Odometer roll back

M

MikeInNH

New member
05 4runner - 4.0 V6

Yesterday we went to a grocery store for ice and also decided to get a pizza for dinner.

After we stopped at the grocery store and while driving to the pizza place...my seat-belt light was flashing. But my seat-belt was buckled. So I unbuckled it and re-buckled it....still flashing.

Then I noticed that my tack and speedometer were reading 0. The truck was running (in fact running fine). Then I also noticed that my odometer was flashing(digital odometer) and the temp gauge wasn't working either....

After we stopped for Pizza and ordered I went out to the truck to see if I could find what's wrong. I was thinking it was a fuse. But there wasn't ONE fuse for all the instruments....So for the heck of it I just turned the truck on...and everything was working again...So went back in restaurant and by this time the pizza arrived and we finished our pizza.

Now the weird part...

When we left the pizza place and started driving I noticed something really weird...My odometer had reset itself. It was reading 4 miles (the distance we had traveled from the Pizza place). It wiped out my 171,000 miles I had on the odometer...I'm NOT talking about the trip meters...it's the odometer.

Never heard of anything like this before....Didn't even think it was possible.
 
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Anyone want to buy a 05 4runner with low miles????

Actually it's NOT much of an issue with me. I plan on reaching 300k+ miles with this truck. When I sell it I'll fully disclose the actual mileage. I just thought there were safe guards built in to prevent this from happening.
 
Must be something up there in the gas in Manch-vegas! :thumb3:

Im worried it might be a problem with the ECM.
 
I would be very much curious how that could happen..

To think, someone could reset their mileage at, say, 75K, drive for 50K more, then sell the car at a "SUPER LOWER MILEAGE!! GREAT DEAL!" cost..
 
That's a weird failure, to be sure.

A discrepancy this large is likely to be detected from prior mileage reports gathered during dealer service visits, smog checks and possibly even your insurance (i know AAA gathers mileage every year). The ECU may maintain its own record of mileage, independent of the microcontroller/storage within the instrument cluster.
 
BMW record the mileage in two or three different modules. If any of these are interfered with a "Tamper Dot" appears in the odometer. If you have to change a defective module, in theory, only a new, dealer installed module can be installed. Gives the dealerships a nice handy cash flow in the name of "Protecting the Public Interest"!
 
I had a cell phone do the same thing a few years ago. The non-resetable life talk-time meter reset itself one day with no apparent cause or reason.
 
Zulu95 said:
BMW record the mileage in two or three different modules. If any of these are interfered with a "Tamper Dot" appears in the odometer. If you have to change a defective module, in theory, only a new, dealer installed module can be installed. Gives the dealerships a nice handy cash flow in the name of "Protecting the Public Interest"!
Click to expand...

I would say morden expensive cars store odo reading in 5-7 places. ODO reset means nothing. There are shops that should be able to find out if everething was reset (which probably impossible in this case) and they will be able to correct your odo reading as well.
 
Hey Mike,

Old thread but i was in a trip this week and this exact same thing happened to me.. twice. Both times it took maybe half an hour before tach and speed came back to work but the strange thing now is that odo rollback.

I had 120000 miles and now only a couple hundred.

Since this seems to be a weird issue that youve encountered last year i was wondering if you did anything to fix this? Has it ever re-happened? And did you speak with a toyota dealer or garage where they had an answer?

Thanks,
Chuck
 
It happened a little over a year ago. I had 171k miles on it then. Since then I've put 49k miles (lot of traveling for work this past year). I've done absolutely nothing. And it's never happened again. You're the 4th person I heard about this happened to. And one person I know...it happened at 171k miles also (but I'm sure that's just coincidental).

The only problem I foresee is when I go to sell it. I'm going to be completely upfront when selling it. Not going to try and cheat anyone...and I'll price accordingly. But that's several years down the road.
 
The mileage is stored in the actual cluster unit, not the ECU or anywhere else. So if you crack the plastic on the cluster and swap in a whole new cluster the mileage that is on the new cluster will be obviously present. OP I wouldn't worry to much about it, just keep a mental note, perhaps its just a loose connection..
 
I know that..I even said that. I'm not worrying about it at all. Doesn't effect anything.
It's NOT a loose connection...I pulled it and checked. After talking with a toyota mechanic who's seen this problem...it's the circuit board on the OD.
 
MikeInNH said:
I know that..I even said that. I'm not worrying about it at all. Doesn't effect anything.
It's NOT a loose connection...I pulled it and checked. After talking with a toyota mechanic who's seen this problem...it's the circuit board on the OD.
Click to expand...

Not that you care now, but you will start throwing the red flags on car fax. That you could claim impacts your value. I doubt Toyota would do anything, but you could make the arguement that you have lost money on it. Although I would imagine that when you unload it at 300k it probably won't be an issue. In VA it becomes documented on the title that the odometer is not correct.
 
same in North Carolina if your Odometer readings start looking weird like every inspection it reads the same, or if it reads less mileage than the previous inspection it throws a huge red flag in the DMV's system.
 
MikeInNH said:
Won't show up on carfax unless it's reported to carfax.
Click to expand...

i work for car fax you just reported it lol just kidding... im sure its no big deal. would be crazy though if you wrecked in an insurance tried to give you the value of a truck with that low of miles on it
 
odo issue

When I bought my new to me 2007 Limited last December the photo's on the dealership website showed 67000 KMs but in the details it indicated 88000 KMs. I was like "sweet, the price is based on a typo!!! They think it has 20K more than it actually has....." Turns out the ODO was swapped at ~21K by the dealership. Kinda wish they could have set it to the actual millage, I hate math :moon:
 
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