Fiat ECU Scan and found mileage scam?

[ozzy Doblo]

hi,
just thought i'd ask if anyone has used Fiat ECU Scan and found that the ECU stored mileage is different to the odometer on the dash?

we bought our Doblo (1.9 JTD ELX) from a garage dealership in 2006 with 54,000 miles on the dashboard odometer.
it now has 109,986 miles indicated.

due to a problem with a misfire after rebuilding the engine,
https://www.fiatforum.com/doblo/277332-2002-doblo-1-9-jtd-8v-misfire-after-rebuild.html

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/engi...45-2002-1-9-jtd-8v-misfire-after-rebuild.html

i bought a cheap OBD cable off ebay and used the excellent Fiat ECU Scan to check for errors.
whilst in there poking around i found the mileage stored in the ECU,
201,561 km = 124,967 miles.
odometer reads 109,986 miles.
a difference of 14,981 miles.

hmm....

so, could our doblo have been 'clocked', altered?

during the rebuild, i also found that non-matching valves were used in the cylinders.

which seems to suggest previous extensive damage, followed by engine rebuild work (timing belt?).
yet when we bought it, the garage said it was FSH and no work carried out "as far as we know...".
previous owner (from new) said 'never had a problem'...

obviously 'someone' had done 'something' but no-one is owning up.

anyway, maybe i should get back to the stripdown instead of putting it off by posting updates!

thanks for reading (if you got this far!)

austin

 

[s130]

Well there have been differing reports from FiatECUScan users on the accuracy of reported mileage. The body computer and instrument cluster hold/display mileage. However there is a conversion factor that appears to vary by car that can lead to discrepanies.

In your case you are talking about a 14% difference. Now you car could have been clocked by 14% but IMHO it is far more likely that the 'conversion factors' (NOTE! not km to miles but internal measured units to equivalent distance km/miles) are at play here.

I get differences on my Croma (not checked for a long time so cannont quantify) and others appear to have similar differences.

 

[ozzy Doblo]

hi s130,
thanks for letting me know that.
it is helpful to understand the internal workings of the car's system.

the mileage thing was particularly important to me because of the cam-belt work (which the original garage did not tell me about when i bought it) and the differing valves i found in the cylinder head, which i assume were replaced after a cam-belt failure.

at 54,000 miles on the clock when i bought the car, i was not overly concerned with changing the belt and would not have expected the belt to go.
i know that belt failure can happen - but not normally at such low mileage?

if i had seen nearly 70,000 miles on the clock, it would have been more important to change the cam-belt - and the value of the car would have been less, so price negotiations would have been more vigorous.

anyway, as you say, there could have been a persistent error on the odometer due to the conversion factor.

thinking about it, the speedometer is out by quite a percentage, at an indicated 70 mph, my gps shows 63 mph.
which is about 11% ?
interesting. :idea:

do you know if the conversion factor affects both the odometer and the speedometer equally?

is there any way that you know of to alter or tweak the conversion factor?
or is it in need of an expensive garage diagnostic tool or eprom writer?

thanks again for replying, you have given me food for thought :worship:

austin

 

[DaveMcT]

Usually the mileage display flashes when the dash and ECU values dont match.
If it was clocked they would surely have moved it a lot more than 15,000.

 

[s130]

Sorry was away last week.

11% speedo error is a little high. My Croma is about 9.x% against my GPS. At least it is better to read high than low. Helps avoid speeding tickets

I don't know what internal conversions factors / units are used. As for them being adjustable then possibly they can be but not with FiatECUScan.

 

[pete123]

Sorry for button in u are right if it was clocked it.would have been a lot more than 15 thousand but with the day and age it's a lot harder to do this and no money in it any more so it is doubt full the other dilution is when a engine is factory built they run the engine in maybe it's picked some up from there I no ford where I work do this