The CEL light came on my 02 Dodge Ram 1500.. I took it over to Autozone to have it scanned. I had it scanned & got a print out from them. On the print out it listed the codes & possible things causing them. The thing that stuck out to me was the mileage for my truck listed on the print out. It was double the mileage that I have on my odometer. 190K on odometer, 380K on printout. Wtf??

The guy at the counter said that he didn't know anything about the mileage thing on their print out.

I'm the 4th owner of the truck, so I can't say for 100% certainty that the mileage on odometer is accurate, however, I never had any reason to doubt it. Are scanners able to detect the actual mileage on vehicles??

 

The cluster may have been changed at some point, but, I don't know where it gets its cue for what to display on the odo.... Might be infor stored in the cluster, might get it from the PCM.... The discrepancy there though, that IS a puzzle. I would be tempted to have a chat with the dodge dealer, and see if anyone there can shed any light on the subject.

 

I believe on your truck the mileage is in the pcm. I have one fairly deluxe scanner that reads the mileage from the computer. It will also read the VIN on the one you are working on. Exactly double the miles is something I'd be curious about. Did you run a CarFax on the truck? A little bit of expense can solve a lot of issues.

I looked at a car once that was perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. If I'd have had my check book, I'd have left a deposit. The dealer gave me a vehicle report and it said no accidents. I went ahead and got a Carfax. It showed the only factory body panels were the roof, drivers door and passenger front fender. That thing had been creamed and had spent nearly a month in the body shop. It was traded in the day it got out.

 

This is what Autozone uses:

How to read your check engine light with Fix Finder - AutoZone

 

Is the Carfax as advertised??

 

There are several auto report programs. CarFax seems to work pretty well. When I bought my current car, I remembered the one that had been hammered so I got a report for the one I bought. It showed a minor accident in the back. I took the car to a friends shop and we went over it with a fine toothed comb. Evidently, someone had backed into a post and the rear bumper pad in the bumper cover was replaced. No major structural damage. It also showed the ownership history. Registration renewals and so on. On my car, I have the dealer do the work so that goes onto the CarFax report. If I trade the car in and you want to buy it, the report will show all the oil changes the dealer has done. Plate renewals, tire rotations and so on.

I'm a really chea...er...thrifty individual and I didn't like paying as much as CarFax wanted but after dodging the bullet on that car that was nearly totaled, I bit the bullet. One thing they check is an odometer discrepancy. Although, being the 4th owner, the truck has been through a lot.

 

This is 1 of 4 3rd Gen Dodge Rams that I own. I work in construction & it's part of my small fleet. I fully understand about being a thrifty individual.

I will have to bite the bullet & get the Carfax report on the truck. With this huge odometer discrepancy I need to get to the bottom of it so I know what direction I'm going to go with this truck.

 

UPDATE:

I got the Carfax report & it definitely is an eye opener.

The original owner put 242,533 miles on the truck in Northern Wisconsin

Owner #1 sold it to a car dealership in the Milwaukee, they put 60 miles on it & then the truck ends up at an auto auction with 242,593 miles on it.

The sold within 2 weeks of hitting the auto auction

Less than 2 months later the truck ends up in Joliet, Illinois with Owner # 2 & the mileage on the truck is 93,233

So from the time it was at the auto auction to when it was registered in Illinois the cluster was changed.

 

Thinking I'd at minimum report this to the authorities, since you have some documented proof of what looks like odometer fraud.

I googled and found this:
https://www.ilsos.gov/publications/p...sos_dop123.pdf

Odometer Fraud Chapter 720 ILCS 5/17-11 Under Illinois law, a person commits odometer fraud when he or she disconnects, resets, or alters the odometer of any used motor vehicle to conceal or change the actual miles driven with the intent to defraud another. A violation of this law is a Class A mis demeanor; a second or subsequent violation results in a Class 4 felony. * Does not apply to legitimate practices of auto motive recyclers who recycle used odometers for resale.

 

I would DEFINITELY report this to the Illinois BMV. It's possible it was done at the auction, but I'll bet the dealer who bought it fudged the numbers. I think, but I'm not sure, the odometer about that time was in the computer and the dash was just a read out. I would guess, and it's only a guess, a dealer or salvage yard got the truck, swapped the computer out of a wreck with the same equipment, and made a major fraudulent profit. It won't really make any difference on your situation but it will tip the State Police off to a company that may do this to other people.