GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi all!

I know a guy who has a friend with a Matrix, and apparently the odometer stopped at 299,999 km...almost 187,000 for my American friends.

He was told that this was common with the Matrix, and that it would cost almost $1000 to reset the odometer. Has anyone else experienced this?

Would this also happen with the Vibe? A friend of mine has an '07 that should reach 299,999 in August, so I guess he'll know for sure by then.

Yes it does happen, at least for 03-08. I haven't seen anyone hit 300,000 in an 09-10 yet and report back.

There are a number of threads here about the odometer limit of 299,999 for the 03-08 models.

The odometer reading is stored in the instrument cluster. The display is limited to 299,999 but the internal counter continues to increment and seems to keep accurate odometer reading over 299,999

$1000 to reset it is either outrageous or my next occupation. To reprogram the odometer, you need an old PC with a parallel port, a connector and a few feet of wire (or an old printer cable), and some free software.

Hope the 09-10 odometers go longer BUT don't hold your breath on mine hitting 300k miles anytime soon. With my current average of only 4000/year it will be 75 years till it hits the 300k mark

Yes, the dredded 299,999 wall...
Not trying to hijack this thread but...

To reprogram the odometer, you need an old PC with a parallel port, a connector and a few feet of wire (or an old printer cable), and some free software.

I am very interested to learn more about what software you are referring to, and how to set up the harness. Old laptop with serial port - I have. Am in the midst of stripping a front clip and will get the connector for the instrument cluster, printer cable I have. Now I need the most important part...the knowledge of how to get this set up. I have two of my Vibes with mid 200000 miles, so it won't be long. It would be great to reset, once I hit that magc mark. Will install an altered odometer reading decal on the cluster - we had to do this years ago when I wrenched, not sure if it's still required - and it doesn't really matter, as I will most likely be the last one to own them
Your help would be much appreciated!

Nevermind...I found the earlier post where this was discussed. Too bad the pics have disappeared from most of the links.

Hello,

I'm new to this board and, like many others it seems, my 2003 Vibe has reached 300,000 km and the odometer is stuck at 299,999 km. Also, like many before me, I'm beating my head against a wall trying to get GM to admit that it's their problem and pay to fix it. I don't expect to succeed but I feel I at least have to try.

What bothers me most is that I was informed that Toyota will replace the odometer free of charge when it reaches 300,000 km if you were fortunate enough to buy a Matrix instead of a Vibe. Now, I love my Vibe and have had no complaints about it but I just think it's unfortunate that I bought it from a company that puts customer satisfaction well below corporate greed on their list of priorities. In my opinion, Toyota is saying 'Yes, we made a mistake and we're willing to make it right' while GM is saying is saying 'Yes, we made a mistake and we're perfectly willing to make money from it by charging you $1,000 to fix our mistake'.

Perhaps this is why the 'Big 3' aren't so big anymore and the North American auto industry is on life support.

Well, it seems I owe GM an apology. After much whining and complaining, GM has decided to do the right thing and replace my odometer at no charge to me. I was totally shocked when I got a call from GM customer service and told that they had decided to pay for a new odometer for my Vibe. Perhaps others will have more success too. Good luck!

smitkev, that's great! Can you relate the process you went through to get it replaced?

Pat Goss had a guest from Carfax on the most recent MotorWeek show. Happy 40th (next October) by the way. I did not realize that hundreds of thousands of vehicles have their odometer tampered with. I thought that was an analog thing of the past, but apparently it isn't very difficult to manipulate current digital displays. Yikes.

Caretaker wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 4:33 am ... apparently it isn't very difficult to manipulate current digital displays. Yikes.

I've done it a couple of times in Vibes.

The first time was when I put an 04 red and white cluster in my 03, to replace the 03's all red cluster. That time, I used a square wave signal generator to simulate the speed sensor, and (after temp disabling the speedo) ran the thing at about a thousand miles an hour for a couple of days to bring the new cluster up to match the old one, so that the odo would be accurate for the car.

Before I traded that one in on a different 03, I used info in a thread here to bring the original 03 cluster up to the current correct value, and put that back in.

I then used that info to set the 04 red/white one to match the new (to me) 03, and swapped it in. Before trading in the second one, I set the original red cluster to be accurate for the car and swapped it back in.

So the cars had accurate odometers when I passed them on, but I suspect both ended up in a junkyard when I was done with them. I know that the transfer section on the back of a Maryland vehicle title has a checkbox to indicate if the odo isn't accurate, but I honestly never needed to check that.

Now I have an 04 base US cluster stuck in a closet somewhere. If I rehomed it, I could also get rid of the old laptop that I keep around just for that because it has a 25 pin parallel port (remember those?) I think its still running windows 95, but it might be running XP. I'm afraid to hook that thing up to the internet.

Seeing the digital odometer pass 100K miles isn't nearly as satisfying as watching the old mechanical odometers roll over back to zero at 100K.

I can't imagine what logic Toyota employed to decide that the odometers should stop at a reading of 299,999.

There was a guy here who said he could set the odometers to actually read 300K+, but never posted any pictures of one, and never said how he did it. I never could figure out how to do that, but the most I ever got out of single Vibe was 288K, so didn't put much time into it

joatmon wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 6:16 am

Caretaker wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 4:33 am ... apparently it isn't very difficult to manipulate current digital displays. Yikes.

There was a guy here who said he could set the odometers to actually read 300K+, but never posted any pictures of one, and never said how he did it. I never could figure out how to do that, but the most I ever got out of single Vibe was 288K, so didn't put much time into it

Unfortunately, they CANNOT be programmed above 299,999. Something something to do with the EPROM memory limitations something something. I know nothing of this, other than what Wheeler has mentioned.

I would be interested in learning how to flash these back to zero haha. We have a plethora of Vibes, and this could come in handy.

zbyers, if you want I can post a link to the info I have on reprogramming the chips. How to make the connections and early software. These are common memory chips that are used and you can buy some to play with before doing the "job". I believe i have posted this info here before so if you dig around here, you may find it. Great care must be taken when doing this and be sure to make backup before changing anything.

Im interested, how 2004 Pontiac vibe, the original engine earned its retirement at 299k, and engine number two is easily over a hundred. And it's probably going to make another hundred and still get 30 plus miles per gallon Brenda strong. But Discount Tire corn holes me even deeper than usual on the tire warranties when i get new tires so having an odometer would really be nice...