odometer stuck at 299,999 How to fix?

[BenWA]

The problem with the odometer is a display issue. It still counts mileage, but wont display due to a code error. This page gives a bit of an insight on that.

http://socalspeedometer.com/speedometer ... miles-why/

Sounds like from the page you linked, it's NOT a "display" problem. It's a software problem, it DOES stop counting at 299,999. From the vague description from the author of that page, they simply edit the odometer from 299,999 to 300,000 to "fix" it. That means it's NOT a "display" problem but rather it IS a "counting" problem. If you have to manually add one mile to get past the barrier, then the EEPROM was designed to stop at 299,999.

It's not as if it's a gear driven system where they left off a tooth or it has some manufacturing defect that prevents the numbers from showing 300,000+. It's digital. The display panel itself can show any number it wants up to 999,999. So it's NOT a problem with the display. It's the underlying counting software. Now, if the display itself wasn't what retained the mileage, but rather the ECM, and you replaced a damaged/defective LCD panel and your old reading came back, that would be another matter.

So yes, that's STILL odometer fraud, because what if the car has 301,000? In theory, they are only rolling it forward one mile, but unless you have it fixed as soon as you drive it one mile past when it hits 299,999, then you'd technically be rolling it back. They are probably hiding behind the defense of "we didn't know, as far as we knew, they parked the car at exactly one mile past 299,999 and never drove it an inch more until they sent in the odometer, blame the customer for the fraud, not us!"

EDIT: Reading it again, they flat out say it's an EEPROM problem, not a display problem: "This is not a cluster issue like many think, this is an eprom problem and faulty chips on board"

So yes, it's designed to fail. Since it's impossible to fix the problem, short of running it to 299,999 then manually edting the value to 300,000+, then it's odometer fraud. Unless you have less than 299,999 and you roll it up to 300,000, then you'd be ok. I doubt anyone could accuse you of fraud. Why? Because in theory it decreases the car's value rather than increasing it, which is why odometer tamping is such a hot button issue. Showing more miles than it has wouldn't be favorable so no one wants to do that.

[KITT222]

While technically fraud, if you have a car with 300,000 miles, nobody is really going to care that the display says 300,000 and keeps ticking instead of 299,999 and doesn't. Think of the reason behind the law: to keep fraudulent people from lowering a car's mileage to make an extra buck. Besides, dialing the mileage *up* wont ever be noticed.

[SeattleJeremy]

Using software to change the information in the system above 300,000 does not fix the problem. It will continue to display 299,999.

[BenWA]

Using software to change the information in the system above 300,000 does not fix the problem. It will continue to display 299,999.

Hmm so people are paying $200 for nothing? Heh.

[SeattleJeremy]

Hmm so people are paying $200 for nothing? Heh.

People are paying $200 to have the OD set back to what ever they wish. I've read some people set it back to 100k or 200k. Hopefully people are logging this change and telling the people if they sell the car.

[BenWA]

Hmm so people are paying $200 for nothing? Heh.

People are paying $200 to have the OD set back to what ever they wish. I've read some people set it back to 100k or 200k. Hopefully people are logging this change and telling the people if they sell the car.

Which goes back to what I said, highly illegal. Why? Because even if YOU sell it as 299,999 + whatever, they can sell it as 100k and you'd be an accessory to felony odometer fraud.

[joatmon]

It looks like you can get an odometer corrected (or reset) for under $70 on ebay, but would require sending the cluster off and waiting for it to come back. There are also other (likely more reputable) companies, like http://www.specmo.com who will do it also.

Highly illegal. There is no such in thing as legally "correcting" or 'resetting" an odometer.

Read the very first line:
http://www.justice.gov/civil/case/feder ... g-statutes

"Altering the mileage reading on a motor vehicle is a felony."

http://www.nhtsa.gov/Vehicle+Safety/Odo ... +Consumers provides some more leeway than the reference you posted. It looks to me like changing the odometer is not illegal if you fully disclose the nature of the odometer alteration to any purchaser. There are legitimate legal reasons to have an inaccurate odometer

When I replaced the cluster in my 03 with one from an 04 to get the red&white display instead of the all red one, I carefully set the odometer on the new cluster to exactly match that of the old. WHen that Vibe was at 288K miles, I traded it in on another nearly identical 03 Vibe with half the mileage. I reprogrammed the old 03 cluster to the correct reading for the car I was trading in, put that cluster in it before I got rid of it, and then reprogrammed the odometer reading for the 04 cluster to exactly match the odometer on my "new" 03. If I had kept the first one until it hit 300K, then I would have reset the odometer to 0 and put one of those odometer reading disclosure stickers on the door jamb.

I've played around with the clusters a little bit, but its been a while, and I can't remember my exact methodology, but I remember finding out that if I ran the mileage above 300K, the eeprom in the cluster looked like it still kept the correct mileage value, but it didn't display above 299999. If I set it to 321321 miles, it still read 299999. I don't know about that link that says if you set it to 300K it will count up from and display correctly, doesn't match the tests I did, but maybe that guy knows a trick I don't. Still, his site shows one at 299999, but doesn't show one at 300000+


My weekly commute has dropped to less than 10% of what it used to be, this vibe will not likely hit 299K while I own it, but if it did, I'd still just reset the odo to 0 and put the disclosure sticker on the door jamb. More likely would be that I'll move on from a Vibe someday, and if my son still has his 03 Matrix, I'll set my 04 cluster to his mileage and give him the cluster color upgrade.

[dpetepiece]

Our 2006 vibe FWD 5 speed has been on 299,999 for a long time.
It has been exceptional. No alignments yet. Planning on changing the struts to go another 300,000.
One clutch I changed myself but I tow a boat and utility trailer plus taught a number of young people to drive a standard transmission.
One starter due to young drivers stalling it while learning to drive manual trans.
Never had a more reliable low cost to maintain car and was sad to find Toyota stopped making it.
Do the oil spray rust proof treatment myself. Exhaust system is excellent and original.
Had to have one AC pipe fixed necessitating dash removal.
Dave

[Stevemo]

The Canadian Dealers are now taking the clusters out and reading the mileage to reprogram them. They read the mileage on the odometer, subtract 300,000 from it, and reprogram it with that value. Therefore, if your car read 400,000 they would reprogram it at 100,000. The nasty thing is that it will stop at 299,999 again. They also put a sticker on the back of the odometer indicating to add 300,000. Cost is about $350 including $7/day car rental while the cluster is out.
Regards, Steve

[DopeVibeGT]

So,if one is in a state that has state inspection every year, like PA, and this year it hit the 299,999 and passed inspection, what about next year? Can they hook something up to get the actual reading? I cant see junking a vehicle because Toyota didnt think their cars would make it over 299,999 miles and I doubt they are going to think you drove less that .9 miles in a year. I plan on driving it until it blows up or something. lol

Edit: I just watched a video about the Toyota Matrix and Prius. They said it will still pass inspection, you just have to let them know the odometer reached it's mechanical limit. Or, Toyota will pay half the cost of $580 to have a certified Dealer install a new one. Im not sure if Toyota will do that for us Vibe owners, though, even though it's a Toyota in Pontiac clothing.

[dpetepiece]

There is no way to get the actual mileage.

Because likely Toyota corolla's are affected as well as Matrix's and Vibe's, I would try calling Toyota dealer, act like you have a CMatrix and ask them what you should do at inspection time,

Start now because it may take some time to find what they advise their customers to do when faced with the same situation

Dave

[Cool]

Just rolled over 250,000 km's on my 2005 the other day, and was speaking to a co-worker (who I didn't realize actually had a Vibe), and she mentioned the odometer. Low and behold, I search and come across the thread. This is ridiculous. Don't have any intention of getting another vehicle for quite some time (not sure what vehicle out there today replaces the 1st gen Vibe/Matrix). I wanted to hear about people that had half a million or more km's on this legendary car. This was done to get you to go out and buy another car. There should be a recall for reprogramming. Brutal.

[dpetepiece]

The interesting part of this situation is that the max number is 299,000 kilometers or miles so Americans get more use out of their vehicles.

Dave p

[jolt]

The memory can only hold the maximum digit count of 299,999. It does not matter if it is miles, km, cm, or inches. You can find more information about this if you search the internet (Google). Most of the information comes from Europe for this topic. If you have worked with EEPROM's, and programming them, and do your home work, you may be able to reset the mileage yourself after removing the EEPROM from the circuit on the back of the gauge cluster. The EEPROM contains more information then just the mileage so you can not just zero out the EEPROM. If you do, the combination meter will no longer work so make sure to backup the programming before making any attempt at resetting the mileage. You would be looking for a 93Cxx series EEPROM on the cluster's controller board. Different years will have different versions of the 93Cxx EEPROM in them. These EEPROM can be found very easily and are very cheap. It is the time, tools, and knowledge that cost the money to reset these, not the part. You may also have to go to your Dept. of Motor Vehicles and get a wavier on your mileage too.

Here is link to a repair shop: http://socalspeedometer.com/speedometer ... miles-why/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TOYOTA-COROLLA ... m570.l1313

and there are more out there if you look.

Here is a video too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKXn_EcZblY Just remember that different years of the car can use different memory locations in the EEPROM so you need to verify the hex data patterns that match your mileage numbers.

Update 02/08/20: More info for DIY repair at : https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/di ... ng.782562/
or another repair shop : https://odo-pro.com/digital-mileage-correction.html

[MrDoopey]

thanks for the info. When I looked at my odometer, I noticed that it was about to turn 300,000, and kept looking for it to roll over, but never did after 5km later.

I now use my "Trip A" odometer as my main one now, and add 300,000 to it each time, lol

[lavaman]

I have also been keeping track of my miles with my trip odometer since my 05 hit the big 300. I change my oil & have my tires rotated every 5000 miles without fail. My tire dealer records it each time, so if I ever forget which 5000 I'm on, he can remind me. A wrecking yard near me has a deal with many manufacturers where he gets test vehicles & brand new vehicles damaged in shipping. I called them a few weeks ago just for fun & believe it or not, they had a 05-08 cluster with 7 miles! Even more amazing, they sold it to me for $35! It's going in my 05 when I reach 400,000. Gonna drive it till it drops so I'm not concerned with odometer laws

[tpollauf]

they had a 05-08 cluster with 7 miles! Even more amazing, they sold it to me for $35!

Definitely post pics of that mileage when you get it installed. Must have been off of a wrecked Vibe from years back that got damaged during a test drive perhaps? Nice find though and hope the swap goes as planned!