As I dont have the original engine in my cougar any more and the replacement engine has 47,332.6 miles less on it, is their any legal reason as to why I cant change the odometer setting on my ecu to read the engines milage?
altering milage on my cougar
- Thread starter Procomm
- Start date
only the body mate, all running gear has been renewed, hubs, bushes, subframe (rear), brakes, suspension, steering rack, wishbones, anti roll bars front and back all less than 2 years old
Replaced parts, no matter how many does not change the legal mileage of the original vin match. I had to replace a broken dash binnacle/clocks a couple of years back and the replacement clocks were reading about 20k lower than my original clocks which obviously wouldn't tie at MOT time. I contacted a national company who have regional agents to recalibrate. It cost me £20 as the clocks were out of the car, it would have been £45 if they were in situ as the clocks do have to be removed and recalibrated on the bench. Maybe technology has moved on now, but at the time they had to be plugged up to a laptop with appropriate software and a bit of de-soldering and re-soldering from the guy in control. If you need the company info Paul, i think i have it bookmarked.
Thanks Al but i have the kit and knowledge required to do this, just wondering on the legalities as I am essentially clocking the car. Its actually a very simple process that takes about 5 minutes but have googled it and the legalities seem to have a lot of grey area's
I can totally see why you'd do this, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't bother.
To me, the age of the car is when it rolled out. And given how old the Cougar is now, I kind of think that having a high-mile survivor is a badge of honour.
Or to put it another way, a 65-year-old human with a heart transplant is still 65 years old.
To me, the age of the car is when it rolled out. And given how old the Cougar is now, I kind of think that having a high-mile survivor is a badge of honour.
Or to put it another way, a 65-year-old human with a heart transplant is still 65 years old.
The engine is but a small part of the whole car. You need to retain enough of the original car (or parts plus fitting receipts) of brand new parts just to maintain the car's registration mark. Too many second hand bits and thry'll require you to change to a Q plate as you can't prove the age of the car. Milage affects brake cylinders, steering racks, gearboxes, driveshafts etc too. Even non moving parts due to metal fatigue. You can't just wind 50k off the car's recorded history because of a second hand engine!
as Jamie said. the mileage is on the chassis and things bolted to it. just changing the engine doesn't warrant altering it. or mine would be on zero not 134, 000. the only time I would alter the mileage would be replacing dash clocks due to failure.
As mentioned previously the only parts that are not reconditioned or replaced are the shell, the front subframe and the interior bits every other part has been either reconditioned or replaced with genuine parts in the last 2 years, I was under the impression that q plate was for moddified away from manufacturers design.
even so bud you can't change the mileage on the car just because you have put a new engine in and fitted some new bits. just out of interest what would you use to change the mileage?
Legalities are very simple...you have to keep the original mileage. Historical mots would show up any discrepancy.
Just have proveable history of the new engine to add to your folder if and when you sell the car.
Cat4 has 120k plus on her, but the engine has only done half that.
Just have proveable history of the new engine to add to your folder if and when you sell the car.
Cat4 has 120k plus on her, but the engine has only done half that.
And the Fourby has just hit 95k - but the engine has done a lot more than that.
Mines on about 134k but the engine has done about 12k if that. All new suspension (Eibach) a few years ago but not many other mods
My car has 91k on the clock......according to the history of the car it had a new engine fitted under warranty at 28k... So in theory can I knock 28k off my clock..... Don't think so...
I understand what your saying but all your doing is basically clocking your car..... Illegal if I recall.
I've also fitted engines in customers cars with less than 10k on the clock and have been asked by a couple why hasn't the mileage been reset. And every time I give the same reply..... You may have a new engine but the car itself has done the mileage... It's complicated enough if we have changed speedo units or body interface units.as they come with zero mileage on them....the amount of people who moan there mileage is different is unreal even though it's explained well in advance.
I understand what your saying but all your doing is basically clocking your car..... Illegal if I recall.
I've also fitted engines in customers cars with less than 10k on the clock and have been asked by a couple why hasn't the mileage been reset. And every time I give the same reply..... You may have a new engine but the car itself has done the mileage... It's complicated enough if we have changed speedo units or body interface units.as they come with zero mileage on them....the amount of people who moan there mileage is different is unreal even though it's explained well in advance.
You can't recondition metal fatigue away. You could, but it would involve remanufacturing the steel, reforging/repressing/recasting and remachining. All that usually happens when car parts are reconditioned, even by professionals is repainting.
Q-plate is for a car of unproven age. If you build a kit car from all new parts or with donor car parts from the same car you have the identity for you can use a new or age-related plate. If you build it from various parts from the scrappy you'll get a Q-plate because there's no way of knowing how old the components are. That's all it's for. It's all explained on the VOSA site in relation to what they'll be checking for in a vehicle identity check.
Anyway though, the point is that if you can prove everything (and I mean everything) on your car is brand spanking new (so receipts for parts plus proof that they're actually fitted to that car) except for a new engine, you'd probably still fail to legally get a reduced milage, as it's recorded against that VIN.
Aircraft get major components exchanged and overhauled all the time. Total flying hours never go down though, but they do keep log books for engines etc separately so they can be tracked in their own right.
As Si says above - just put the engine receipts in the bumf for eventual resale. Is it even going to make much difference on a car of this value?