Is It Legal To Change An Odometer?

If the odometer on your vehicle is broken, you may be wondering if you can even replace it. What if the odometer resets to zero after you replace it? Wouldn’t that be illegal?

The answer is yes and no. It’s perfectly legal to swap out the odometer. Yet, it’s not legal to change the mileage shown on the odometer.

So how can you make sure that the mileage remains accurate after you install a new odometer? It’s quite easy, actually. You don’t have to do any work aside from making sure that the mileage remains accurate.

The Only Thing You Need To Do

Before removing the old instrument cluster from your vehicle, write down the mileage. This will ensure that the mileage is accurate between the old cluster and the new one. After you install the new instrument cluster, check the mileage to make sure it’s accurate.

What if your broken odometer doesn’t display the mileage? Is the number lost forever? Fortunately, the instrument cluster is only a display. The mileage is stored elsewhere. Most commonly, you’ll find the mileage in one of these devices:

• A chip within the instrument cluster
• The ECU
• The BCM

Does your car have an ODB-II port? If so, you can pull the information from it. All you need is a scanner. If that doesn’t work out, we can try to pull the mileage from your instrument cluster. We offer mail-in repair services. If you mail your broken instrument cluster to us, we can fix it and attempt to pull the mileage from the cluster. In most cases, we can pull the information.

The Mileage Will Show Up Automatically In Modern Trucks and Cars

Electronic units store the mileage in all newer cars. But the older clusters are stored directly in the cluster itself. So, its possible that our team can simply pull your mileage from your cluster if you send it in for repair. The instrument cluster draws all sorts of information from:

• The ECU
• The BCM
• Chips and sensors located all over the vehicle

In other words, the instrument cluster is only a display. That means a new instrument cluster will draw all the information it needs from the vehicle. That includes the mileage.

You Need To Set The Mileage Manually In Older Cars

What if you have an older car? You would need to set the mileage manually. That’s where the mileage you wrote down comes in especially useful. We offer this service with our replacement instrument clusters. If you order a new instrument cluster from us, we’ll set the mileage on it if you ask us to.