My cousin is looking at an 08 F-150, the price is reasonable...but the body and undercarriage looks a little rough for the mileage that the odometer shows. The truck has the stock tires on it still, but the body panels have quite a few rock chips, and the rest of the interior/exterior just doesn't look like a 2 year old truck with 7500 miles on it. The guy who is selling the truck claims to have done all of his own oil changes, and purchased the truck new...it was never in a crash or repainted.

I just have that funny feeling about it, the guy seems honest enough...but you never know. I would guess that this thing as at least 40k on it by the looks, but I could be making a big deal out of nothing. So what I'm wondering if there is any way we could take it for a "test drive" and bring it to the ford dealer and have them scan the truck to see the actual mileage? Is there any type of counter in the transmission, or is the odometer the only thing that keeps track?

 

just tell him you want it checked out at the ford dealership before buying and if he refuses then forget it if he doesnt care do it and find out. the dealership can find out the actual mileage if his is false

 

Ask him how much tread is left on the tires (if they're stock). That should pretty much explain most of it. It would be difficult to have odometer fraud unless he swapped out ECU's with another truck.

 

Not bad ideas guys, thanks. We did notice a few scratch marks on the dash, possibly from pulling the whole gauge cluster out. By swapping the cluster, wouldn't that be an easy way for him to hide the actual mileage? So the ECU also records the actual mileage? I don't want to be a **** and accuse the guy of fraud, but I don't want to see my cousin buy something for more than it is worth because of the mileage.

As for the tires, they were the Perelli Scorpions (same ones that I have on my truck), and they did look to have a few more than 7500 miles on them...but it is hard to say for sure. I don't know how these tires wear yet because I have only 2000 miles on mine.

*edit*

now that I think about it, the truck is an XL...did ford ever offer the XL models with 20" wheels with the perelli tires, or did the guy upgrade them later on? I assumed they were the tires that the truck came with because they are factory ford wheels and tires, but maybe not.

 

Those are upgraded. I am curious if he did a cluster swap. Can you get a picture of the cluster, you got me thinking now

 

Act like you know nothing about F150s. Ask him if those are the wheels and tires it came with. LOL at him doing "all" of his oil changes - at 7500 miles he should've only done two!
If its an XL, the cluster will most likely not have a tachometer, so if it does, it's likely that he swapped the cluster.

 

Yup, that kind of damage means that truck was abused or the cluster was swapped. That makes me nervous right off the bat. If it were me, I would pass.

 

yeah if you swap the cluster you can change the mileage to whatever you want it to be just saying, i had to get mine replaced and the ford dealer asked me what the mileage was on the truck (guess they didn't write it down when they pulled it out) before it was replaced. i guess i could have told them anything haha

 

I dont mean to rain on the parade here, but the milage in the 04+ trucks is not recorded in the cluster...It is recorded in the computer. You can swap clusters out all you want and it will read original every time.

Also, XL models DID come with a Tach, mine is an XL and it has a Tach.

So....unless your guy swapped out his computer, or figured out how to alter his, Id say its original mileage.

Just my .02

 

I don't remember if it was stored in the cluster or the ECU now that you mention it. Either way, the 20" wheels weren't an option on the XL.

 

Pre NBS (-04) was stored in the cluster...In 04 they moved the information to the ECU. And no, 20's were not an option, but if anything the odometer is going to show more milage than actual from the increased wheel/tire size. If its an XL its geared at 3.31 nonLS most likely, so the milage could actually be closer to 7K. Id have to look up the calculator to be sure about the percentages.

Anyway, on the NBS trucks, it takes A LOT to mess with the odometer. You have really one option, swap out the ECU. This is easy enough to check, just find the vin # on the unit itself and check it against the vin on the truck.

Other than that, hacking into that and altering the milage is something that I have never heard of being done...its just not feasible.

 

I was just digging around on google and found a few posts that said that the cluster is where the mileage is stored...so it seems like swapping the odometer would be an easy way for somebody to BS the mileage:

http://www.f150forum.com/f4/cluster-...visited-17748/

 

Hmm

Just talked to the techs at the local FORD dealership, this peaked my interest. The data IS stored in the ECU, however the cluster has somewhat of a short term memory in it. It will remember the information that was last displayed through it incase of things like a power outage. So in short, yes, if he swapped the cluster and did not have it flashed the milage could be off, and yes, you can take it to any ford dealer to check this/flash the ecu.

 

Thanks, I appreciate the help. I guess it is time for him to take another "test drive" and swing by the Ford dealer to see if the mileage is legit.

I will update this later to see what we find out.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions guys,

Kyle

 

dont buy it if you arent comfortable with the guy and the situation and all that.