Digital Mileage Question.

[rash_decision]

Hi all. I've been offered a great deal on a 320d Coupe, a 2007 model. The car was used by a friend of a friend of a friend, if you follow me!!?, who was a rep for a double glazing company. The car is showing 32k miles, which is average for the age of the car, but I would have expected to see more due to the nature of this guys business.

My question is, can the mileage be verified by BMW or an indipendant with the appropriate software, or in this day and age with all these digital mileage correction companies out there, is it a case of what's on the car is all BMW would see? I still reckon all they did by going digital made things easier to "clock" cars. In the good old days you could look at the odometer for misalignment or screwdriver marks, now it would appear to be just a case of plugging a laptop in and hey presto!!

I know with my old E46 the mileage was stored on a few components, being the LCM, the dash, the ECU and the keys, but I'm not sure how the E92 stores it??

Any advice will be much appreciated, cheers!!

[E31Shrew]

Service history up to date and all in order?

[rash_decision]

Yes the history is good, but the mileage could have been doctored prior to each garage visit, or maybe doctored to look as though it's not been due a service and done on the driveway. All things I'm trying to eliminate!

I've spoken to a couple of these mileage correction places this afternoon, and each of them assure me that there is no way a BMW Dealership can tell. I called on the pretence I wanted some mileage "corrected!. The prices range from £180-£220. Less than the loss of value 20k miles would incur!!

[TheEnd]

Hmm, it could be possible with enough digging, as they do sometime hold the milage in a bunch of other components, but for the most of it, what you see on the dash will be the same that BMW will see on diagnostics.

[rash_decision]

I've spoken to a few more folk, and apparently they need to change a chip on a circuit board as the chips only allow the mileage to go up the way. They replace the chip, writing the copied information from the old chip with the exception of the mileage. The mileage is zero, and as they only count up, they then write the new mileage onto the replacement chip. It all sounds to me like it's undetectable!! Modern technology eh!!?? 2 BMW technicians I spoke to this afternoon were sure it wouldn't be detectable, and reckoned noone would ever be looking for anomolies anyway! I guess if the car was obviously abused and looked to have covered more miles than displayed, in the event of a big warranty claim they may well dig further, but after all the information I've found out this afternoon, it seems as if it's undetectable, and noone would really be looking anyway!!

[alanm_3]

TheEnd said:

Hmm, it could be possible with enough digging, as they do sometime hold the milage in a bunch of other components, but for the most of it, what you see on the dash will be the same that BMW will see on diagnostics.

I'm reliably informed that the mileage is recorded on the headlamp control unit (don't know why), and on the key.
It's possible to "adjust" the mileage without any evidence of it being done, so unless all the documentation can be traced and shown to be accurate (MOT's, service records etc) it's impossible to trace this having been done.
I guess if the perpetrator has been very careful to get the mileage adjusted before offical records are updated with the figure displayed, the only likely way is to check components that wear out with high mileage, but are very expensive to replace, just to conceal some nefarious activity.
I guess gut instinct is a good guide as to wether the car is clean enough to represent the mileage shown. If in doubt, walk away!

Edited by alanm_3 on Thursday 1st July 22:12

[TheEnd]

I'm into chips and stuff, but i don't really like the ethics of clocking a car.

There is a hell of a lot of forums for it, tools and software, and plenty of people in the UK doing it, so it is quite possible.

The chip you are on about is quite a rarish one.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p390...

That's it on ebay, and they are being sold in bulk numbers of 500!
Each one of them will more than likely end up inside a clocked car.

If, like you say, which i think it is true, you need to take the chip off to program it, you might be able to tell by looking at the instrument cluster.

BMW always put a sticker of codes over the joins in the 2 halves, and if it's broken, then someone has been inside.

If it isn't broken, then maybe they were just clever about it, as in some cases you can open clocks like a hinge on the sticker without tearing it.

Toolmarks like scratches on the screw heads give it away also. I don't know what manufacturers use in the factories, but they never seem to mark a screwhead when the tighten them.