I am an idiot

I've already arrived at that conclusion by myself. So save your fingers if you feel the need to spend your valuable time chastising me

2000 Beetle TDI 5 speed 275,000 miles.

I needed to adjust the odometer by adding 2,000 miles to it. I have a local friend who is a locksmith and has vag-com in order to read pin codes for programming keys.

I borrowed his vag-com and tried to do the adjustment.

It showed current value as -1 miles, which I thought a little strange. I added the new mileage. When I got through, the mileage hadn't changed, but the speedometer, tach, and gas gauge weren't functioning, and the oil light was blinking. The odometer was functioning however. After putting around with it some more, i managed to get the odometer to read all 9's and not work. The trip odometer still works however.

Any thoughts?

Any thoughts?

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I bet you won't do that again

I think I read somewhere that a instrument cluster can only have the mileage changed if it has less than 90 miles on it.

Vag tacho will do what you need. I do not have one.

zekeman said:

I've already arrived at that conclusion by myself. So save your fingers if you feel the need to spend your valuable time chastising me

2000 Beetle TDI 5 speed 275,000 miles.

I needed to adjust the odometer by adding 2,000 miles to it. I have a local friend who is a locksmith and has vag-com in order to read pin codes for programming keys.

I borrowed his vag-com and tried to do the adjustment.

Click to expand...

Triple facepalm because VAG-COM doesn't do that, you must have used some other tool to mess up your car.

Say good buy to your cluster. Beetle has very complicate eeprom in cluster and if you don't have very good tool you will make a brick out of cluster and there is no way back.Vag-Tacho , what was mention above, can not help it. What you did you mass up checksum in eeprom.

Don't underestimate my idiocy.

Actually you're probably right. I'll just do some other idiotic thing.

Newzboys said:

I bet you won't do that again

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Ol'Rattler said:

I think I read somewhere that a instrument cluster can only have the mileage changed if it has less than 90 miles on it.

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He said that he had done it before on cars he was working on. He did it just to see if he could do it, and then changed it right back.

wolfsburg_de said:

Triple facepalm because VAG-COM doesn't do that, you must have used some other tool to mess up your car.

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Well he actually has two tools. He called them both vag-com. One is a computer with an OBD dongle. The other is a self contained unit.

They both have the means for odometer adjustment.

He used the computer and dongle before when he did it. I was using the self contained unit. I went back and tried to fix it with the other tool, but apparently I had already screwed it up too much.

Not that it is of any significance, but why where you trying to change an odometer with 275,000 miles on it by adding 2,000 miles?

jetta said:

Say good buy to your cluster. Beetle has very complicate eeprom in cluster and if you don't have very good tool you will make a brick out of cluster and there is no way back.Vag-Tacho , what was mention above, can not help it. What you did you mass up checksum in eeprom.

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Any suggestions on fixing my delimma? Can I get a used cluster and put it in?

aja8888 said:

Not that it is of any significance, but why where you trying to change an odometer with 275,000 miles on it by adding 2,000 miles?

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I needed the odometer to reflect the actual mileage of the car.

zekeman said:

Any suggestions on fixing my delimma? Can I get a used cluster and put it in?

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If you can get a used cluster, that will be good. Then, communicate with Marin (jetta ,97) as to how to proceed.

zekeman said:

I needed the odometer to reflect the actual mileage of the car.

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Do you, by any chance, work for the government?

Just kidding!

I suspect that you will need a new cluster and a vag-tacho whiz-kid operator. I'm sorry this happened to you... I do stupid things all the time, I know how you feel!

I'm able to change mileage (without screwing up the car), but I'm in Florida.

The vagtacho will change the mileage on the odometer, but not the computer, i.e. even if you change it with vagtacho, Ross-tech vagcom will detect the true mileage.

One thing that I'm find odd, that I have never seen anyone warn people about with these lower mileage TDI's is authenticate the mileage. Someone who has a working vagtacho, and knows how to use it, can change the mileage to ANYTHING they want to, in about 3 minutes.

I always check that when I hook up to someones car, so far I've only found 1 car that had false mileage, it was roughly 30,000 miles short of what the real mileage in the computer was.

zekeman said:

Well he actually has two tools. He called them both vag-com. One is a computer with an OBD dongle. The other is a self contained unit.

They both have the means for odometer adjustment.

He used the computer and dongle before when he did it. I was using the self contained unit. I went back and tried to fix it with the other tool, but apparently I had already screwed it up too much.

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Sounds like he was calling both things the wrong name then.

I can help you fix this with proper documentation.
I can do a data transfer from your engine ecu so all is reflected proper.
With new, used or old cluster.

Let me know.

Best,

Jack

vwemporium@aol.com

According to the official website (http://www.maltchev.com/kiti/), the latest version of Vag-Tacho is compatible with New Beetle clusters.

Jetta, 97, you say the EEPROM is complicated - did the problem occur because zekeman tried to go through Vag-Tacho's (or whatever tool it was) "automated" interface for changing the mileage? If he had pulled an EEPROM dump, found and correctly altered the mileage coding somehow, and then reloaded it into his cluster, would it have worked, or would he still have gotten a checksum problem?

Mike_V said:

According to the official website (http://www.maltchev.com/kiti/), the latest version of Vag-Tacho is compatible with New Beetle clusters.

Jetta, 97, you say the EEPROM is complicated - did the problem occur because zekeman tried to go through Vag-Tacho's (or whatever tool it was) "automated" interface for changing the mileage? If he had pulled an EEPROM dump, found and correctly altered the mileage coding somehow, and then reloaded it into his cluster, would it have worked, or would he still have gotten a checksum problem?

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The problem is , NONE of those tools that was mention above have read/write eeprom on Beetle cluster.
When you do Beetle cluster you have to be really careful about milege.
Like I said before Magneti Marelli cluster( Beetle and TT) are very difficult clusters to work on it.
Even with Vag-Tacho latest version is not easy as it says on site. Most of the time cluster gets frozen and you can not calibrate miles.
There is some tools , but they are way , way more expensive:
http://enigmatool.com/en_,cennik.php

vwemporium said:

I can help you fix this with proper documentation.
I can do a data transfer from your engine ecu so all is reflected proper.
With new, used or old cluster.

Let me know.

Best,

Jack

vwemporium@aol.com

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Jack , was up man. Be careful on Beetles cluster. They are pain in the head.
Ask me how I know.

Newzboys said:

One thing that I'm find odd, that I have never seen anyone warn people about with these lower mileage TDI's is authenticate the mileage. Someone who has a working vagtacho, and knows how to use it, can change the mileage to ANYTHING they want to, in about 3 minutes.

I always check that when I hook up to someones car, so far I've only found 1 car that had false mileage, it was roughly 30,000 miles short of what the real mileage in the computer was.

Click to expand...

Have you done it on Beetle clusters ?
Jetta / Golf is piece of cake compering to Beetle clusters.

zekeman said:

Any suggestions on fixing my delimma? Can I get a used cluster and put it in?

Click to expand...

Yes you can do that , but keys needs to be adopted to immobilizer and of course miles needs to be calibrate to 0 or original.

Thank you for the information, I don't have a Beetle but it's good to know!

If we can get back on topic here: ("I am an idiot")

Zekeman, this morning I filled my coffee grinder up with water. You are not alone.

jetta said:

Have you done it on Beetle clusters ?
Jetta / Golf is piece of cake compering to Beetle clusters.

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No, I haven't worked on very many beetles, and I don't make a habit of changing mileage on cars. I just like knowing how to use the toys that I have.

Newzboys said:

I don't make a habit of changing mileage on cars.

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I did not mean this way. I meant to replace broken cluster with used one.

Newzboys said:

No, I haven't worked on very many beetles,

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I will tell you one thing , just be careful on Bettle and TT clusters.

Thanks, right now I try not to work on anyones cars besides mine.

I usually don't have the heart to charge what my time is really worth(worth to me), and more often than not, working on other people's cars has been a constant reminder of "No good deed goes unpunished".

I will tell you one thing , just be careful on Bettle and TT clusters.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I just won't do it, period.

vwemporium said:

I can help you fix this with proper documentation.
I can do a data transfer from your engine ecu so all is reflected proper.
With new, used or old cluster.

Let me know.

Best,

Jack

vwemporium@aol.com

Click to expand...

I assume you would do that if I sent you my ECU and cluster? The only problem with that is that I can't really afford to do without the car. I put just under 400 miles on it every day for work. I wouldn't mind knowing how much you would charge me to do it though.

My best bet might be to get a cluster out of a junk yard. I'm in south Texas and there are gobs of junk yards down here. Maybe I can get jetta 97 to reset it for me next time I come through Dallas.

Ahhh.... The good ole days when you could just stick a drill on the cable. It was pretty easy to identify odometers that had been run back too, since they were usually all askew.

Just a little FYI. On the machine I used, it had the option to go into the cluster or ECU for mileage adjustment. When I fist screwed it up, I tried to set it back to the original mileage because I was afraid that maybe it was a problem with the ECU not seeing the same as the cluster. When that didn't work I tried to change it in the ECU and that's when I got 999,999 across the display.

Oh well, I guess I wanted it set forward, just not quite that far.

I have to do something about this, because I have to document miles for business use. Not to mention, I really do need stuff like mph, tach, and gas guage, not to mention that oil light blinking keeps me pretty much freaked out.

zeke

manual_tranny said:

If we can get back on topic here: ("I am an idiot")

Zekeman, this morning I filled my coffee grinder up with water. You are not alone.

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Ha! Misery loves company.