What is mileage correction?

Mileage correction is the process of adjusting or re-calibrating or removing the number of miles that are displayed on your digital speedometer dashboard.

The majority of modern cars have electronic dashboards with digital speedometer displays. Car manufacturers use these because they are cheaper to produce than a mechanical Analogue dashboard and are easier to fit into the car as there is no mechanical speedometer cable to connect up. This new technology has its own problems though, electrical pulses in the car’s wiring system can cause errors in the dashboard data, and also the data that is stored in various ECU, BSI, and other modules like the key can become corrupted.

At Autotech UK we offer you a plug and play alternative that is available for most makes and models from 2010. Take a look at the list of Makes And Models to see if we can help you!

Why do you need mileage correction?

There are many reasons why you might require your mileage to be adjusted, for example:

  • the battery was discharged and the vehicle required jump-starting
  • the dashboard may have been damaged in an accident/collision or through vandalism
  • the dashboard may have developed an electrical fault
  • new engine has been fitted to the vehicle

In these examples, the corruption/loss of the information held in the EEPROM may mean that the mileage displayed on the digital speedometer is now incorrect.

You might therefore purchase either a new or second-hand instrument cluster. What happens? If it’s a new one it will have 0 miles on it. If it’s a second-hand one it could have 90,000 miles on it. Since it is practically impossible to find one with your exact mileage, you will most likely need to have it calibrated and adjusted to your original mileage reading.

Other typical problems include faulty gauges that need replacing, in this case, it can be more cost-effective to replace the dashboard clocks with a second-hand one from a breaker’s yard. The mileage on the dashboard would then need to be matched to the vehicle’s mileage so the correct value is displayed.

Imported cars often need their mileage adjusted to display the miles value instead of the Kilometers.

Is it illegal to alter my mileage?

Adjusting a vehicle’s digital speedometer is not illegal, it becomes an offense if the vehicle is sold to the buyer without disclosing the correction in the speedo reading to the buyer.