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New Member! Odometer reading high

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Posted by: infinity20

Hey guys this is my first post in the forums. Last night when I started my car the headlights came on but the radio, instrument cluster, and A/C controls did not do anything. I thought I blew a fuse but I didn't. I turned the car off and back on and everything suddenly worked again. Once I got down the road I looked down and noticed that my odometer is now reading an insane amount of miles!!!

I drove it to work today and my tripometer and odometer is adding miles at the correct rate (if I drive one mile it adds one mile). Everything on the car works fine. but my car had 120K miles yesterday and now it says it has 4x that!

Posted by: infinity20

It's a 2000 3.9 liter with a sport package and traction control. Had a few spark plugs replaced a few years back but that is it. No other problems or check engine light.

Posted by: infinity20

Its a white LS with wood, heated seats and the message center. Here is the day I bought it.

My last oil change was at 123K which was a few months ago. now it says 600 thousand miles but it adds miles to it just like normal.

its stock except for a subwoofer. How do I put the miles back down?

Posted by: rickztahone

this is the first time i have heard of such a thing. sorry i'm not help but hopefully someone can help

Posted by: owlman

oh my god, hahaha. That's crazy. You should call Lincoln and maybe they'll give you a prize for the most miles ever on an LS!

No idea. I can only assume your computer went bezerk. Good luck!

Posted by: Justin00LS

That's crazy! Do you have a tuner or anything like an XCAL? Does it beep when you go over 60mph or in reverse?

Posted by: infinity20

No the engine is completely stock except for a K and N filter. It only beeps when you leave the lights on or something. No error codes or anything unusual except for the miles. Are the miles stored in the gauge cluster or the computer?

Posted by: tagliato22

haha. sorry, im sure you dont want people to find your situation humorous, but i cant help it.

did you buy it from a dealer or private seller?

Posted by: King03LS8

Thats insane....

Airbag light is on though, doesn't that sometimes mean the cluster was changed out??

Posted by: joegr

Yes, the miles are stored in the gauge cluster. I would assume that the cluster has some sort of fault.

Posted by: 97stscaddy

The miles are also stored in the ECM. How else would it know there was a problem?

That's something you'll probably have to take to a dealer and let them figure it out. They'll probably try to reprogram the cluster first.

Posted by: joegr

I have to question that. If that were true, then why is it that when the cluster is replaced, the miles stay with the cluster (unless the cluster is reprogrammed).

Posted by: skizot722

The mileage is not stored in 2 places. It's probably only stored in the cluster, and the ECM just reads it from there.

Posted by: pektel

I like the idea of calling up lincoln to show them how many miles you have on your LS. You might get a brand new Lincoln! But the new ones are crap, so maybe that wouldn't be such a good thing.

Posted by: pagluy

Quote:

Originally Posted by pektel

But the new ones are crap, so maybe that wouldn't be such a good thing.

And the older ones are...

Posted by: Justin00LS

Quote:

Originally Posted by pagluy

And the older ones are...

...able to go 620 thousand miles! lol

Posted by: 97stscaddy

Just noticed something in that pic because I got in my car tonight and saw 689356 I had to do a double take, there's a decimal point (one of these . ) before the last number on the Odometer. When I looked back I saw it, it's kinda hard to see if you just glance at it.
That odo reads 62679.5

You can see the decimal in the first pic, for some reason though it doesn't appear to be lit.

You say you've had it a couple years? You could easily put 50k miles on in a few years and not really notice it. Pull out your registration and look for the "mileage at titling" line.

Posted by: King03LS8

Hmmmmm, trying to pull a fast one on the LVC in lowering your miles??

Posted by: joegr

Quote:

Originally Posted by 97stscaddy

Just noticed something in that pic because I got in my car tonight and saw 689356 I had to do a double take, there's a decimal point (one of these . ) before the last number on the Odometer. When I looked back I saw it, it's kinda hard to see if you just glance at it.
That odo reads 62679.5

You can see the decimal in the first pic, for some reason though it doesn't appear to be lit.

You say you've had it a couple years? You could easily put 50k miles on in a few years and not really notice it. Pull out your registration and look for the "mileage at titling" line.

That decimal point turns off after you exceed 99,999.9 miles. At 100,000 and up fractional miles are no longer displayed.

Posted by: PatrickSimmons

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin00LS

...able to go 620 thousand miles! lol

Now that was funny.

Sounds like some sort of short when everything blacked out.

Posted by: HyeLifeLS

Posted by: SoonerLS

Quote:

Originally Posted by 97stscaddy

The miles are also stored in the ECM. How else would it know there was a problem?

The PCM doesn't have to know the mileage, it only has to know the instrument cluster module. If an instrument cluster it doesn't know reports at start up, bingo, it knows there's a problem.

Posted by: G-RELL

Someone call Guinness....

Posted by: infinity20

My car does not have a decimal point and i don't think it ever has. I guess that is because I bought it with 108 thousand miles and not less than 100 thousand like someone above said. but i do know that I my trip computer and odometer are putting the same miles up at the same rate and my mpg and everything else works correctly. and my airbag light has sporatically about once a month since I've bought the car back in 2006.

my daily commute is about 55 miles and the tripometer and speedometer added like normal today. but its still high!

I'm headed to the dealer. I am going to show them that my oil was changed in May and my window sticker says change at 124K. so maybe they will put it back around 122k

Posted by: joegr

I don't think there is any way for them to roll it back, only forward. I suspect they would have to replace the cluster and then set the new one to 124K+ miles.

Posted by: lincoln00

check to see if they changed you language to metic... you could be reading KpM...

Posted by: rickztahone

Quote:

Originally Posted by lincoln00

check to see if they changed you language to metic... you could be reading KpM...

never thought about that. i don't know the conversion but maybe give it a try in your message center

Posted by: TDUB

roflmao

Posted by: SoonerLS

Quote:

Originally Posted by lincoln00

check to see if they changed you language to metic... you could be reading KpM...

Probably not--there are only ~1.6km/mile; that would only take it to ~192K, well short of the 600K+ indicated. If it went from km to miles, it would have gone from 120K to ~75k, so even that couldn't account for the discrepancy.

FWIW, my '06 still shows the tenths digit on the odometer, and if you look in his first picture you can see where the decimal point would be.

BTW, at this point, I think you're screwed no matter what you do--your car is now a "true miles unknown" vehicle, and I'm pretty sure all states require this to be marked on the title. I know Oklahoma does (been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the coffee mug

). The dealership is probably the only place that will be able to help you, but there's no way for them to know what the correct miles are to set the new instrument cluster (and fixing this will almost certainly require a new instrument cluster).

Posted by: lincoln00

the cluster can be sent in... the dealer can handle that... they should be able to pull the milage from PCM... but that is if it doesn't say 600000 miles... and if it hasn't taken a

it self!

Posted by: owlman

So what did the dealer say?

Posted by: NateRW21

that sucks... I am laughing but I really do feel for you. I'd say it's better to have your car listed as true miles unknown than have someone think it has over 600k on it! Hell, you could barely give it away with that many miles on it!

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