Victim of ODO Rollback....Best Thing To Do?

Hey guys... So here goes the story.

Since the purchase of my newer Tacoma, I decided to put my 2005 Tacoma 2.7L 4cyl up for sale. So I went ahead and also purchased the Carfax and here's what I found out..

At the day of purchasing the truck on 4/10/2014 used from a guy off of craigslist, it had 105xxx miles on the odometer. However, the Carfax shows on 4//1/2014, 9 days earlier it was Smog checked at 170,270 miles... The truck was registered under my name through the CA Dmv @105,527 miles. The CA Dmv never sent me any letter regarding discrepancies in the vast mileage difference.

The truck now sits un-driven at approx 125,024 Miles on the odometer.

Yes...Shame on me for not getting a Carfax report at the time..It was my first vehicle and I didn't know there was such a thing.


What can I do about this? I feel like I am stuck with the truck due to the fact of the mileage rollback.

If any members on here have dealt with something like this, please feel to share, or any advice on what I could do would be appreciated.

 

and this my friends is one of the reasons why i bought a new truck. Caught SO MANY used first gen trucks in this lie... get vin, run carfax.... go umm... how did it get smogged last year at 170k and you are only reporting / showing the ODO at 85k.

OP just be honest in your sale and you will be fine, you might take a hit in price for the sale but it is what it is.

 

Not for nothing, but if the seller committed fraud you may want to look into some options beyond taking the hit on price. Yes you should have checked before buying but the seller is responsible for misrepresentations. If he owned the truck at that smog check, then he has some explaining to do. Could be a mistake but it could be something worse. Buyer beware does not apply to fraud. The biggest question is whether pursuing the seller is possible and worth it. What's the price difference between your truck and odo mileage and what would be the actual mileage? If you did sell, disclose that and put it in writing that you disclosed.

 

I doubt this is a mistake by any means... The the ODO dropping 65K in 9 days is a huge red flag. I have a feeling he may have changed the gauge cluster before he put it up for sale to show the 105K instead of 170K miles.

So if we're talking about mileage difference, let's say I bought the truck at the true 170,xxx miles that was supposed to be. From the first mileage I reported to the DMV which was 105527 miles to the last mile I put on the truck was approx 125,024. Which rounded would be a 19,500 miles. So total actual miles would be somewhere around 190K miles.

 

Yeah. I hear you... This is why my newer truck was purchased from a dealer and I will probably never go back to buying a vehicle from a private party because of something shady like this. Sure, I can try to sell it and fully disclose this mileage rollback. I just don't want the new owner to retaliate when it comes time for them to sell and try to blame me for the mileage change.

 

thats when you check the box on the pinkslip that says "Mileage on odometer is not actual mileage" as well as fully disclose, Then there is no recourse

 

Yeah, I have to double check the pink and see what he checked. As far as myself selling it, I would definitely have to check the box showing "not actual mileage." Thanks for the reminder about that.

 

Was there any other entries with the mileage above 105K? It very well could have been an entry error by the smog tech. Glanced and remembered wrong???

 

The ODO reading is stored in the ECU not in the gauge cluster, this seems more like a clerical error at the smog check.

 

Nope. It had climbed all the way to the reported mileage at 170,270 at the smog check. The carfax shows the mileage anywhere close to 105K was back in 2-2-09...

 

I don't think it was an error at all from the smog check.

 

Check with a Toyota tech, the ODO data is in the ECU the gauge cluster is just a display. There is no way to crack the ECU and rewrite the ODO data so in theory the only way it could happen is if someone got a lower mileage ECU out of a salvage yard and that would be easy to tell by the serial numbers etc.

 

Understood. I don't think he'd get a used Ecu because you even said it yourself that the gauge cluster is just a display and would not show anything different even with a different unit.

My thinking is within the 9 days between the smog check and the day I came to check it out, the previous owner picked up a used gauge cluster showing the 105xxx miles instead of the actual miles which should have been on the original gauge cluster.

 

No you misunderstood me, The gauge cluster is just a digital display so the only way to change what is shows is to change the ECU that is sending the info to it. Changing the gauge cluster would not do a damn thing, the minute you put a different gauge cluster in it would simply display the correct mileage in the ECU. That is one of many reasons why legally on all modern vehicles the ECU must be transplanted with the motor when performing an engine swap.

 

Gotcha. Makes sense now. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

While not common, these types of problems do seem to crop up from time to time. Perhaps it would be best to invite the previous owner of your truck to lunch, or just a cup of coffee. There, in a nice restaurant, you could reveal your discovery of his stealing from you, and share some recent and candid photographs you'd had taken of his family and him going about their daily routines. Then, explain how you aren't mad at him, you simply want to be made whole again and exactly what he will do to facilitate your being made whole. Now would probably be a good time to let him know that you aren't in a hurry for your money, but that it would be best for everybody concerned if he would simply leave an envelope with the money he owes you in your mailbox by noon tomorrow. Also, because you are an honest man, part out the truck. Good luck to you, Carey.

 

False i had troubles with ecm in my 06. Swapped with one from an 05 and reprogrammed it myself with a paperclip.mileage did not change

 

Small claims court. Looks like evidence is in your favor. Just have to prove difference in value. I was about to do this once until a lady ran a stop sign and totalled my truck. Problem fixed. Mileage seemed awfully low but miles on inspection were on sychn with odometer. Closer inspection after a blown engine showed some obvious signs of higher miles.

 

Lol.

 

odometer fraud is a federal crime

http://www.nhtsa.gov/Vehicle+Safety/Odometer+Fraud/Criminal+Investigations


but of ~450,000 instances per year, only about 250 perps get busted