hillpc

I brought in a 1997 Canadian A8 Quattro last week and would like to title it in NJ. The car has (had) a metric cluster for Canada. The Audi certificate of conformity letter said the only things not US-conforming are 1.) the speedometer has to be able to be read in mph, and 2.) the odometer has to be labelled (so one knows if it's in kilometers or miles). So I took a used American cluster up with me and installed it before I crossed the border. It mechanically (with a needle) shows speed in both mph and km/h on the faceplate. The electronic odometer on the used American cluster reads 117,000 miles. But the original electronic odometer reads 290,000 kilometers (about 180,000 miles).

I put an odometer replacement sticker on the driver's door sill. But this isn't going to be enough for a NJ title. New Jersey says the odometer has to read the true mileage of the car, or it has to be reset to zero, which apparently can't be done without buying a new one. I want to do this fix myself to save money. I still have to fix the transmission (myself) before I can get it on the road.

I want to get the used odometer to read the actual miles of the car.

I don't think it's going to be reasonable to put the car up on jackstands and run it for 60,000 miles in my garage. Is there another way to increase the mileage reading so it's correct for the car? (messing with the speed sensor?) The only other way I can think of handling this problem (besides buying a brand new cluster from Audi, which I assume is big bucks, if even available) is to take both clusters apart, and try to pop off the speedo needles and switch the speedo faceplates to be able to use the original cluster again, just with a new speedo faceplate. But I hear that's prone to breaking things, and that the speed indication will be incorrect.

snagitseven

A qualified mechanic should be able to do it and certify in writing the changes he made and why. I doubt it's possible for a DIY and in any case, even though you are rolling it forward and not back, you want to be sure you can show a certified statement as to why the odometer was changed and avoid a tampering issue in the U.S.

fn_42

apparently possible with VCDS

Ross-Tech: VCDS: Immobilizer 2 Instrument Cluster Swapping

I haven't dug this deep into VAG stuff (yet!) but I am surprised it shows the old cluster's odometer. Usually the cluster just shows the highest mileage found in any module (ECM, TCM, etc)

hillpc

Well, this talks about a new cluster. Clusters can be programmed if there's under 100 km on them. After that, they are locked against programming (is it only backwards or in both directions?), I believe, so my question was around other methods to simulate mileage. (Though some claim that desoldering the EEPROM allows tech-savvy people to reprogram them before soldering back onto the cluster. At this point that's beyond my skill level and willingness to learn. I'd first try re-using the original by swapping the USfaceplate in.) Is there a modern day equivalent of running a drill on the old school speedo cable (but forwards instead of backwards)? And my car has no immobilizer (1997), so the directions seem off anyway.

What drives the odometer to accumulate mileage? I saw in another thread a reference to "pulsing".

hillpc

The tampering laws are about fraud, not about making a replacement odometer read the correct mileage. The statements and stickers are used when the odometer installed in the car, wherever it came from, reads incorrectly versus the actual mileage. So this isn't a tampering issue.

snagitseven

I wasn't saying it was a tampering issue. I was only pointing out that when you are coming from Canada to the U.S., you night want to avoid any raised eyebrows by getting a mechanic to certify in writing what's being done so there are no questions. While you're wanting to do the right thing by advancing the odometer, there are others who have nefarious reasons for going the other way. I just thought if you have no other options, this would be an easier way to get it done and with no certification issues.

hillpc

Thanks. I'm looking at these other options, since I've heard that not even a "qualified mechanic" (whatever that means) can change an Audi odometer mileage once it has more than 100 km on it. Do you know if this is true?

Thanks.

snagitseven

Sorry, I don't have an answer for that. You might stop by an Audi dealer and talk to the service manager to see what he says.

nossisnave

Soldering's actually not that difficult, plus it's a very economical option considering your situation. The fact that it was assembled in the first place means that what you're considering doing can be done.

BrianC72gt

Post your question over yonder:

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