Faulty Odometer after Halfords fitted stereo

[Edna Cloud]

Hi,
I bought a 4 year old Citroen C4 Grand Picasso mid June 2014 with 19k on the clock from a reputable dealer with an up to date MOT certificate (June 2014). Mid July 2014 a small Halfords near where I work fitted a Sony stereo that they sold me, and on the way home I noticed some of my peripheral electrics (air con, fans) were not working. I rang the store and they gave me the run around, so I rang another local store (nearer home) that is bigger (with more helpful staff), and they agreed to repair it for me, using the Autocentre attached.

I had the car back, with the factory issue original stereo reinstalled and the faults rectified. I wasn't given any paperwork at the time, and although I asked and rang a couple of times, none was sent out to me. Life as a busy full time working single mum continued, and I forgot about it - my husband left me that same May and life was quite chaotic for a while. I did get some odd number readings when the display came on, but I assumed they were not my mileage as I hadn't taken the time to read the manual and the display was complicated with lots of toggling between menus, and I am always in a rush.

I took my car for a new MOT and service this week, to be told my car in just over 11 months (May 2015) now reads 137k on the clock. This is clearly logged on the new MOT certificate. I have been in touch with Halfords, and the Autocentre found the original paperwork which said that at the end of July 2014 when they completed the repair my mileage was 133k - so that is a jump in 5 weeks from 19k to 133k.

Halfords seem to have washed their hands of it, even though it was their fitting service that created the problem, as they are blaming the repair by the Autocentre. The Autocentre customer services has just rung me and asked me to take the car to an 'independent audio technician' for a 'report'. I acted dumb and said I didn't know any and wouldn't know what to say, so they are ringing the autocentre in the morning to recommend a local audio technician, and to get the Autocentre to prep the audio technician with exactly what they want to find out.

This sounds fishy to me - like the two companies (both subsidiaries of Halfords) are trying to pass the buck, plus expecting me to pay for this report. At the end of the day, I bought a stereo from Halfords and had it fitted by Halfords, not the Autocentre, therefore any problem that I have should be rectified by Halfords.

I don't know where to go from here. Help

thanks for listening,

Edna

[Stickyfinger]

I would call the DVLA and speak to the help line staff (the only good thing about the DVLA) and tell them your problem.....you DO NOT NEED it on the DVLA records.....

About Halfords.....I don't know

[SaabC5]

It sounds to me like they have managed to spike the electrics whilst fitting the stereo. Modern cars with digital odometers are very prone to issues if the car is bump started or started using jump leads, typically they change to km from miles or increase markedly to a random figure. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Halfrauds have disconnected the battery a couple of times or had issues with constant/switched live supply to the stereo and spiked the electrics swapping them. There are companies out there who do mileage corrections but speak to VOSA/DVLA about getting the digital MOT records amended or a footnote to say the mileage is correct before you do it.

http://www.eurodashservices.co.uk/servi ... tAodexwAGg

[oscar]

Hi could it not be that the 133k is infact the correct mileage? as must be a master boot log somewhere in electrics as once disconnected battery it's rebooted with correct readings?
but sure someone more clever will be along soon!

[vborovic]

Can you actually change the mileage in the BSI by any means? When I did the BSI update on my car (which is basically an overwrite of all values), I lost the Trip 1 & Trip 2 data (had to reconfigure all the custom stuff I did to my car as well), but the total mileage was standing tall & proud ... this is something that you can't just erase with electrical faults & glitches ... if the entire BSI would be faulty, that' s another issue (but then your mileage would be the least of your worries)

[Stickyfinger]

Hi could it not be that the 133k is infact the correct mileage? as must be a master boot log somewhere in electrics as once disconnected battery it's rebooted with correct readings?
but sure someone more clever will be along soon!

133k is tall miles for a 4 year old..............other items in the car would be showing that age.

[Gibbo2286]

Hi could it not be that the 133k is infact the correct mileage? as must be a master boot log somewhere in electrics as once disconnected battery it's rebooted with correct readings?
but sure someone more clever will be along soon!

133k is tall miles for a 4 year old..............other items in the car would be showing that age.

I had a customer who did 46 thousand miles in six months in a Morris 1000, he was a rep for a specs company and his territory was the entire UK 30k a year isn't all that unlikely for some company cars, or of course airport taxis.

[Stickyfinger]

June 2014 with 19k on the clock from a reputable dealer with an up to date MOT certificate (June 2014)

So unless there is criminal activity

Maybe a good thing to try and contact Citroen to see if the ECU can be studied to pull out the details.

Just a thought....did they blow the instrument cluster and replace it without telling you (did they have time), as the car reads and records the highest number of the two I think....seen post saying always fit a speedo with lower number so not to increase your recorded millage.

How did you get on with the DVLA ?

[oscar]

Knew someone that was up in front of the beak to keep his licence they said to Mr X about his speeding habits etc and why he needed to keep it so how many miles do you do? around 5-6000. what a month/year no a week!
I used to do 2 thousand plus a week with ease.
If a car is doing motorway miles like say airport car etc quite easy to not see high mileage and easy to cover esp if don't drive in say london or city much my uncle was on rank in Harrogate had cars back then like the Maxi/marina/Princess and mondeo's round the clock 4 times before they fell to bits

Reason i said about it would have thought would be a master boot record held maybe in ECU or something that is i guess coded to car and holds mileage and could change dashboard or reset but once say like they have done had battery off for a longer period so it has to go into a hard reset which will bring up original details.
One way is to look at log book and trace previous owners plus if confirmed by a check by someone that knows there stuff DVLA will be interested and owner can have a case to claim back money etc from dealer.

Because if there isn't something held you could easily corrupt readings to whatever you like?

133k divided by 4 is 34 thousand a year not that hard to do at all 500 miles a weekish +/-

[daviemck2006]

When I was a taxi driver, mostly doing airport runs to an airport that was nearly 100 miles round trip the car which I had allocated to me did 85000 miles in one year. At that time was 5 years old, wasn't a taxi from new, only a taxi for one year had 135000 on the clock and there was little sign on that much miles, drove like new and looked like it too apart from a scraped bumper and wheelarch which could happen to a 1 day old one. I would be checking the previous owner too, some reputable dealers are not really reputable.

[vborovic]

Guys, you're missing the point ... the OP lady said that she didn't notice, but it appears that the car did 94k miles in 5 weeks, which she didn't actually do .. whether or not such driving is physically possible, it probably is, but I don't think it is logically possible to drive on average 111 mph 24 hrs a day 5 weeks straight ... ... like I've said before, I don't think it could be possible to make the change just by tampering with the wires/installations, since the BSI electronic is not that simple ...now, whether or not some tool actually exist which may overwrite this exist that's another matter (but I don't think it should be legal in any way) ...