Your car dashboard has a lot of gauges and measurements of your vehicle, but the odometer reading may be the most important. This random set of numbers mean more than you may know.
In this article, I will show you how to read the odometer, and what it means when an odometer is rolled back, as well as how you can protect yourself from becoming a victim of this practice.
How Does the Odometer Work?
The odometer is a measuring device that indicates to you the total distance that the automobile has traveled. The odometer is located on the dash of your car. The word odometer is a compound word—it’s from two Greek words that mean to measure the path.
Most automobiles also have a trip odometer. The trip odometer, unlike the main odometer, is easy to reset to show how many miles have been traveled over a specific time. This can come in handy if you want to estimate how many miles per gallon of gas your car might travel.
How to Check the Odometer Reading?
Whether you have a mechanical odometer or an electronic odometer, you can read the numbers on the dashboard.
Odometer readings represent how many miles the car has been driven. However, there are ways for these numbers to be manipulated.
Here are some more details on how to check the odometer reading depending on whether you have a mechanical or electronic odometer:
#1. Mechanical Odometer.
Mechanical odometers are made up of a number of cogs each of which represents a numerical digit. The operation of this type of odometer starts at the car’s transmission. There is a small gear used to change the odometer, and that gear is attached to your transmission.
The drive cable for the speedometer is attached to that gear as well and the other end is the one that goes to the instrument cluster. When your car moves forward, the transmission gear also turns forward. That gear drives the cable, and, in turn, it moves the numbers on your odometer.
You can see in the picture above, the counting starts on the right. This mechanical odometer shows 160,648 km.
Now, all of these numbers will eventually reach a maximum number and reset back to zero and start counting again. Always keep in mind that the numbers on a mechanical odometer can sometimes be slightly off-center, which will make reading them a little more difficult.
#2. Electronic Odometer.
The electronic odometer is a newer design than the mechanical odometer. It is a digital odometer that runs using the electrical system.
There is a special gear that measures the mileage, but it does not have a drive cable. It uses a magnetic sensor to count how many times the gear turns with the transmission. The mileage is simply a number driven electronically to show on the dashboard.
Electronic odometers are more accurate than mechanical odometers and much harder to tamper with. As you see in the illustration above, you can see the mileage of the vehicle as electronically indicated at 100000 km.
Why is the Odometer Reading Important?
The odometer displays the mileage of the vehicle. Looking at the odometer tells you how many miles are on the vehicle’s engine, transmission and other essential components.
This measurement is important to know before purchasing a vehicle as the vehicle’s mileage heavily influences the value.
Vehicles are frequently priced based on the model year, condition and mileage. Oftentimes, a vehicle with lower mileage is worth more than a similar vehicle with higher mileage.
How to Calculate Fuel Economy with the Odometer?
To estimate the fuel economy for your vehicle, you can use the odometer. If you have a reliable metric for what the vehicle should average, you’ll have a sense of whether or not the engine is performing as it should.
- When you go to fill-up the gas tank, reset the trip odometer.
- Then just drive normally until the next fill-up.
- At the fill-up, write down the number of gallons you added, and check the trip odometer to get the mileage since the fill-up. This will tell you how many miles you drove on that many gallons of gas.
- For example, if you drove 200 miles and filled-up with 10 gallons of gas, you achieved an average of 20 miles per gallon.
For the best accuracy and assessment on fuel economy, it would be best to get the mileage for a full tank of gas. You could also do multiple tests to get a better average.
Can the Odometer Be Wrong?
The odometer may not read accurately. If you have a mechanical odometer, you should look at it periodically to know it’s recording the distance correctly; if you take a measurement of how many miles you’ve driven, the odometer should tell you what you drove.
If the odometer is off – even a little – it’ll add up quickly.
Let’s say the odometer reads too early – again, even if a little. It won’t take long for the car to register far more miles than what’s been driven, and lose resale value unnecessarily.
You could get the fault fixed and it will give you an accurate read again. If you plan to sell the car in the future, this is something you want to consider doing right away.
What Does it Mean to Roll Back an Odometer?
Dishonest people will roll back the odometer of a vehicle to artificially make it look like that vehicle has fewer miles than it actually might have. The process is much easier to do with a mechanical odometer.
While you must work your way through some hoops to get around the security system, criminals are aware of how to get around it with minimal effort.
It can be done with a digital odometer, and those who have sought out the means to do it have had success.
It is a lot more difficult because of the security, but it can be done. And whether the odometer is mechanical or digital, you need to watch out for tampering and fraud.
If you don’t, you may pay more for a vehicle than its actual market value if an odometer rollback has occurred. Odometer tampering is illegal. If you discover that a vehicle has had the odometer rolled back, you want to take legal action against the car dealer.
How to Tell if Odometer Has Been Rolled Back
You want to know if the odometer of the car you’re planning to purchase is actually accurate. The best way to do this is simply to run a CARFAX report on it.
With this vehicle history report, you will not only see how many owners the car had, but, along with service records, you will see all of the reported mileage with the dates. You will be able to tell if the odometer has ever been turned back.
For example, if the CARFAX report shows that in 2019, the car was at 156,000 miles, then you know there is something wrong if you are looking at it in 2022 with a reported mileage of 125,000.
This simple step tells you the odometer has been tampered, and you should walk away and not buy this car under any circumstances.
You can also look at the physical condition of the mechanical odometer to see if anything looks suspicious. If you notice scratches around the numbers or some imperfections, these could also be red flags.
Lastly, listen to your instincts. If the car dealer gives you an overall bad feeling, or seems to be picking up a car that does not regulations, it is often best to go somewhere else. If the deal seems “too good to be true” it probably is.