I have i little problem. I have a 1994 LS400 with 134000 miles on it and i have a gauge cluster with 194000 miles on it. Is there a way i can change it or does anyone have a spare chip or something thats close to my mileage? I am putting the car up for sale and i do not want to take the hit for the high mileage if i decide to trade it in. The car doesnt look anything like it has that high of mileage and i have paperwork for when i bought the cluster. I wasnt thinking when i did the cluster swap a few months back and now i am in a bind.

thanks
chris w

 

take it to a dealership with the original cluster...they can do it for you but they do charge...

 

I gave the original cluster to them for the core charge. The only thing I have is the receipt from the place I bought it from. It was a salvage yard. Here is what happened. I went there looking for a core to send out. Well the guy there said they had one that was perfect and it was $200 bucks. So i was like hell yea and checked it out. Looked perfect. So i drove home in my beater and took the one in my car out and brought it back up there with the 200 bucks and made the exchange. The only thing i noticed was that my car has "traction control" in the cluster and the car i got the cluster out of didnt. I didnt really care about that so i just got it not even thinking about the mileage because i was trying to do all this before they closed(noon). Well i got home hooked it up and was like....crap...this cluster has about 60000 miles more then my car has on it. The guy said the mileage was close but he was waaay off. That was on a Saturday noon. So on Monday i called them to get mine back and they said they didnt have it anymore and that someone came in looking for the same thing and bought mine to send out. So i have this perfect cluster with all new and bright needles with the wrong mileage. The only thing i can show to prove it is when i hit the traction button it doesnt light up and the receipts from places like Discount Tire and Firestone with mileage and dates when I bought tires and had my alignment done. I cant believe I did this. Its so unlike me being the car guy I am to not think about this stuff....... I guess i will call the dealer and see if they will do it for me after i tell them my story and provided the paperwork i have.

Got any other free or low cost idea's?


Thanks
chris w

 

Chris,

Any vehicle over ten years old is no longer subject to federal odometer law. You must disclose that you are selling the vehicle "miles exempt" and then it doesn't matter what the odometer reads. Therefore, you can set the miles wherever you want them, and then sell it exempt.

A dealer likely won't do that since they would or could be subject to any penalties. Any odometer that doesn't register one mile is no longer able to say "true and actual." Your repair receipts can't verify anything so no legitimate business can or will do anything with it.

You need to find some electronics genius/hacker to set it where you want it and then sell the car exempt.

 

Yea, i was kind of hoping to find that person here or maybe someone on the forums would know that person and direct me to them. I was about to call the dealer here shortly and see what they say.


thanks
chris w

 

Chris, please let me know if you have any luck. My LS was stolen with 102K on the clock, and I recovered it a few weeks later, with stripped interior. I bought a replacement cluster from a junk yard with 167K, so my odo is actually 65K off, and if there is an inexpensive way to reset it, I'd like to do so.

I know back in the days there were a lot of phony shops around that would "roll back" the mileage on leased cars for around $800, but in my case its not worth that much.

 

I've read good things about this guy.

http://www.mrwhizard.com/

 

Sorry guys, we cannot have discussions on how to reset ODO mileage. While I know the OP has a genuine issue to deal with, we cannot allow discussions of techniques that can be used illegally to defraud the Lexus community.

To the OP, your best bet is to find another cluster.