you need to repair or replace the speedometer with another unit, 
>how do you make the mileage match, or does it even matter?
>
>To me it matters, because I like to know how much I have driven any one 
>particular car. One of the few things that I seem able to remember is the 
>mileage on a car when I buy it. 
>
>If the speedometer needs to be changed, it is usually more difficult to change 
>the mileage on the replacement unit, than it would be to remove the numbers 
>from the old one and switch them into the replacement. It has been years since 
>I had to do this on any of my Imperials, but lately on another car that I am 
>working on, I chose to put together a perfect speedometer, using the numbers 
>from the original unit. It was not difficult. 
>
>If I didn't care about the mileage on the odometer, there is no one in the 
>State of Washington, or probably in the entire world that would care if I 
>change the mileage on one of my old Imperials. It is not against the law since 
>the car is past its useful life span.
>
>It would become fraudulent if the odometer said 15,000 miles and I tried to 
>represent it as an original 15,000 mile car while in reality it had 115,000 on 
>it, but hey, that can happen without touching the odometer. The fraud is in 
>the telling of the lie.
>
>Paul
>
>In a message dated 6/11/2004 11:54:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
>limoguy1950@xxxxxxxxx writes:
>
>  
>
>>Since there is no valid reason to turn back an odometer, it would appear it 
>is fraudulent.  In most states, it probably would be illegal.
>> 
>>Bob
>>
>>
>>joel hunter <thejoel_hunter@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>my odometer and speedometer still doesnt work... from the tranny, the line 
>>seems to be connected. not sure about beyond that or the junction box.
>>
>>anyway is there a way to rolle it back or set the numbers back?
>>
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