Odometer Has Reset To Zero By Itself?!?!

chasm · February 4, 2014

I have a 1995 ES300.

It's odometer "pages" from "ODO" (for odometer) to "Trip A" to "Trip B".

I rarely have ODO on display as I reset Trip B every time I refill it with gas, so I usually leave it there.

Today I got gas and happened to scroll through the pages and noticed that the odometer display says the car only has 160 miles on it.

What?? Dumbfounded, I paged through Trip A, Trip B, and back to ODO and confirmed that it says 160 miles.

The last time I had work done on the car in which I have a record was October when I had the tires rotated and it had about 116,000 miles on it. So I would guess that maybe it has about 120,000 miles on it now. (Yes, it was my elderly mother's car, and she hardly drove it at all for many years.) Although it seems odd, that has me wondering if maybe the odometers in these cars reset to zero at 120,000 miles. Does anyone know? I would think that it wouldn't reset until maybe 1,000,000.

I telephoned my local Lexus dealer and the service adviser asked a mechanic. She came back and said the mechanic said "that's impossible unless someone has done something." Well I am the sole driver of this car and have done absolutely nothing. AND it stays locked in my garage when not in use, so there is no way anyone could have done anything without my knowledge unless they broke in, reset it, neatly put everything back together, and locked the car back up.

The service adviser said everyone at the shop has started going home for the evening and that they can check with a more senior tech tomorrow.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening?

Really, I'm not happy about it because now I will have to explain the discrepancy when I sell the car. So I would much rather have had the original mileage showing.

1990LS400 · February 5, 2014

Yes, absolutely this sometimes has been reported but I don't remember which car models were involved.

Your car is 19 model years old and has a relatively low value - probably less than $2,500 on a good day if it looks perfect. A future buyer isn't going to care.

If you are concerned and don't already use one, start a log book in which you record events like this.

VBdenny · February 7, 2014

Probably just some kind of glitch with the reset button. I had a Buick where the odometer stopped working but it was the roll type and just stopped. Have never heard of digital failure doing a reset before. Good thing you are not dishonest or you would sell it as a low milage car owned by your elderly mother.