Can cars still be 'clocked'

[ingenieur]

I was watching one of those old consumer rights shows on YouTube from the 90s and it seemed at the time that everybody was clocking cars and forging service history.

It's probably been asked / debated on here loads of times but I just wondered if it's actually possible to do it now that mileage record is kept on the government MOT history website.

Presumably the most it could be taken back now is to the last MOT?

Some of the cars being clocked on old YouTube shows had 100,000 taken off them!

[Zarco]

Google mileage correction.

[Auto810graphy]

Sadly, Yes, people just do it more often and before the MOT or dealer visit.

[Shaw Tarse]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[ingenieur]

Auto810graphy said:

Sadly, Yes, people just do it more often and before the MOT or dealer visit.

I guess you couldn't as a second hand car dealer though. You wouldn't be able to go back any further than the last MOT?

[Geffg]

Mileage correction or probably more common now is mileage blocker. They can be set up where it’ll only recorded say 1 in 5 miles or whatever you set it at. Years ago in my first job working in a car sales garage I think most of the cars got clocked. I remember one particular car coming in with 275000 miles on it and it got sold with 75000 miles. Drove like a dog as it was that tired.
The brothers who had the garage were well known for it in the circles with dodgy cars, ringed or clocked or both!

[ingenieur]

Shaw Tarse said:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Really just wondering in the context of unscrupulous dealers giving cars a haircut before putting them on sale. But yeah, since I started that other thread I'm aware that people will do mileage blocking as well.

[Geffg]

ingenieur said:

Auto810graphy said:

Sadly, Yes, people just do it more often and before the MOT or dealer visit.

I guess you couldn't as a second hand car dealer though. You wouldn't be able to go back any further than the last MOT?

Probably more common before the car has its first mot. Although dependent I suppose on service history too.

[Red9zero]

Geffg said:

Probably more common before the car has its first mot. Although dependent I suppose on service history too.

I had a Focus from new that did 30k miles in 2.5 years and then needed a new gauge cluster, knocking the mileage back to zero. The first MoT has 4k miles on it. When I sold it on, I put the invoice with the service book and explained the situation, as I'm a nice chap. I bet the next seller wasn't quite so honest.

[Bobupndown]

Probably widely done on pcp cars with low annual mileage limit?

[vikingaero]

People are selling mileage blockers on Facebook. So if you have a lease car with 10k per annum, you can drive as many miles as you want.

[vaud]

EmailAddress said:

Zarco said:

Google mileage correction.

Damn, they do everything these days.

[soad]

The answer is yes. Not even the super cars.

[Grumps.]

Not convinced the mileage recorded in the ecu can be corrected.

[wizardofoz]

VSSZZZ5FZM6539421
Definitely still a thing. Went to see a 21 plate Seat Ateca and took a diagnostic machine with me. It was showing 40,000 mile discrepancy between the cluster and gearbox and engine ECU!

To warn others if you're looking at the same car -

Reg: AVI5812
VIN: VSSZZZ5FZM6539421

[C69]

wizardofoz said:

VSSZZZ5FZM6539421
Definitely still a thing. Went to see a 21 plate Seat Ateca and took a diagnostic machine with me. It was showing 40,000 mile discrepancy between the cluster and gearbox and engine ECU!

To warn others if you're looking at the same car -

Reg: AVI5812
VIN: VSSZZZ5FZM6539421

What did the seller say?

[macron]

And does this mean you just knew that there were two places to plug in? Or is it a fancy enough reader it can interrogate both?

If the latter please let us all know what it is, I am interested in a Mercedes and the fee I've seen this far have wear far outstripping their claimed numbers...

[DavePanda]

I sold a car via CarWow last year with a shade over 100k on it, they MOT'd it 2 days later with 20k less miles on it and had it advertised for sale on their website with the same. I put a thread on here about it and a week or so later the mileage had been "rectified" Going by the type of place it was and the cars they sell i'd say they do it to most cars, 5k here, 10k there, likely not noticeable providing the amount between MOT's is relative. On mine we'd done 10-24k each year but when they'd knocked it down it looked like we'd done less then 4k the previous year