Main Odometer Gained 2 miles while parked!

This morning I was closely monitoring the main odometer which read 1999 miles as I was trying to pin down my location when the odometer turns over 2000 miles. I went to breakfast this morning with a friend, who was also watching the odometer, and I parked the car with 1999 miles on the odometer. Car was shut down, we went to breakfast and came out and got ready to go and see where the odometer would turnover at 2,000 miles. Much to our surprise, when I started the car, the odometer reading was 2002 miles. I have never heard of such a thing, and now I am wondering how many more times in the past was I "cheated" out of a mile a two on startup. Has anyone experienced this? Any ideas?

mrxxmas said:

Has anyone experienced this? Any ideas?

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This is really weird, and I haven't seen any similar report before. Not to insinuate anything, but you wouldn't have a teenager in the house, would you? ;-)

Nope, no teenagers....I live alone and I am quite mystified about the meaning of this as it tends to discredit the accuracy of the odometer.

You left the car ON and it thought it was moving due to a faulty/noisy sensor?

Nooooo, Gary.....I can assure that the car was off. It was when I turned it back on that we saw the odometer at 2002 mi and when we left we viewed the odometer at 1999, turned the car off and went to the restaurant. Later, I thought maybe the odometer would stay at 2002 while the trip odometer picked up two miles, in essence, the odometer "waiting to sync up with actual mileage. No such thing. The odometer started recording the miles straight away.

Great, one more thing to add to my OCD list.
Now I'll be noting the odometer reading on every shutdown.

That would be really... bad, if it counts off while parked. Not good for warranty status or lease limits either.

Isn't the odometer's accuracy a really big deal? Can't one go to prison for rolling a few thousand miles off of a car to make it more youthful and appealing? Falsely adding miles to the car should carry equally heavy penalties!!!!

GroundLoop said:

That would be really... bad, if it counts off while parked. Not good for warranty status or lease limits either.

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but its good for battery life.. now it will last 150k miles instead of 100k

Every time I charge I write down both the odometer and trip meter mileage, then reset the trip meter. As a former math teacher, any discrepancy would have jumped out at me, and there has been none.

I think your friend drugged you during breakfast and took your car for a spin. :lol:

Ray

planet4ever said:

Every time I charge I write down both the odometer and trip meter mileage, then reset the trip meter. As a former math teacher, any discrepancy would have jumped out at me, and there has been none.

I think your friend drugged you during breakfast and took your car for a spin. :lol:

Ray

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yep i have done the same thing. my car came with 5.2 miles on the odo (based on trip A #) and it still has it floating against my total milage driven based on daily trip meter resets

i was also under the impression the odometer had to be accurate within a certain percentage. keep in mind changing tires will alter the reading as well.