Rep Power: 0

I recently bought a 2001 honda civic automatic 4door. The seller said that the instrument cluster was not working properly, as in lights, fuel gage. So he replaced it with a used one. The car he is selling is said to have around 116,000miles on it but with the replaced instrument cluster, that he bought used, it now reads 181,000miles. So my question is that could the mileage be changed due to changing out the instrument cluster? Thanks to anyone that could help on this. Oh an yes I do have the original instrument cluster, he gave that to me

 
Rep Power: 519

I'm not sure what you want to know here.


You have to trust the sellers claims and hope he has documentation to back up the claims.

A shop may have placed an odometer change info sticker in the door jamb, but most people don't do that.

Mileage is only stored in the instrument cluster. No other control units have odometer information. There is no other way to obtain true mileage info from the car. (Some other manufacturers program redundant odometer info in other control units, but Honda did not do that for this car.)

The dealer scantool cannot alter or adjust odometer information on that car. We have to send the cluster out to a speedometer repair service to change mileage.

You could send the cluster out and have your odometer altered if you wish, I think someone else here did look into this for themselves.


You can plug in the original cluster and view the mileage, bit I don't know what good that will do at this point.

 
Rep Power: 0

Ok thanks. Just wanting to check to see if anyway to find true mileage. So I'm guessing from this statement that basically anyone can lower/raise their mileage just by switching out the instrument cluster? Seems too easy to me, but I'll definitely look into the last receipts from oil changes, smog and registration. Thanks again!

 
Rep Power: 0

Sorry, but one more thing. Is the mileage stored to the instrument cluster? This will just give me peace of mind know if I got a good deal or haggled. Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 519

Only if the cluster swap has documentation, as in notes of odometer reading when the original cluster was removed, and notes of new odometer reading upon installation.

Official documentation would be an odometer change sticker in the door jamb. DIYers don't normally have those stickers.

Correct, on that car. All one has to do is swap the cluster, and it's a popular swap by itself. People swap clusters to get a different color and/or different design.

Good idea.

*from the car itself

 
Rep Power: 0

This may be a stupid question...sorry if it is. I have 2015 Honda Civic...very low mileage ( but not as much as it says I have). I believe I am in the low 30K . However, mileage now shows 3050.5 with a litte "A" in front of it. I know I drove more than 3000 miles in 5 years. So why can't I get the real mileage anymore. I noticed this only after I brought it in for it's annual checkup

 
Rep Power: 223

That's probably the mileage until the car needs to be serviced again, you should be able to flip through the different screens on the display to get the total mileage

 
Rep Power: 225

You're on trip A. You should be able to change it back to the regular odometer using buttons on the steering wheel or a **** in the cluster.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thank you for your resonses. I did try changing it on my steering wheel, thru the button that has the exclamation point (don't laugh...haha!...I don't know what that button is called since I am not sitting in my car) ...but neither option shows my real mileage. And unfortunately I don't know what the "cluster" is.

 
Rep Power: 225

The cluster is the gauges behind the steering wheel (were it is showing the mileage). There should be a select/reset **** on the top right corner, push it and it should switch to trip B, push it again and it should change back to the odometer.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks so much, I will look for them, and let you know how it worked.