I recently discovered a strange sticker on my IP cluster.. and I'm not sure what to make of it.
I've posted a message on my own board with pictures and details. To save time, I'm not going to repost everything here. Please check out the link and let me know what you think. I'd hate to think my car has the wrong mileage on it.

http://www.csionline.net/cgi-bin/cgi...t=ST;f=3;t=127

Reply here or there, it doesn't matter.. I'd prefer there so everyone else gets to see the replies in case they have something to add, but either or...

Thanks for any help folks.

Dave

 

If the problem is in the impalla in your pic then I think the milage is in the computer and displayed through the insterment cluster. I don't see a reason anyone would alter the milage in the car and then initial their work but there has been stranger things happen.

You might try running a carfax on it and it will tell you the milage the car had at title transfers and sometimes I think it tells you the regersterion dates and milage.

 

i'm not sure, but i think the mileage might be stored in a chip that is part of the gauge cluster itself.

if that's so, then it's possible that someone for some reason replaced the gauge cluster at ~80k with one that only had ~40k, and then notated it as such to keep it legal?

 

Poncho,

I think '91 is correct - the mileage is stored in the cluster NV-RAM instead of the PCM. The cluster may have been changed for some reason.

Your image attachment isn't very friendly to Netscape, since the images overlap the subsequent posts. That makes your second post impossible to read unless you cut and paste the text to an editor.

The "telltale" signs of a car with over 100K miles may not be that apparent. My '94 Impala looks to be in virtually the same condition as my '96, even though the '94 has over 110K miles and the '96 has less than 4,200 miles. Anything with 100K should have had at least one set of tires, new brakes, a transmission service, possibly a new water pump and Opti-Spark, a couple of fuel filters, a cooling system service, a set of spark plugs and wires, and probably some other unscheduled maintenance. Look for signs of these, adn you may have your answer. I also know that the oil quality monitor in these cars is a weak point, so you could possibly scan the PCM for stored DTCs, and get an idea of what may have occurred during its life.

 

This is what I've worried about. I think there's a good chance the instrument cluster has been replaced and the mileage was annotated for "legality". In my opinion, true legality would have involved a title modification, wouldn't you think??

Regardless, as I get deeper into the modification of the car, I'm sure evidence of it's age will become more apparent. The great cleanliness of the engine and underbody cause me to think the mileage may be as shown... but other things like the opti and what not will be greater proof one way or the other.

I did get a CarFax report on the vehicle when I purchased it and it did not come up with anything "off" in any way.



Dave

 

Dave,

The wear may not be as apparent as you might think. At the risk of being redundant (for those that have already suffered through this tale) I'll relate my experience with a '94 B-car.

At just over 110,000 miles I decided it was time for an Opti-Scrap unit after the original bit the big one. Upon tearing into it, I decided I was so close that it would be a shame not to pull the tame B-car LT1 cam and install a "real" one. Of course, one thing led to another. "It would be a shame not to work over the heads with that new cam", and since the crank had the same mileage on it, "it only made sense to check it". I convinced myself to keep at it until the block was in my stand.

Long story longer, after tear down I measured everything. At 110,000 miles it had 4/10ths taper and out-of-round in the WORST bore. The wear was calculated from the differences measured in the bores, not in excess of production tolerances. I had to measure several times to convince myself, and even had a friend come over and take his own measurements in case I was delusional.

In essence, the engine would still have statistically qualified as a 'NEW" engine since the measurements were within production tolerance limits. The wear never even approached the service wear specs. The engine had the original timing chain and it had no more slack than the new chain. Main and rod bearings showed wear, but the crank journals showed zero measureable wear.

The engine had synthetic from it's first day and was changed at most at 3,600 mile intervals. I know that the newer cases are being cast with more nickel content, and they wear better, but I would have guessed it was a 20,000 mile engine by the wear. Needless to say, it still had very good oil pressure and had no indications of problems, but it had 110,000 miles.

The rest of the car is in excellent condition, with absolutely no rust on the underbody, no signs of high mileage at all. It's had a lot of highway driving, but it certainly doesn't show its age. The really odd thing is that while the body is completely rust free, the steering column shift tube had rotted away from road moisture. It seems that GM save 5¢ by not even painting it, let alone plating, so I got to yank the column and replace the tube. Go figure.

The moral? Your wear may not be such a telling story, after all.