HELP! What the hell does my odometer read!!

[bakes]

I recently bought a Hilux from my local dealer,which my dealer said had done 50,000 miles approx although the odometer was reading 83,000 which the dealer said was kilometers.The speedo is in MPH.
Having driven the vehicle for approx two weeks i noticed the odometer was'nt going up as quickley as i thought it would because i was thinking it read kilometers.I decided to test this by driving a set route and the odometer is registering in miles not kilometers.So i am now wondering what the hell sort of mileage my vehicle has done!!!!
Are the odometers changed when they come into this country to register in miles or is it just the speedo.
I am new to all of this so if there is a logical explaination then please tell me otherwise i will be going back to the dealer demanding some money back!!!
Any help or advice appreciated
thanks
Bakes

[Gamedawn]

Some vehicles have the speedo coverted to miles when they are imported. My early 2nd gen has a mechanical speedo and the dealer put a little converter unit on the gearbox end of the cable so the speedo and odometer now read in miles. With my vehicle he also "clocked" the mileage so the kilometers already done were converted to miles. As 83000 k's is approx 50000 miles I guess you've had the conversion done without the "clocking".

[Alun]

I reckon,

when you bought it speedo showd 83000Km = 52000 miles.

They could have used a gear converter on your speedo so that it reads miles and mph now.

My speedo reads up to 100MPH, but my odo still reads KM


If your speedo reads to more than this (expect around 160) then it has been done with a gear convertor.

[Andy W]

If your MOT has 80,000 miles on it then it's gonna be real difficult changing the odometer back. If it says 80,000 km's then your laughing just change it back. I think all All mileage on MOT's is reported to the dti or dvla as part of the vehicles history.
Either way unless your looking to sell soon I wouldn't worry as it's still peanuts mileage for an engine thats good for 300,000 miles if serviced properly !

Andy

[toplad]

It depends on the dealer you bought it from. When i got mine both the speedo and odo were in km's, the dealer changed the speedo to mph but left the odo coz he reckoned that tampering with it to change it to mph was a no-no. Either way, its not a massive amount of mileage for a workhorse like a surf so enjoy.....

[bakes]

Firstly thanks to everyone for the replies very very helpful.
My speedo does read up to 180mph so as somebody mentioned that means i have had the gear converter mod done?
What i am concerned about is if my vehicles odometer was registering kilometers and has now changed to miles i am left with a odometer showing more miles than it has done how do i explain all of this when i do eventually come to sell and it makes keeping a record of the vehicles mileage very difficult.All the MOT's have the odometer reading but do not state if in miles or kilometers.
Does anybody know how to reconvert the odometer so it reads in kilometers or how to clock the odometer so it would be reading the correct miles,or would rather have it converted back into kilometers.
Thanks
Bakes

[andy]

When http://www.importedvehicles.co.uk/ sell you a chip they also offer a certificate to show the correct mileage.

[AndyLala]

Provided the dealer hasn't clocked it before they sold it to you. (not proven)


Amazing how much you can discover about a vehicle from the Japanese de-registration certificate. Very odd how the vehicle had less mileage on it when it arrived here than when it left Japan. I didn't know that cargo ships could travel faster than time...? Either the Japanese Auctions, importer, or dealer...

Apologies, that still smarts.... just means there is more work to do... I did manage to encourage the dealer to swap out the cam belt... though, and the head went within the first 3 months, etc... touch wood its fine now... just keeping a track of major/minor services from the mileage I have done.


Apologies, rant over...

andyL

[Bryan]

When I bought my Surf back from Japan, it had approx 4400 KM on the clock. When prepping it for the SVA I was asked if I wanted the ODO converted to miles, and I said no. I was happy for the speedo to show miles (obviously a neccessity ) but I wanted the ODO left as it was. Unfortunately, they did convert the ODO to miles, but they didn't change the existing reading. My ODO now reads 24000, including the 4400 original KM! Something I just have to live with. It just had its first MOT and they have recorded the mileage as displayed.

Bryan