C5 mileage issue.

bodykitboy · Post by **bodykitboy** » 10 Mar 2011, 02:30

Hi again guys, having one last c5 related problem and you were spot on with the help last time.

i was struggling with the usual speedo stepper motor problem, so long story short, i got a set of c5 gauges from a breakers and fitted them to the car.

i was aware that you had told me that the ECU and gauges will make chose the higher mileage of the two if there was a discrepancy between them.

so anyway, my car has 170,000 miles (not the 150k i thought it had), so i thought sod it, the odds of the newer gauges having a higher mileage than that are slim. so i put them in, turned the car on and behold. the new gauges had 210,000 miles on them

what if any options do i have?

can a citroen dealer rectify this?
can i download a program myself to change these through the OBD port?

any ideas or suggestions would be great

and if anybody knows how to reset the service reminder too, that would be excellent

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 10 Mar 2011, 08:01

Hi there..

I had this also on a C5 after a clock change, I think this one went to 205k...

There may be a way in the depths of the Lexia connected to the ECU to change it but Ive not looked that far into it..

You may not have a choice here, and have to leave it on the "good" milage showing.

Service milage... Iginition off, press and HOLD the Trip reset button, while HOLDING it switch the ignition on..

then KEEP holding untill the numbers stop counting down etc...

Paul

old'uns · Post by **old'uns** » 10 Mar 2011, 09:46

170 or 210 whichever you choose, does it really matter?
not going to affect value that much & you know yourself what it is, doesn't bother me that mines on 212k, probably only worth £212 or £2.12 anyway

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 10 Mar 2011, 10:02

Couldn't agree more, my customer was happy because he wasn't going to sell the car any time soon!!

Ive a Xantia with 240k, resting at the moment, but would love it to be 300k...

Paul

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 10 Mar 2011, 10:26

Thats a bit unfortunate

Its one reason i really didnt want to fit a secondhand set of clocks to our 52 C5, as C5s are used to cover big miles the chances of finding a high mileage one and the chances of that one being broken are high. So id have no doubt been in the same situation. If i did go down that route id have wanted to see the car and see evidence that it had done less or around the mileage of mine.

However im almost certain that the car will always retain the higher mileage and there is nothing you can do about that. I guess there is someone out there willing to 'clock' a cars mileage, but its illegal and not worth it.

As already said, your car was heading high mileage anyway, so its not a huge problem, hopefully though you will have some for of service history/MOTs to back up its actual mileage should you really need to prove its not done the higher mileages as stated.

spider · Post by **spider** » 10 Mar 2011, 10:56

It will take the highest reading typically. The mileage lives in the BSI and then goes to the panel as far as I am aware.

It is increment only by the design of the software and the way the firmware is written to prevent 'clocking' , I dare say someone with appropriate knowledge could adjust it back down as its only a flash chip at the end of the day.

I was always told if you ever needed to get a replacement instrument panel you 'must' take the BSI as well (from the same car) as that is the only way the miles won't do this.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 10 Mar 2011, 12:02

Well, unless you know its from a lower mileage car. In which case the cars actual mileage will be displayed.

Once the car has remembered a higher mileage, the original is lost, even if you replace it with lower mileage clocks, the higher mileage stored from the high mileage clocks will remain.

wheeler · Post by **wheeler** » 10 Mar 2011, 22:59

The milage is stored in both the instrument panel and the BSI. If either one of these units is replaced (even temporarily for testing purposes) the higher milage will be saved to both units.
The milages can't be altered with a dealers Lexia.
I dont belive there is any programs out there that can alter the milage on this model via the EOBD port. As far as im aware you need to reflash the eproms in both the BSI and the instrument panel.

lussasgraham · Post by **lussasgraham** » 11 Mar 2011, 07:45

AFAIK it is not illegal to alter odometer readings by adding or subtracting mileage.There are loads of people out there with laptops doing just so for a living.Apparantly it only becomes illegal if the car is being sold and no mention of the ,change, is past on to potential buyers.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » 12 Mar 2011, 21:17

I did explain before how to repair/change the stepper motor....
you didn't need the whole cluster changed but now you have the reading is different so the choice you have is 1) live with it or 2) put the old cluster / gauges back with a different stepper motor.

R9UKE · Post by **R9UKE** » 12 Mar 2011, 21:40

I have a C5 instrument cluster, which I know is used and was from a broken C5. When i hook it up to my powerpack the mileage comes up as 0 so I always presumed that it would start from zero again if put into a car at some point. Obviously not...

wheeler · Post by **wheeler** » 13 Mar 2011, 18:53

R9UKE wrote:I have a C5 instrument cluster, which I know is used and was from a broken C5. When i hook it up to my powerpack the mileage comes up as 0 so I always presumed that it would start from zero again if put into a car at some point. Obviously not...

Are you sure is not the service indicator thats showing 0 miles ?

R9UKE · Post by **R9UKE** » 13 Mar 2011, 19:18

I'll hook it up again soon and take a pic. I'm very sure it's the actual mileage.

Allanxantia · Post by **Allanxantia** » 14 Mar 2011, 23:18

My C5 had a documented BSI change and the mileage reset to zero at that point, so there must be a way of changing it.

cachaciero · Post by **cachaciero** » 15 Mar 2011, 13:49

I wonder if the panel mileage is written to the BSI or whether it just displays the highest of the two. Any way given that the clock mechanism is so easy to change, basically plug and play I would never advise a panel change just for a speedo failure.

Would be interesting to re-fit the older panel and see what mileage it displays the worst that could happen is that all three items BSI and 2 Panels end up by carrying the same mileage

cachaciero