Are Mileage Blockers Legal?

Are mileage blockers legal? – You maybe quite surprised to find that both mileage blockers and mileage correction are both legal.

This is usually the 1st question that would be the first question that springs to mind when you first hear about mileage blockers. As long as mileage plays a significant role in determining the vehicle’s lifespan, people are eager to use various tools, including mileage blockers to manipulate the data. To say briefly, manipulating mileage for deceiving others is a criminal offense. However, there are situations where the usage of that tool can be ethical.

Let’s get down to business and learn more about mileage blockers and their function in more detail. Thus, you will know why and when to use it sensibly. 

Are Mileage Blockers Ethical?

Mileage blockers are quite ethical modules that are used for ethical purposes, for example, test drives, dyno tuning, track days and much more. However, if the tool is used for correcting speedometer readings to deceive potential buyers, you should know that this then becomes a criminal offense. There have been and still are many other tools to alter mileage data apart from mileage blockers. If we compare blockers and rollback tools we can say that blockers are more ethical. Their prime purpose is to stop counting mileage when the vehicle is in a controlled environment and we want to test that performance.  

As we already mentioned, speedometer fraud is a crime. It is strictly controlled by the government. The federal government takes measures to eradicate the crime. There is a law that requires written disclosure of the mileage registered on a speedometer to be provided on the title by the seller to the purchaser. Vehicles that are 10 years or older are exempt from speedometer disclosure statements. 

Despite the severe fight against this crime, it is still increasing. The worst is that it becoming harder to spot such manipulation as the tool are more advanced. In the past, when analog odometers tampered it was easier to see. 

Speedometer Fraud Is On The Rise

What causes the rise of crime? – the mileage of a vehicle is one of the main factors that determines the value of the car. Sellers were known to roll back mileage on the vehicle in order gain higher price. According to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), this crime is said to costs American car buyers more than one billion dollars annually. To tell the truth, sometimes it is exaggerated, but mileage can be an indicator for many things such as maintenance schedule, possible wear and tear, engine lifespan, and so on. When we say that it is exaggerated, we mean that a vehicle with 20,000 miles can have been neglected more than another vehicle that has covered 60,000 miles.

This fraud happens internationally. Needless to say, it is not only a problem in the UK and  America. According to Carvertical.com research, the statistics of rollback speedometers vary from country to country. The research was based on 900,000 cars history reports generated throughout 2021. The leaders are the Baltics: Latvia comes in the first place with 24% of possible signs of speedometer tampering. It is followed by Estonia and Lithuania. The issue is less severe in western European countries. The main reason for this is that those countries are wealthier and people there tend to buy newer vehicle. 

speedo rewind with screwdriver

How has mileage correction changed?

The answer to the question (Are mileage blockers illegal?) is definitive. However, was it always necessary to use those kinds of tools for rollback? – of course not. In the past, older cars had mechanical odometers. So, it was possible to roll back numbers manually, usually using a screwdriver or it has been known by using a drill. (as seen by Mr. Wormwood in the children’s movie Matilda) Another method was to jack up the rear wheels on safety stands and turn the wheels in reverse, but this is time-consuming and this only slowly lowers the mileage numbers on the speedometer. Now, most automobiles have digital odometers. So, you need  remove instrument clusters or use a rollback devices in order to change the speedometer reading. These tools usually plug into your car’s computer OBD2 port, people can program the mileage to show what they want. After a quick reset, the car will display the miles that were programmed into it.

It should be noted that tampered digital odometers are even harder to spot because there is no visible clue. That is the reason why it became a challenge for buyers to detect fraud. They need a complete pre-purchase inspection and additional history check in order to make sure that the mileage is genuine.

Below we discuss modern means of manipulating odometer, let’s see how mileage blockers differ from other alternatives. 

Using A Mileage Blocker

According to the common misconceptions, mileage blocker and other speedometer correction modules are the same and equally unethical, but it is not so. One is stopping counting miles and the other is changing existing mileage information. 

The idea of rollbacking existing miles is obviously unethical. Needless to say, people purchase it for fraudulent purposes. It serves as a means of deceiving other people. On the other hand, the best speedometer correction tool, Mileage blocker from a Autotech UK is designed for a particular purpose. We created the most reliable module you can use for testing the performance of your beloved auto without worrying about unnecessary miles on the speedometer. You can use it in a controlled environment and be sure that it won’t disappoint you. We do not recommend using it on public roads. Remember, are mileage blockers illegal? – No, until you decide to use it unethically.

What makes our mileage blocker special?

The best thing about our blocker is that it is 100% undetectable. As you know most rollback modules remove information on the surface, but data still stays in another control unit. So, it just takes a small effort to detect genuine mileage data. On the other hand, the Mileage blocker works like a magic wand! It is not traceable during diagnostics. How does it happen? It happens simply because it removes information from all control units unconditionally. 

So The Big Question Are mileage blockers legal? is quite simply YES!