There is now a very large selection on the secondary car market in Russia; there are cars made in America, Japan, Europe, “Koreans” and “Chinese”. Choosing a vehicle is not easy, but there are certain characteristics that first of all pay attention to.
The following factors are of great importance to buyers:
- year of manufacture of the vehicle;
- general technical condition;
- appearance of the car;
- mileage (kilometers).
A more sophisticated buyer knows a lot about cars, and does not always focus on the number of kilometers traveled by the vehicle. Beginners, on the contrary, try to choose a suitable car with low mileage on the odometer, but the numbers displayed on the scoreboard do not always correspond to the actual distance traveled.
The tradition of lowering odometer readings has existed for a long time; even in Soviet times, mileage was often reduced. But the meter readings are not always underestimated; in some cases, the mileage is increased:
- The driver of a car at an enterprise may not go on a trip, but attribute extra kilometers to himself. So he writes off gasoline, selling it “to the left”;
- The driver is not on his way, minding his own business at this time.
Why the mileage is added up is understandable; when sold, a used car with a small number of kilometers traveled rises in price. Enterprising sellers try to present the vehicle in a more favorable light, especially since a car with low mileage is bought faster.
What types of odometers are there?
The odometer in a car is used to read the kilometers traveled; there are three types of these devices:
- mechanical;
- electronic;
- electromechanical.
All kilometer counters take readings from the gearbox; on some models, the speedometer gear is installed in the transfer case. The speedometer drive can be either electric or mechanical (cable), but in the electric version the readings are more accurate.
A mechanical odometer has a series of wheels with numbers on them, usually located on the speedometer itself. Due to gear transmissions, the wheels rotate, and the numbers on the rotating drums change accordingly.
Pulses are read in the electronic odometer; many modern devices use a Hall sensor, and the kilometer readings are displayed on an electronic display.
Electromechanical devices have both mechanical and electronic sensors - usually the drive is mechanical, and the electronics display information on the display.
Potential buyers of used cars are interested in how they can find out the actual mileage of the vehicle they are purchasing. There are quite a few ways to determine the mileage traveled, and we will talk about them.
On many modern cars, mileage is displayed not only on an electronic display; the readings are duplicated in the keys and in various electronic units (ABS, gearbox, transfer case). You can view the readings of duplicate meters on special scanners or on computer devices that are connected to the vehicle’s electrical circuit. For example, on the first generation BMW X5, data can be taken from the transfer case.
Sellers can twist mileage readings on any odometer, including an electronic meter; this is precisely why readings on an electronic display should not be trusted. The accuracy of the mileage can be checked in the service book, which contains all the marks on the maintenance completed; to do this, you should contact the official dealer who carried out the maintenance.
You can try to find out whether the car's mileage is incorrect by paying attention to the odometer counter:
- On a mechanical device, when rewinding the mileage, the numbers are often uneven, so you should pay attention to their location. It is difficult to judge the condition of the speedometer cable; the fastening nut could have been unscrewed not only to adjust the mileage, but also to replace a faulty cable;
- To change the mileage on the electronic odometer, intervention in the electronic circuit of the device is required. Whether the mileage was twisted or not can be determined by the marks left by the tool during disassembly.
Experienced motorists determine the approximate mileage of a car by external signs and the condition of some parts. Many people advise paying attention to the following items when buying a car:
- degree of wear on the steering wheel and gear knob;
- worn rubber linings on the brake pedal and gas pedal.
With a high mileage, these parts may indeed show signs of wear, but all this is subjective. To some extent this is true, but here the following points need to be taken into account:
- the pedal pads, steering wheel and handle can be changed, and many parts in good condition are sold at disassembly sites;
- All people use their car differently.
The easiest way to judge the kilometers traveled is by the condition of the left side of the driver's seat. If there are abrasions or holes in this place, most likely the car has a good mileage - the trim most often shows signs of wear after 200 thousand kilometers.
When buying a used car, you should carefully inspect the engine compartment. When changing engine oil at service stations, technicians leave stickers and write the mileage on them. The reseller may not have discovered these stickers, and if you’re lucky, you can find out the approximate mileage from them.
A simple example - the seller claims that the car has driven 120 thousand km, but upon careful inspection under the hood a sticker was found under the hood stating that the engine oil should be changed at 280 thousand km. Further comments are unnecessary.
Which cars are most likely to have low mileage?
Very often, the kilometers traveled on expensive cars with rich equipment are twisted. To check the actual mileage of the vehicle, you can invite the seller to conduct an independent examination.
It is difficult to check the twisted mileage on “truck cars” that were used constantly. Such cars are constantly in motion, covering many kilometers. Often, many motorists calculate the actual mileage depending on the age of the car, for example, if the car is three years old, it covers an average of 60-100 thousand km. During this time, a “truck driver” can cover 300-350 thousand km. It is very profitable for “repurchasers” to rewind the mileage here - most often such cars are driven on country roads in a gentle mode, so they look very decent.
The easiest way to make the counter spin in the opposite direction is on a mechanical odometer; here, almost anyone can change the mileage of a car with their own hands. For this procedure you do not even need to disassemble the instrument panel. This is done as follows:
- the speedometer cable is unscrewed from the gearbox;
- take an electric drill with reverse;
- the drill connects to the cable and turns on.
Having rewinded the required number of kilometers, the drill is turned off.
In order to change the mileage on the electronic odometer, you need to disassemble the instrument panel. The electronic meter contains a special microcircuit that is responsible for mileage. On electronic odometers, mileage is changed using:
- programmer;
- special programs for calculating odometers.
Who twists the mileage on the odometer
Unfortunately, in Russia the mileage is lost on almost 90% of cars on the secondary market. Car owners resort to the services of car services; some car centers are not shy about advertising their services publicly. The law of the Russian Federation does not prohibit engaging in such fraud, so when buying a used car you need to be vigilant. Abroad, those who like to waste mileage are punished, but not all scammers are caught. For example, a third of cars come from Germany with a curled odometer.
You can check the actual mileage of any car; another thing is that for some cars it is more difficult, for others it is easier. The easiest way to calculate mileage is in European cars; it is much more difficult in Japanese cars. But the difference in the price of a car with different mileage is still more noticeable than the amount you have to pay for increasing the mileage.
If you are buying a used car:
- First of all, ask for a service book with maintenance marks - this is the only document that really reflects the number of kilometers traveled.
- Do not hesitate to make inquiries from the official dealers where the maintenance was performed; to do this, you can introduce yourself as the owner of the car. Once all information is confirmed, you can safely make a purchase.
- To check the technical condition, ask the owner of the vehicle to conduct an in-depth diagnosis of the car. It’s good if you have friends at the car service center - they will objectively assess the condition of the vehicle.
- If you are buying an expensive car with a rich set of equipment, offer to drive to an authorized dealer in order to read the data from the key. Resellers reflash the electronic units, but the dealer retains the correct data (of course, if the dealer was not bribed).
- You should pay attention to the condition of the service book - if it looks like new, then this is suspicious. It is possible that the document may be fake.
The main criteria for choosing a used car are the year of manufacture and mileage. The average annual mileage of a passenger car is about 25 thousand km, and for a five-year-old car it significantly exceeds 100 thousand km. But in many of the copies found on sale, this figure is significantly lower, which leads to suspicion of deception on the part of the seller. In order not to fall for the trick of scammers, you need to recognize the twisted mileage in time and refuse such a purchase.
Is mileage often changed?
The mileage value can be adjusted in any direction on almost every car. In most cases, it is adjusted to a lower value to hide the actual mileage and justify the price of the car when selling. But sometimes the mileage is increased to avoid expensive scheduled maintenance, which is carried out between 90 and 105 thousand km. Owners of cars often sell them beforehand, so as not to spend money, and dealers for the same purpose increase the mileage, assuring customers that all the necessary routine maintenance has already been carried out.
How they can cheat a car's mileage
On cars with a mechanical odometer, manipulations to twist the mileage are carried out as follows:
- Opening the dashboard and rearranging the numbers showing mileage manually.
- Scrolling the speedometer cable using an electric drill at the point where it enters the gearbox, in this case the intervention is almost impossible to determine, and you need to focus on indirect signs of a violation of the condition of certain parts.
On cars with an electronic odometer, information about the accumulated mileage is stored in a memory chip. To change this value, a computer with pre-installed special software is used. In some cases, they resort to replacing the electronic board chips themselves, which store the necessary information. You can independently determine the manipulation by paying attention to minor damage left during unprofessional disassembly, or traces of tampering on the electronic board.
How to determine if a mileage is twisted
Most attempts by “masters” who twist the run can be easily identified by an experienced eye.
If there are no obvious signs of manipulation with the odometer, but there are certain suspicions, you should contact a specialized service station or a branded service center for a specific car.
You can independently determine whether the mileage indicator has changed in the following ways:
- Having examined the condition of the interior parts. What matters is the degree of their wear, corresponding to a certain mileage of the car.
- Careful study of the car’s registration certificate and service book with further comparison of the information recorded there with the words of the seller about the scheduled maintenance performed. Each discrepancy indicates document falsification and manipulation of mileage readings. In this case, they contact the service that services this car and, according to the VIN code, obtain actual information.
- Studying the tire tread height and comparing its wear with the mileage on the odometer. If the car still has original tires, low mileage and lack of tread indicate manipulation of this indicator.
- Study of the condition and performance of individual components and elements of the machine. The discrepancy between the wear of the brake discs and the odometer readings, the presence of chips and traces of polishing on the paintwork of the body and traces from the wiper are checked. Heavily worn and damaged parts indicate a mileage exceeding 150 thousand km.
- For American and Canadian vehicles, current information can be found using the Autochek and Carfax databases. For Japanese-made cars, all the necessary information is indicated on the auction sheet, which is necessarily present on the newly imported car, but may be “lost” during resale.
What to pay attention to
When choosing a used car, special attention should be paid to characteristic signs indicating a discrepancy between the odometer readings and the condition of the car, namely:
- Condition of the windshield. It is stamped with the year of manufacture and has a mileage of more than 100 thousand km. There will be a lot of small chips and wiper marks visible on the surface. If there is noticeable glare, the glass was most likely polished in an attempt to hide the condition of the car.
- Engine condition based on cylinder compression, oil pressure, pulley wear and exhaust color. Noticeable wear of the power unit with a mileage of up to 150 thousand km. indicates a changed odometer reading.
- The presence of stickers and tags attached under the hood at the time of service or oil change. The dates indicated on them will help to convict an unscrupulous seller of providing false mileage data, if any.
- The condition of the car's interior - worn buttons and upholstery, a hand-polished steering wheel, dented driver's seat, characteristic folds on the leather seats. These signs indicate a real mileage of 150 thousand or more thousand km.
- With a mechanical odometer, place the speedometer cable in the gearbox housing. After manipulating it, traces of impact on the fastening nut remain. The impact on the sensor itself is determined by traces of opening the instrument panel and the uneven position of the odometer numbers.
Bottom line
The above signs do not always provide objective information about high mileage, since careful handling of the car, even after traveling 200 thousand, ensures that its appearance changes slightly. To obtain accurate data on the kilometers traveled by the car, you should contact a car service center, where specialists, for a fee, will be able to determine the presence of interference in the odometer, if any, and also carry out a full diagnosis of the systems and mechanisms of the car.
Twisting the speedometer is not a problem now, and this operation, under the slightly modified name “adjusting the odometer readings,” is openly offered by many companies with modern electronic equipment. In this article, we will look at why it is customary for us to twist the actual mileage readings of a car, or vice versa, to cheat it, in what ways this is done on different speedometers, and how to identify a car with low mileage.
Twisting the speedometer is not a violation of the law and is quite common in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Moreover, speedometer adjustments are not carried out to increase the mileage, but, for example, if the wheels were replaced with a slightly larger diameter (or gears with a different number of teeth in the gearbox or rear axle). In this case, the maximum speed may change and if the speedometer is not adjusted, it will give incorrect readings.
And some cars equipped with an on-board computer begin to notify the driver about the need for maintenance after the first hundred thousand km. And before selling a car, many car owners do not want to do maintenance and deliberately underestimate the mileage, it is cheaper for them. Adjustments are also required on American cars brought to our country in order to convert the miles to the kilometers we are accustomed to. Well, quite often you have to adjust electronic speedometers if there are problems with the battery (or generator), the on-board power is turned off and all settings are lost.
But still, the main reason for twisting speedometers is to save money on selling a car, which will cost significantly more if the mileage is less. Even the majority of foreign cars in car dealerships have forcedly lower mileage, and what can we say about cars sold in car markets or through advertisements.
Moreover, there are cases when the odometer readings are not only underestimated, but also, on the contrary, slightly overestimated. This is done if the odometer of the car being sold shows 90 - 95 thousand, and on most cars maintenance should be done after 100 thousand. And in order not to spend money on car maintenance before selling, it is cheaper for the owner to slightly increase the mileage (cheaper, but not for the newest cars, more on that later), having passed the 100 thousandth mark, throw new pads on the wheels to avert the eyes, and you can When selling, praise the car, referring to the completed maintenance.
Well, underestimating the mileage is already understandable - this is a banal hope that the lower the mileage of the car, the easier it is to sell it. After all, if you find out the actual mileage of a car, its price can drop by almost half. I wrote a separate article on how to determine the real mileage of a car without looking at the odometer, and I advise you to read about it in detail. And having remembered the information there, you will be able to ignore the odometer numbers when buying a used car.
And most “dummies” (newbie drivers) at the market, first of all, look at the year of manufacture of the car and the odometer readings, and many of the buyers are not even surprised that the supposedly true mileage of the car does not coincide with the year of its manufacture.
After all, even a hedgehog understands that the average mileage of a city car is approximately 30 thousand km per year (there are, of course, exceptions, but not often), and those who live outside the city and go to work every day sometimes drive even more in a year. What can we say about cars that have been used for several years in private taxis? And most cars reach the 100 thousandth mark on the odometer in just 3 - 3.5 years, or even earlier.
But often on the market there are cars in a row, rubbed with cheap polish, with hundreds on the odometer, and few buyers are surprised that the car is already 10 years old, with 100 thousand kilometers!? Here even a first-grader understands that the mileage is underestimated by two or even three times, and it is surprising that there are novice drivers who do not notice this obviousness.
And when trying to understand the reality by asking the seller a completely legitimate and adequate question, the seller immediately begins to tell stories about the former owner, a pensioner, who drove the car only on weekends (to the country) or holidays. Or maybe the car was just standing in the garage and he miraculously found it. Of course, you shouldn’t believe such tales, because there are very few such cars, and everyone is looking for them and can’t find them.
How to twist different types of speedometers and what they are.
Speedometers come in three main types, each of which can be twisted in a specific way.
Mechanical speedometer. Such speedometers have served faithfully since the very first self-propelled carriages, and some cars were produced with them until 2000, and some automakers (including our domestic ones) installed them right up to the end of 2007. This is the simplest, fairly accurate and reliable mechanism. It is quite simple to twist the odometer of such a device.
You need to disassemble it, separate the odometer and connect its drive to some kind of motor that will rotate it in the opposite direction to reduce the mileage and forward to increase it. But here you should be careful and have an understanding of correct assembly, otherwise the numbers on the drum will not be on the same line.
In addition, it is worth considering that all speedometer housings have seals on the screws and it will not be possible to disassemble the speedometer without breaking the seal. And a particularly picky buyer can take the time to check the seals, since on some cars it is quite easy to remove the dashboard and get to the speedometer.
Although, some models of speedometers allow you to twist them back without disassembling, just remove the drive cable from the gearbox and secure it to the electric motor shaft, turn it in the right direction, connecting the motor in the right polarity.
But on some production cars of not the latest years of production, you can twist the electronic speedometer without even disassembling the device, but simply by connecting the computer to the diagnostic connector. But on most cars you still have to disassemble the panel to get to the electronic speedometer board. Although you can disassemble the tidy on most cars in just a few minutes.
The board contains a small microcircuit (only 8 legs, see photo on the left) with a memory of only 1 kilobyte, which is enough to save the information parameters of the dashboard. To erase (twist) the real mileage readings, you should unsolder the microcircuit and connect it to the computer and change the readings. But in order to unsolder the chip, you will have to disassemble the device to get to the back of the board.
If you wish, you can disassemble the dashboard of your purchased car and see traces of non-factory soldering (see photo on the left). However, as I already said, looking at the odometer when buying a used car, even at a car dealership, is useless. In 99 cases out of 100 it is twisted. The actual mileage can be determined by inspecting the car, based on the signs described in the detailed article (link to the article above in the text).
And some craftsmen change the mileage parameters without even desoldering the chip, but by connecting jewelry-made contacts on top of the microcircuit (as in the video below the article), which contact the legs of the microcircuit without shorting the neighboring ones. There are also “kulibins” that are capable of soldering an additional microcircuit and an additional button, when pressed, the odometer readings can be changed at any time.
But of course, such a button on the dashboard will only confirm that the real mileage on this car is, in any case, twisted and you can only find out by examining the car’s components, as with most used cars.
I hope this article and the video below it will prove to novice drivers that adjusting the speedometer on most cars is not at all difficult, but looking at the odometer when buying a car is useless, good luck to everyone.
Mileage is one of the most important factors when choosing a used car, but odometer readings can't always be trusted. Find out how to avoid deception and reveal the true age of a car.
When looking for a used car, different buyers pay attention to different parameters and characteristics - cross-country ability, power, efficiency, low cost of maintenance, and so on. And everyone without exception looks at only two indicators - the year of manufacture and mileage. With the first, as a rule, there are no problems - you can completely trust what is written in the vehicle’s passport. And when it comes to mileage, you have to rely on your own experience and instinct - changing the readings of a mechanical or electronic (these are found on most modern cars) odometer is quite simple.
Why do they twist the mileage? The answer is simple: to sell the car more profitably and quickly. Most often, the kilometer or mile meter readings are forcibly changed if they can be used to judge the impending costly maintenance. Most cars need it shortly before the mileage of 50, 100 or 200 thousand kilometers. It is interesting that the mileage is not only adjusted, but also increased: sometimes it is more profitable to sell a car with a mileage of 110 thousand than 90: the buyer can be told that all routine maintenance has been completed and there will be no need for immediate investments in the car. Of course, if these words are confirmed by some noticeable detail like a new timing belt or “fresh” brake pads.
Tip one - according to statistics, the average car owner (except for those same grandfathers) drives 20-30 thousand kilometers per year. If this figure, multiplied by the age of the car, differs from the odometer readings several times, the likelihood that the mileage is “twisted” increases sharply. Small city cars are usually driven the least: here a relatively low annual mileage may well be fair.
Look at the tires. If the seller talks about a mileage of 20-30 thousand kilometers, and the tires on the wheels are practically new, it is likely that the mileage is underestimated.
Under the hood of foreign cars you can often find stickers on which service stations indicate the mileage of the car when passing the next technical inspection or simply changing the oil. If the crafty seller did not notice one of them and forgot to tear it off, it will be easy to catch him in a lie.
On mechanical odometers, a twisted mileage is indicated by the location of the wheels with numbers - after external intervention, they will not stand in a straight line, but will “jump”.
And, finally, the easiest way: examine the condition of the fabric upholstery of the seats and door panels, see how worn the rubber pads on the pedals and floor mats are, and whether you can see from the steering wheel that more than one captain has been behind it. It happens that used cars that were used in taxis or rentals are supplied to Russia under the guise of “private” ones - their annual mileage is at least twice as high, and deception can be determined just by these simple signs.
Why is odometer manipulation popular in Russia?
According to Avtostat statistics, a car whose age is approaching 10 years will cover 18,000 kilometers of annual mileage. And, of course, anyone who wants to buy a car that is not the first freshness hopes to find the least “driven” option. In such cases, sellers meet buyers halfway.
Psychology
On the market and various websites, you often come across advertisements for the sale of cars that are 5-7 years old with mileage from 30 to 70 thousand kilometers. Somehow this doesn’t really agree with the Autostat data. The discrepancy is explained simply - for more than half of used cars, the mileage is simply adjusted to psychologically comfortable levels. In other words, just twisted.
By the way, if not half of car owners, then a good third for some reason believe that the “thing” where the mileage numbers are shown is called a speedometer. Like, he alone is responsible for both speed and mileage. In fact, the odometer is responsible for the mileage. Let's talk about him.
How does it work?
Initially, cars were equipped with a classic mechanical odometer. He lasted on foreign cars until the end of the last century. In the domestic auto industry – a little longer.
The mechanical odometer is a standard digital odometer with a gearbox with a large gear ratio. In order for one of the numbers to give way to another, the input shaft must “scroll” about two thousand times.
This “old school” odometer is connected to the gearbox output shaft with a special cable. As the gears turn, the mileage gradually increases.
The modern “smart” odometer no longer has this “primitive” quality. There is a sensor right on the output shaft or wheel (depending on the car) that takes into account the revolutions. There are two types: optical or magnetic. The sensor sends the received data to the electronic control unit. And he, in turn, displays them on the dashboard display.
By the way, it happens that information about the kilometers traveled is duplicated in different control units. And sometimes even into the ignition key.
On “sophisticated” “Bavarians” or Land Rovers, which are traditionally considered the most “stubborn” cars in terms of increasing mileage, there can be about ten such data storages.
How is the mileage calculated?
It is clear that we will not describe this procedure in detail. Let's just briefly explain how this happens.
Mechanical odometer
To correct the kilometers traveled on it, two methods are used. In the first case, you need to connect some kind of electric motor or, for example, a drill to the input shaft of the meter. With their help, the odometer can be turned in the opposite direction.
The problem with this method is that it takes quite a lot of time to “rewind”. Craftsmen sometimes have to sit for hours with a drill in their hands and persistently “buzz” in order to see the coveted numbers.
The second option is that you just need to “tear apart” the odometer, and then put it back together, setting the required mileage.
Electronic odometer
It is adjusted using electronic devices. If we are talking about simple, cheap cars, just unscrew the dashboard cover. Then the odometer is connected to a computer, where a special program will allow you to set the desired mileage. After the manipulations, the lid is screwed back on - and it’s done. Only screws scratched with a screwdriver can report a “crime.”
If the car has backup “storages”, adjusting the mileage will not be much more complicated. It is enough to connect to the on-board computer and delete information from the reserves. If necessary, the ignition key can be “cleaned” using “reflashing”.
By the way, if the “master” overlooked it - did not delete information from all blocks - then after some time old data may appear on the odometer. This will be a surprise.
Well, for “sophisticated” cars there is another method - a more radical one. A special microcircuit is “implanted” into the block, with which you can set any numbers you like.
Now there is not a single car whose mileage cannot be corrected. And it doesn’t matter whether we are talking about Logan or Hammer. And all because car manufacturers don’t bother about protecting information about mileage. In fact, this does not concern them. After all, who is interested in the problems of secondary buyers?!
Price issue
Such manipulations with odometers are inexpensive. If you set yourself a goal, you can find specialists in “garages” who will deal with a mechanical device quickly and for a maximum of a thousand rubles.
Correcting the simplest electronic odometer will cost 1,500-2,000 rubles. Well, the rest is clear. The more complex the mechanism and protection, the higher the price.
How to determine that the mileage is twisted?
In fact, it is quite difficult to find out. If the adjustments were carried out by specialists, and not by the garage “Uncle Vasya”, it will most likely not be possible to find “traces of the crime”.
The only thing that can help is indirect “evidence” - pedal pads that are too worn out for the stated mileage, tattered upholstery on the steering wheel or seats. But we must not forget (especially if we are talking about a budget car) that the covers and linings themselves are cheap and of low quality. Therefore, they can quickly lose their presentation.
Bottom line
By and large, mileage in itself is not a 100% indicator of wear on the “steel horse”. For example, in Germany or France, car owners calmly drive up to 200 thousand kilometers - and do not know grief. True, they do not forget to call at the service station in a timely manner for preventative maintenance or minor repairs. Therefore, European cars, even with solid odometer readings, are of quite decent quality.
On the other hand, it is clear that an indifferent, careless and stingy driver can easily drive a car to the point of “zugunder” even over several tens of thousands of kilometers. Therefore, you need to pay special attention to the overall condition of the car, and not just the odometer.
