New LS1 Owners - Newbie Tech - Is it possible to roll back odometer on LS1?

I am currently looking at a 1998 Z28 with only 23,000 miles on it at a local dealership. They accepted my offer of $11,000 cash, and I think the price is extremely fair considering blue book is $12,200; car is fully loaded; and the interior and exterior are in perfect condition. After consulting with my mom before buying it to get her advice(terrible idea), she swears that the odometer must have been rolled back for a car of that year to have that low of miles and makes it clear that I shouldn't get it. I have been looking for a Z for the past 3 months and finally found one with all of the options I want, low miles, and in my price range. Plus it's my hard earned money and I am going to do whatever I want with it. I guess my question is can an LS1 even possibly have its miles rolled back considering it is a digital display? Thanks for the help guys and yes, I will most likely be purchasing this particular Z and finally be able to enjoy the LS1!!!!!

I am currently looking at a 1998 Z28 with only 23,000 miles on it at a local dealership. They accepted my offer of $11,000 cash, and I think the price is extremely fair considering blue book is $12,200; car is fully loaded; and the interior and exterior are in perfect condition. After consulting with my mom before buying it to get her advice(terrible idea), she swears that the odometer must have been rolled back for a car of that year to have that low of miles and makes it clear that I shouldn't get it. I have been looking for a Z for the past 3 months and finally found one with all of the options I want, low miles, and in my price range. Plus it's my hard earned money and I am going to do whatever I want with it. I guess my question is can an LS1 even possibly have its miles rolled back considering it is a digital display? Thanks for the help guys and yes, I will most likely be purchasing this particular Z and finally be able to enjoy the LS1!!!!!

Just have the dealer provide you with a CARFAX.. they're required to give you one upon request. About rolling back the odometer, I think that would be pretty difficult considering we have digital odometers.

Just get a CARFAX..

i'm pretty sure the digital odometer can be replaced resulting in an actual mileage unknown report on a car fax. correct me if i'm wrong but i've heard of this before. just get the car fax.

Yes you can simply buy a used cluster with lower mileage on it and put it in another car. Takes 15 minutes to swap. Your mom is probrably wrong though. I bought my 2000 in 2002 with 1,500 miles on it for $16,500, so there are good deals out there.

Rolling back a digital odometer would probably be easier than an analog one, with the right software.

That said, 23,000 miles on a '98 is far, far from unheard of. It could have been a weekend/fair weather car, could have belonged to a serviceman who left the country for a couple years, could be anything. If the car belonged to an enthusiast/collector, it's rather likely to have a full (or at least rather complete) service history - recipts and invoices from everything that's been done. Also easy to see is the condition of the vehicle. A weekend car with 20,000 miles has noticebly nicer paint than a daily driver with 80,000 and a rollback. Does the car feel and look new?

In the end, can you be sure? No, you really can't ever be sure if it doesn't have a FSH. But does it matter? If this is the car for you, buy it and don't look back. If this is a serious concern of yours, find a car with a FSH (and preferably one owner).

A truely low milage 1998 car would only have a couple thousand miles on it. A show car, probably even less. Garage queens do exist. 20K is perfectly reasonable.

When I bought my 99 in 02 it had 26,000

i bought a 98 in 03, had 17k miles on it, mint. Your mom is crazy :guns: LS1s if tampered with, like removing the odometer, the computer gets messed up. i had a friend who tried..............

my buddy has a 98 with 19k on it, and mine has about 50k so thats too crazy... but like Rhysamedrae, look for all that stuff... my buddies with 19k looks like its off the show room



btw my neighbor has one with 8k on it... but cars are made to be drivin :drive:

98Z with 32000 on the clock right here!

when i bought my 1999 hugger orange Z28 in 03 it had 11,xxx miles on it but it was only a garage stored summer car and it only has 18,xxx on it now

Like everyone said i think its ok. before i bought mine i found a lot of them with lows miles. a lot of people use them as weekend cars. However i know someone who rigged their car so that they had a button which turned off the fuse for the odometer and the guages. He didnt know how fast he was going be it didnt record miles either and a carfax wouldnt pick it up. It just looked like a car that wasnt driven much. It wouldnt start tho unless he had the switch turned on.

get the dealer service records, it will have dates and miles on it for any warranty work, I bought a low miles 98 car, with average of 8K a year on it. Not unheard of, but it was low miles for the year.

my 1998 bought 2 years ago had 31K on it. 2.5 years ago it has 21K on it. Dealer service records, as well as oil change receipts found behind the glovebox all confirmed the miles on the vehicle to be legit.

If your worried, and its a GM dealer have them check the miles on the BCM with their tech 2 or other scan tool.

1998's use only 1998 clusters, and its harder to find a low miles 98 cluster, than it is for a newer car, for "swapping"

Ryan

To answer your question, yes...the odometer can be altered in several ways.

it can be changed very easily but highley unlikely
its digital so all you have to do is find a radio/cluster repair shop and the can burn in what ever milage you want. but i doubt theyd go that far if its a legot dealer

Just got my 2000 NBM Formula about a month ago with 43K for $10,000.00 with the following options:
Leather
a4 w/ 3:23s
power seat,windows,locks,mirrors
t-tops
chrome wheels
monsoon stereo w/steering wheel controls

I had them run a carfax, but the car definitely appeared to have an accurate odometer as it is pristine without a ding or scratch. The deals on these cars only seem to be getting better. I just hawked Autotrader online for a few months to find mine. I say look it over good and maybe take it to a mechanic for a quick check then snag it up!

i bought my 00 in 03 with 25k miles on it

Yes, it is possible to show a *different* odometer reading. I believe the easiest way would be changing the Odo cluster and the PCM. However, I seriously doubt a legit dealership would risk its business and reputation over a used/6yr old car [actually 7 yrs lol]..

Like the majority have already said, go for it. The probability of your mom's doubt being true is next to nil!! :)

$11k for that mileage LS1 is a sweeeeeeet deal!! :) Enjoy it!!

I upgraded my instrument cluster on my 2000 silverado to the escalade unit, I thought that I would be able to go to the dealership and have the mileage from the pcm flashed to the cluster, but when I did so I was told that is not possible and that the pcm contains no mileage information. If anyone knows of a possible way to correct this problem drop me a line as I would really like to get this mileage fixed as I want to sell the truck.

Geoff

The question is what area to do live in?
Even if Texas if isnt necasarily a daily driver but
if you live up north in the snow you can bet it doesn't
move much in the winter. Mine is my primary car but
I still only drive it 5-6K a year do to shitty weather.

Bottomline is there is ALOT better chance of it
not being driven that much than being tampered with.
Its the nature of the beast.

bought my 01 with 7400 on the clock in march of this year....they're still out there, just gotta know where to look

get the dealer service records, it will have dates and miles on it for any warranty work, I bought a low miles 98 car, with average of 8K a year on it. Not unheard of, but it was low miles for the year.

my 1998 bought 2 years ago had 31K on it. 2.5 years ago it has 21K on it. Dealer service records, as well as oil change receipts found behind the glovebox all confirmed the miles on the vehicle to be legit.

If your worried, and its a GM dealer have them check the miles on the BCM with their tech 2 or other scan tool.

1998's use only 1998 clusters, and its harder to find a low miles 98 cluster, than it is for a newer car, for "swapping"

Ryan

agreed :)

i bought my 99 SS 10 months ago with 17,600 miles! and by looking at the car it showd! i think by just looking at a car carfully it will help you tell if it has 15 or 50 thousand miles!

Bought my 99 SS in April of this year with only 31,410 miles on it. I agree, it's not unheard of to find low miles cars. You just have to jump on it if the Carfax is right.

is the milage stored in the PCM or the odometer itself? I have been thinking about unpluging my odometer for the time being because I put 4.10's in it and its running the miles up way to fast. I was going to unplug it till I got the PCM redone for the gears. I was told that this wouldnt work because the milage was stored in the PCM. any ideas?

is the milage stored in the PCM or the odometer itself? I have been thinking about unpluging my odometer for the time being because I put 4.10's in it and its running the miles up way to fast. I was going to unplug it till I got the PCM redone for the gears. I was told that this wouldnt work because the milage was stored in the PCM. any ideas?
actully its in the cluster and the Bcm body computer so both basically

I upgraded my instrument cluster on my 2000 silverado to the escalade unit, I thought that I would be able to go to the dealership and have the mileage from the pcm flashed to the cluster, but when I did so I was told that is not possible and that the pcm contains no mileage information. If anyone knows of a possible way to correct this problem drop me a line as I would really like to get this mileage fixed as I want to sell the truck.

Geoff
Check over in the truck section Geoff, there are several threads about that, especially some explaining everything you need to do etc.
I remember reading milage is stored up to 6 places in the computer on the trucks.


As for the cars, there is one very simple easy to do 2 second trick to keep milage from building up, and no I'm not going to let everyone know how to be a crook and do it, if you have the idea pm me and we'll discuss it there or elsewhere, just not on this board. I know a couple guys that have done this little trick and even after a couple dealership warante fixes nothing was found tampered with....

I think that the car sounds ligit. If the paint look good and the car doesnt have a general burnt out look to it then buy it.

I bought my 02 SS in Nov. with 617 miles on it and know has 1,700. If you look long enough like I did(1 1/2YRS) you will find what your looking for. 3 months is a respectable time.

It is possible to find low mileage vehicles.

My 2002 Trans Am almost has 13,000 miles. I bought it almost 1 year ago and it had 9,500 miles at the time. :cool:

My 1996 Impala SS has about 10,000 miles. I bought it new back in November 1995 with less than 10 miles on it. :cool:

I don't use either car for my 80 mile daily commute from home to work and back home again, so the mileage does not increase on these two cars very rapidly. For the most part I use these two cars on weekends, evenings, and sometimes to get between home and work. I'll use the Trans Am to get to work about once a week and my Impala SS to get to work about 5 times a year. Usually I commute to work and take long drives (over 200 miles) in my 1993 Saturn SL2 - but this is not the place for me to talk about that car. I'll just say this: with rounding it has close to 1/4 million miles, gets about 38 miles per gallon, and doesn't have any door dings! :secret:

i switch my brothers dash cluster on his 99 camaro, with a trans am dash with 20 k miles on it, my brother camaro had 26 k miles on it and now reads 20 k from the new dash

I bought my 98Z with 19k miles in 2000, only 34k on the ticker now. Some people keep the mileage off them like me. Just my opinion, but I am pretty confident that by checking the fluids and listening to the engine, and seeing how the transmissions shifts (more slack=more likely more miles), you should have a pretty good idea how many miles are on it. And a car that has been dogged will run like one that has a ton of miles on it.

Very important: Does it still have the stock tires, and do they have what looks like 1/4 to 1/3 tread on them? My 98Z is still running on stock rubber from 98!

Low milage Fbodys are plentiful. I bought mine last year with 15,000 miles. Best advice is to inspect every part of it, paint, seets, underhood, underbody. I must say on mine the seats looked new, underbody looked like it had never been driven in rain/snow(just like the owner stated :) )

If it all checks out, get it. Nothing like owning a like new car for 1/2 the price.

I do not doubt the dealer. It is big time bad if a dealer gets cought messing with the odometer. Just as an aside, I bought my 2 year old ride with 3028 miles on it from a private party. He could however prove his mileage claim because all he had to do is show me proof of how long he had been in traction at the time I bought his car. No he didn't get injured in the car. :drive: