So I take my 2001 Durango to the dealership to trade it in on a 2010 Ram crew cab only to find out... almost a year ago my speedometer cluster went out (started acting crazy!) At that time the dealership said replace it and suggested a used on, on the fact that it would "automatically" program itself for the mileage in the ECM. Guess what, it did not do that! I was told to drive it and do a PCM reset and it would eventually go to the last known mileage on the both the PCM and the ECM. It still didn't do that. Now, a year later, the title says 197,000 miles and the speedometer says 102,000 miles. Guess where I am going with this. Even though the sales manager says it's a 9 ut of 10 for being almost 12 years old, he has to send it to the auction with "unknown mileage" labeled on it. Guess what he offered me for it? A lousy $1,000 for trade in. The only way to get the "true" value is to have the speedometer read what I have written down in records from oil changes, which is, 215,000 miles. Are there ANY electric dash guru's ut there that know of a way to ADVANCE the digital read out on the display via "elcetrically?" All I have is the optin to buy a computer that is on the internet that is a possible fix to this, however, it is a gamble at $250.00! I just need it to match my records to get to the $3,500 trade in value they said that they would give if it is corrected! Any thoughts???

 

Well to be honest with you I'm not sure if there is a way to do that cause usually tampering with the odometer is illegal. In fact I wanna say that changing a cluster is illegal! But I'm not 100% sure of this. Pretty sure the salesman or mechanic at the dealership had no idea what he was talking about

 

Should of had the PCM/CTM/Console all mated the day the replacement cluster went in. That is documented here and online in many places. What Indiana dealer was it that doesn't know what the frack they are doing? Don't say all of them... even if that is the right answer.

It is now IMPOSSIBLE to validate the mileage now so you are stuck with zero legal recourse and open to full illegal actions if handled in any fashion from here other that correctly stating the mileage is "unknown."

If it is rust free, and knowing the history you have had with it via the past posts here, I'll bump their trade value personally by 15% to $1150 cash.

IndyDurango

 

Haha I meant the salesman didnt know any better than to tell him hey this is the right course of action. I'm afraid your stuck my friend. Just keep the D

 

I used to work for a used car dealership...and we sent all clusters out if they had problems instead of just buying a used one. IndyD is it true that replacing or altering gauge clusters is true?

 

I believe it is the DRB tool that could have been used to match the CTM to the cluster milage. Otherwise swapping the cluster just keeps the miles in it that were there when the cluster was removed from the other Durango. Now when you drive without syncing the two, you have two moving variables at once. No trustworthy dealer will ever sync them now because you can't know what is what at this point. Both moved from their starting settings.

In theory you could take a cluster with 150,000 less miles on it, pop it in and that is the new reading instead of what is real. Yes, that's true. There will/should also be a VIN mismatch on the PCM/CTM/Cluster validating the swap occurred so there is no "getting away with it" from someone who want's to check it out legally.

Mike, sending out the cluster for repair eliminates all that hanky panky because everything stays vin matched and accurate. Your dealership did the best thing overall.

IndyD

 

I figured the way my dealership did it was legal. But then again who knows, a lot of vehicle odometer discrepancies happen I'm sure.

 

A few months ago i got a junkyard cluster to mod with all LED's. I too was worried about the odometer not showing what was really on the truck and if it was "illegal" to swap them or not.

Here in Pennsylavnia it is the law that ALL vehicles over 10 (or maybe 12 i cant remember) years old are except from disclosing odometer reading on the title. The catch is if you sell the vehicle and it is found that you did not notify the new owner of the real mileage then you faced trouble..

So, still being afraid to swap i decided that i would call the wonderful knowledgeable people at PENNDOT. I was told that my vehicle was "odometer exempt" so it didn't matter for titling purposes if i had 100 miles one day or 1000 miles the next. The only thing they really use odometer mileage for after that point is to tell how much you drove between yearly inspections for emmissions purpose ( if we drive under 5,000 miles we are exempt there too). I was also advised if i wanted to cover my bum to make a sticker that tells the date of correction, miles on old cluster, and miles on new cluster and place it in the door jam with the other stickers.

Also, there are odometer correction services out there... yes they are legal, i had that done because in picky and i wanted it to match. They made me go to a notary and sign a paper that stated that my current miles where XXX,XXX and that i had the cluster corrected because X reason, and that it was to the best of my knowledge that the odometer was correct BEFORE any work was done.

 

Good info old school. I'm sure the law varies state by state. Sounds like u did the right thing!

 

In ND you have to get the cluster to match and the shop that does it sends in a form. Not sure on the age that it can be before you're exempt by saying milage unknown.............