Greetings to the Forum:

I recently bought a used 2005 Chevy Suburban LT 1500. I paid a premium price for it because the mileage was low for this vintage of vehicle, around 137,000 miles. Today, I went into Oil Can Henry's for an oil change and when they scanned the vin number, they showed service records with a mileage of 257,000 miles. I just had a scan of the ECU done yesterday at the Chevy dealer to locate a couple of electrical problems. Their printout shows that the vin number matches the metal windshield tag and that the mileage stored in the unit matches the displayed 137,000 miles. I asked the Chevy dealer what would happen if the ECU required replacement and while the answer was a bit vague, I gathered that with the right computer tools and software, the unit can be reprogrammed to whatever you wish it to be.

My questions are: How can I determine if such a reprogramming was done? What sort of equipment would be required to commit such a fraud? Is there any way to come up with a reasonably accurate estimate as to the actual mileage on the vehicle? Any suggestions as to legal recourse?

Thanks,
Jim T.

 

Mileage isn't stored in the ecm. there is/was an issue with that vintage led on the gear indicator that required the dealer to replace or "set" the odometer in the dash panel.

 

the mileage is stored in the instrument panel cluster or ipc. changing the mileage is something that can't be done at the dealership level and it is made that way on purpose. Maybe the cluster has been changed. Have the dealership read the vin stored in the cluster and see if it matches the vin of the vehicle.

not sure for your state but in my province we can go to the motor vehicle registry office and check previous registration mileage records to verify odometer tampering

 

Some one can buy a rebuilt IPC at a parts store and have whatever mileage they want programmed in to the replacement one.

 

I replaced the cluster in my '01 with a unit I bought off eBay. I told the seller what mileage to program into it, which was the actual number. I could've had him program any number I wanted. It's unfortunately a simple thing to do.

 

Exactly!
​​​​​​The IPC of many 2005 GM models contained faulty stepper motors that control the needles on speedo, tach, temp gauge, et al. Replacement/repair is a fairly simple task, and very easily can present the opportunity for an unscrupulous person to replace the OEM odometer with an new or rebuilt unit showing a lower mileage.

I did this repair on my brother's 2005 Silverado, but did not tinker with the odo, even though it would have been very easy to do so.