Clock my Car?

azzeretti

I have just had my 1 year old car returned to the garage where, over the last 4 weeks, they deceided that there was a need to replace the whole engine (1.9 Tdi). Fine by me, if they can't sort out the problem then a new engine is grand!

The say that they can't roll back the clock and it must stay where it was with the old engine, around 40,000Km.

They wouldn't explain in too much detail why they couldn't do it, but instead gave me a dealers letter explaining the engine was new from today etc.

I am just wondering if anyone knows why they wouldn't/couldn't put the mileage back if its a brand new engine?

gyppo

I would hazard a guess that the rest of the car is not new or being replaced.

crosstownk

More or less what gyppo said. The rest of the car - gearbox, suspension, brakes, steering, etc, etc has 40000km on it.

azzeretti

crosstownk wrote:

More or less what gyppo said. The rest of the car - gearbox, suspension, brakes, steering, etc, etc has 40000km on it.

Actually, they did put a new gearbox in too!

I was just wondering, I thought the mileage was just for the engine, ya learn sometime new.......

alias no.9

You've better off with the total mileage showing on the clock and the documents from the dealer to back up the engine replacement. If you were selling the car and were asked about the mileage after it had been reset to 0, you'd have to tell the buyer by law that the mileage had been reset. That will put most buyers off, even though there was a new engine put in at the time.

crosstownk

azzeretti wrote:

Actually, they did put a new gearbox in too!

Slightly OT, but - WTF was wrong with your car to need a new engine AND gearbox :eek:

Anan1

azzeretti wrote:

I was just wondering, I thought the mileage was just for the engine, ya learn sometime new.......

To be fair, you're not the first person to think that! Mileage is for the car, not any one part of it.:)

azzeretti

crosstownk wrote:

Slightly OT, but - WTF was wrong with your car to need a new engine AND gearbox :eek:

At this point, nobody knows, the engine is gone for diags. The problem started a while back and they replaced things as the saw fit, one of the things they tried was gearbox, there was quite alot of other parts too!

Mr.Diagnostic

I would agree that it would be incorrect for them to clock it but even if they wanted to they could not. No dealer (factory) tool allows mileage to be lowered as far as I am aware.

gavquinn

To ensure that someone doesn't say try to sell a 100k car with 50k on the clock (fraud in otherwords), the clock cannot be "adjusted" (tampered with). That new engine should be logged in the service history. If not? Ask them for that letter.

Ferris

I was told by someone who works in a BMW dealership that they can change mileage, don't know if they use BMW diagnostic tools to do it tho.

gavquinn

I'm quite sure it can't be done,but if it can it's most certainly illegal to clock a car. Just get the details of the new engine, it's not going to earn you extra money in a re-sale, but you can use it as a highlight as you would leather,heated seats, etc

Ferris

Its not illegal to clock a car, just to sell one afaik.

gavquinn

Well you could say it's illegal to shoot someone, but not to fire a gun. It just happened the bullet hit someone. I's illegal for a garage to do that, of that I am absolutely certain. And your only doing it for one reason. If i bought a car and found out it was clocked I'd cut the head off whoever sold it to me.

craichoe

Ferris wrote: »

I was told by someone who works in a BMW dealership that they can change mileage, don't know if they use BMW diagnostic tools to do it tho.

No, i think you misunderstood, than can set the clock to zero before a set mileage, so its 0 when someone buys it rather than the few km's on it from shipping.

gavquinn

If you clock a car you deserve to burn in satan's piss stream for all eternity.

Ferris

The same guy said that a lot of the BMW's coming in from the UK are clocked too. He said it was widespread. I know its 2nd hand info but that's what I heard. I don't think its just to reset mileage after delivery.