Celica Forums Install Guides and Technical Articles Information and Articles Odometer Mileage Fraud

FEDERAL ODOMETER LAW

Motor Vehicle Cost Information Act, 49 U.S.C. Section 32704

1. (It shall be unlawful for a person) "with intent to defraud, operate a motor vehicle on a street, road, or highway if the person knows that the odometer of the vehicle is disconnected or not operating; or

2. The owner of the vehicle or agent of the owner shall attach a written notice to the left door frame of the vehicle specifying the mileage before the service, repair, or replacement and the date of the service, repair, or replacement.

3. A person transferring ownership of a motor vehicle shall give the transferee the following written disclosure

A) Disclosure of the cumulative mileage registered on the odometer,

B) Disclosure that the actual mileage is unknown if the transferor knows that the odometer reading is different from different from the number of miles the vehicle has actually traveled.

(b) Mileage Statement Requirement for Licensing. - (1) A motor vehicle the ownership of which is transferred may not be licensed for use in a State unless the transferee, in submitting an application to a State for the title on which the license will be issued, includes with the application the transferor's title and, if that title contains the space referred to in paragraph (3)(A)(iii) of this subsection, a statement, signed and dated by the transferor, of the mileage disclosure required under subsection (a) of this section



NOTES: Fraud would be if you intentionally changed your odometer mileage and represented your car when selling it as having different than actual mileage.

Replacing your gauge overlays will NOT reset your odometer.

We will NOT discuss how to reset your odometer in this article - any replies with 'how-to' comments of doing so, will be removed immediately!

This isn't a "how to" but:

if I have my gauges off for an extended period of time (I am going to change the LED's and clean that clear plastic piece in front of them) will that effect anything? I don't want to miles to roll back, because I have enough problems with my dealer as it is

nope - that will not affect anything
although, none of your center console items will function while your gauge cluster is removed (AC/Air/Clock...etc)

Hi guys, here is another question. I want to buy a 2003 celica gts, how do I spot odometer fraud. Should I check that the ecu numbers match, and where do I find the numbers? Should I have the dealer check the computer for the actual mileage? Is there any way to see if the odo cable has been disconnected before? How do I make sure that I am not getting screwed? Thanks a lot for any help.

Yes, I too would be interested in understanding how to spot odometer mileage fraud on the Celica's electronic odometer. I bought my Celica used about 5 months ago... and the price seemed a bit "too good to be true." I have had no problems with it yet, but the car came with an unbelievably low amount of miles on it. It's an '01, and when I bought it, it had only a little over 30,000 miles on it. It had 3 previous owners... so I'm just a bit skeptical.

^^^why did you buy the car if you were skeptical about it?

By the way this is not a HOW-TO question eventhough it might seem like it

Anyway if I replace my gauge cluster with one of the new ones. My celic is a 2000 and it has the Italic Font on the gauges and for some reason the new style appeals more to me. So if I got a cluster off a new celica and replace the one that I have, will I still have the same milage on my odometer or will it be the milage from the new cluster? Because I kinda though that the actual number was stored somehwere else rather than the cluster so correct me if I am wrong.

If I'm not mistaking odometer information is being stored in the EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory). It's a chip that stores basic information of your car. Sort of BIOS for computer. Yes it can be reset; however, doing is so risky.

I could be wrong, I could be right...who knows

My 93 Celica had a broken odometer.The ownership papers said the mileage was exempt.I bought the car as is, with no engine or transmission.I bought a brand new odometer to put in the car.A lot of friends told me this was highly illegal?.I went to the local state police and asked them about it.They said I could replace the odometer with a new one as long as it wasn't for fraudulent purpose and that I must disclose the odometer replacement to a new owner if I ever sold the vehicle.Plus Mileage /Odometer readings are exempt and can not be disclosed after 100K.The laws may be different in other states I'm not sure?.Does the Odometer reading become exempt in every state when it reaches mileage over 100K and why ?.