Has my A3 been clocked?

[Arfie1990]

Hi everyone I am recently an owner of an Audi A3 2.0 TDI 53 plate.

The mileage on my clock says 180 k but the previous MOT from September last year says 230.

Have I been had or is it due to a recent engine change?

How do I find out and is it difficult or easy to change the mileage?

 

[mister.c.]

Have you any other paperwork (e.g. previous MOTs, service history) and/or spoken to who you bought it off/ Audi at all - in respect of previous services? After that, try the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.
This might be of use - pop your registration in here
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

 

[SteveMcB]

You could check the engine number against the V5, even if it has a new engine the mileage shouldn't have been wound back though. Sounds fishy to me and I'd be 'chatting' with the vendor, maybe drop the phrase 'trading standards.'
Mot cert should also show the previous 2 or 3 years mileage.

 

[Arfie1990]

You could check the engine number against the V5, even if it has a new engine the mileage shouldn't have been wound back though. Sounds fishy to me and I'd be 'chatting' with the vendor, maybe drop the phrase 'trading standards.'
Mot cert should also show the previous 2 or 3 years mileage.

No paper work from 2013 and previous owner is not responding to messages. Therefore I have gone to the police and action fraud. I found out on a HPI Check. I am currently servicing the whole car and cambelt change before it goes capoot on me.

 

[Arfie1990]

You could check the engine number against the V5, even if it has a new engine the mileage shouldn't have been wound back though. Sounds fishy to me and I'd be 'chatting' with the vendor, maybe drop the phrase 'trading standards.'
Mot cert should also show the previous 2 or 3 years mileage.

Sounds very fishy. Could they change the clocks and ECU from a lower mileage one?

 

[Arfie1990]

Have you any other paperwork (e.g. previous MOTs, service history) and/or spoken to who you bought it off/ Audi at all - in respect of previous services? After that, try the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.
This might be of use - pop your registration in here
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

No paper work from 2013 and previous owner is not responding to messages. Therefore I have gone to the police and action fraud. I found out on a HPI Check. I am currently servicing the whole car and cambeltchange before it goes capoot on me.

 

[Orange225]

If you plug vcds in, it gives you the actual mileage of the car, unless it's possible to change that too

 

[phil miller]

was it bought from a trader? was it sold as genuine mileage? did you look at the service history and MOTn cert before you bought it?

if you plug in VCDS you can see the mileage the ECU has covered, its normally around 10 miles more than the cluster, the hassle involved with mileage correction is huge, that said, why clock it 50k, id have thought they would have done 100k to make it worthwhile

 

[phil miller]

If you plug vcds in, it gives you the actual mileage of the car, unless it's possible to change that too

ECU covered mileage isnt easy to change (ive actually never heard of anyone able to do it)

 

[Arfie1990]

Thank you I will get it plugged in a see what it comes up with. Is it difficult to change the ECU for a lower mileage one?

 

[phil miller]

Thank you I will get it plugged in a see what it comes up with. Is it difficult to change the ECU for a lower mileage one?

People just wouldnt do it to sell a car, cluster yes ECU no, i had a passat 6 yrs old on 130K which was fine, i then had a good long look at the MOT mileage, and in 14 months it went from 61K to 106K then i checked the spec when it was new, hmm, midline cluster (now a highline) 3 spoke wheel (not mf) now MFSW people do it, turned out my passat had 91k on it which added around £800 to the value

 

[@udi A3]

Ecu and cluster milage is very easy to change despite what everyone else is saying. I offer these services for genuine reasons, so am in a good position to tell you this.

Early 8p clocks failed often so maybe its been replaced. Maybe somebody has swapped an engine but the milage should stay to chassis milage.

Imo anybody able to change clocks should be able to correct milage, however with cheap tools this is not always the case.

The only give away i could check would be ecu milage and recorded fault milage with a vcds scan. Ie if a fault occured at higher than current milage it would be obvious.

Hope this has cleared a few things up.

It could also have been a smudge and typo from mot tester at some point.

 

[SteveMcB]

Maybe phone an mot test station an see if they can give you previously recorded mileage off the system. Just had my Golf done, mileages from previous tests are on the certificate.

 

[audismart]

ECU covered mileage isnt easy to change (ive actually never heard of anyone able to do it)

It can and does happen on some very exclusive cars too.

 

[mister.c.]

Maybe phone an mot test station an see if they can give you previously recorded mileage off the system. Just had my Golf done, mileages from previous tests are on the certificate.

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

 

[SteveMcB]

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

Even better

 

[Dannymoto]

I bought my previous car from Evans Halshaw, purchased the HPi, guaranteed mileage etc (admin fee) when I got the car. Later found that the car had been clocked by over 110k and the service book had been forged. Came up with nothing on HPi check, found this out by using mot history checker! Went from 184k down to 73k in one year lets just say a full refund was issued.

 

[Sayam]

As said mileage correction is easy peasy on these cars. The only way to tell would be discrepancy in MOT mileages or a fault code stored showing a higher mileage than what the car shows today.

 

[Dannymoto]

As said mileage correction is easy peasy on these cars. The only way to tell would be discrepancy in MOT mileages or a fault code stored showing a higher mileage than what the car shows today.

Very true! That car had VCDS plugged in and the ECU read the normal mileage (incorrect) I bought at 83k and it had over 200k.

 

[DJ_26]

As said mileage correction is easy peasy on these cars. The only way to tell would be discrepancy in MOT mileages or a fault code stored showing a higher mileage than what the car shows today.

What if you the fault codes cleared at some point? Is there still a way of obtaining the fault code history regardless of whether it has been cleared or not?

 

[Sayam]

What if you the fault codes cleared at some point? Is there still a way of obtaining the fault code history regardless of whether it has been cleared or not?

No there isn't. So someone wanting to hide their tracks would "correct" the mileage and then clear all the fault codes. If this matches up with dates and mileages shown on service history and MOT history then as far as I know it is untraceable - which is total BS if I'm right...

 

[Arfie1990]

Ecu and cluster milage is very easy to change despite what everyone else is saying. I offer these services for genuine reasons, so am in a good position to tell you this.

Early 8p clocks failed often so maybe its been replaced. Maybe somebody has swapped an engine but the milage should stay to chassis milage.

Imo anybody able to change clocks should be able to correct milage, however with cheap tools this is not always the case.

The only give away i could check would be ecu milage and recorded fault milage with a vcds scan. Ie if a fault occured at higher than current milage it would be obvious.

Hope this has cleared a few things up.

It could also have been a smudge and typo from mot tester at some point.

I thought it may be a mistake but the previous MOTs that are available to view online via a HPI check (and the few I have) I don't think they would get it wrong several times over a week period of 5 years.
I should be getting it plugged in today so I will see if they can check for me. Also I will check the others things people and yourself have listed.

 

[Arfie1990]

I bought my previous car from Evans Halshaw, purchased the HPi, guaranteed mileage etc (admin fee) when I got the car. Later found that the car had been clocked by over 110k and the service book had been forged. Came up with nothing on HPi check, found this out by using mot history checker! Went from 184k down to 73k in one year lets just say a full refund was issued.

Mine is going through action fraud and the police. Could take up to 10 weeks I am told lol