INISLDR
Well-known member
Well I had my MK4 up for sale and the buyer pulled a carfax. Apparently the PO had rolled back 100K off the odometer. Is there anyway to verify this? Could the carfax be mistaken?
Anything can be hacked (altered). However, changing the mileage in the ECU would require different tools and different knowledge than just the instrument panel. Therefore it is unlikely (but not impossible) that they bothered to change both locationsCan you alter ECU mileage?
Yes, or some other similar tool. I have no idea what kinds of nefarious tools are out there for chop shops and other automotive bottom feeders.Wouldn't you need a VagTacho to alter cluster miles?
smartProbably easier to hack CarFax than the cluster...................
I don't put much faith in CarFax.
I am interested in searching the ecu for mileage info. Can somebody point me in the right direction? I have a VAG-COM cable and VCDS. Just need to know where to look...
Also after looking at the Carfax it appears that the owner before me rolled back the odo 100k. They only owned it for 4 months and they had it smogged right before they sold it to me. I'm actually surprised at the condition of the car for almost 300k miles. Very simple and robust vehicle. Of course now I have to deal with this mess trying to sell it because I cannot pass on the lie to the next buyer.
I would also like to roll the odo forward ( if possible ) to the correct reading if I can in fact pull the mileage from the ecu...
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
I understand your wanting to set the odometer right (for all the implied reasons) and I don't know what the law/requirements in your state are, but it may be that if you mess with the mileage now you have "tampered" with it and may have some responsibility there. I would leave things alone and disclose to the buyer what you know about it and nothing more since you don't know for sure exactly what the true mileage is.I am interested in searching the ecu for mileage info. Can somebody point me in the right direction? I have a VAG-COM cable and VCDS. Just need to know where to look...
Also after looking at the Carfax it appears that the owner before me rolled back the odo 100k. They only owned it for 4 months and they had it smogged right before they sold it to me. I'm actually surprised at the condition of the car for almost 300k miles. Very simple and robust vehicle. Of course now I have to deal with this mess trying to sell it because I cannot pass on the lie to the next buyer.
I would also like to roll the odo forward ( if possible ) to the correct reading if I can in fact pull the mileage from the ecu...
1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
I would call Carfax and have them double check whatever entry gave them the 100k+ mileage. Was it just one entry with 100k difference? Are there other Carfax entries with more miles then presently showing? Make some type of arguement that an error in data is making your car difficult to sell.Update:
I was able to run an auto scan with VCDS and the mileage matches that of the in dash odometer exactly. So does this mean that the ecu was swapped out and or hacked as well? It would be nice if there was a way to verify this. I am leaning toward a Carfax typo. For what its worth it felt good to see that they matched...is there a way to compare numbers on the engine and or ecu and see if they are original with the car? For example I am pretty sure the head has been replaced on this engine so those engine numbers would not match...
Having tried this myself, it appears VCDS just shows what your Comfort Control module reports, not the ECU itself. Mine said exactly what the ODO said, while I'm sure the ECU is not original for this car. There must be some other way to extract the ECU mileage.Update:
I was able to run an auto scan with VCDS and the mileage matches that of the in dash odometer exactly. So does this mean that the ecu was swapped out and or hacked as well? It would be nice if there was a way to verify this. I am leaning toward a Carfax typo. For what its worth it felt good to see that they matched...is there a way to compare numbers on the engine and or ecu and see if they are original with the car? For example I am pretty sure the head has been replaced on this engine so those engine numbers would not match...
Thank you for this! I will check it out when I get home from work tomorrow.From VCDS main screen, I believe its under other options and then you get EDC15/16 mileage. This will pull the mileage right from the ECU which is independent of the cluster. Not many scan tools out there can change ECU mileage so unless it was swapped, its usually dead on.