VIN Check and Some Advice on Odometer Rollback situation

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

C

creege

Joined
May 11, 2016
Threads
1
Messages
19
Location
Bakersfield, CA
Can someone please run a carfax report or something similar on: JTEHT05J712005676

I fell in love with this website a few years back when my seat motor sprockets got stripped on my 80. I was able to fix it on the cheap. The seats still work great! Extremely helpful website. Many thanks. Now I'm back with a bit of a problem. I never should have left because the problem I'm about to described could have been avoided.

I bought the above 2001 100-series for $7,200 bucks off of Craig's list. Thundercloud Metallic. Runs good, engine clean, no rust, body is in fair condition. No dents but a lot of paint chips on the bumpers. No blow by gas in the oil-filler cap, shifts smoothly, accelerates smoothly, 180k miles, no obvious fluid leaks, slight exhaust leak near the front on both sides on start up that goes away within minutes, a clunk going into drive and reverse. Original owner.

Here's the crushing blow . . . I did a Toyota.com service-record search after I put the car in my name and it said in 2009 it had 250k miles. Good news in that there are decent service records, bad news in that the odometer appears to have been rolled back. Somehow I stumbled upon a free carfax report or something similar by logging in with a user name and password. I thought it was carfax but I can't seemed to re-find it. I printed it out tho and have it in a file at home. The report said current mileage was 488,000 miles! Yikes! Are you kidding me! My heart dropped to the floor. 488,000 is a lot more than what the odometer says at 180,000. The service records matched with Toyota.com service records and DMV smog check dates.

I already put $1,000 into re-packing the front wheel bearings, new front axels/cv joints (which fixed the clunking), diagnosed the exhaust leak, and checking the timing belt (which looks good). Funny thing is that the bluebook even with the 488,000 miles is about $6,300, which is only about a $1,000 lest than what I paid for it. So I guess I'm not totally screwed. Plus my wife loves it, so I got that going for me.

I'm wondering if the Carfax or whatever it was I did is right and if there's any advice on what I should do going forward.

Thank you.
 
Does Toyota have records up to the 250k or does it jump to that? Search Carfax on clist service and buy one for $4. Hopefully a tech mis-keyed the mileage.

Edit: It appears you were defrauded, when/where/who did you buy this from (I'm doubting it was the original owner). While there are federal and state laws, I'm not sure they will do much to prosecute, but I would try. I believe you can also civilly sue the seller. I wish you the best of luck and am glad it sounds like the truck will still be a good truck for you.
 
Last edited:
This is from the Toyota owners website. Not a very detailed service history at all. Dealer services only goes back to '08 and includes an oil leak produced from the gasket around the oil filter. I am also getting conflicting mileage, it says 285,945mi last updated 4/22/09.
Screen Shot 2016-06-02 at 7.24.33 PM.webp
 
I tried that ap ... Shows clean title, 1 owner, no theft or total loss issues.

The car fax I have shows service records back to the day it was purchased new. Mostly just oil changes and tires and emissions. These records match up w Toyota.com.
 
It very well could be a 1 owner, no total loss truck, but the 480k on Carfax looks plausible. Toyota shows 258k to 285k in about a year, 2009, that kind of driving could put it at 480 now.

I wouldn't get too hung up on it. Maybe see what Cali will do and maybe file a civil suit.
If you liked the truck yesterday, my advice would be, keep liking it today.
 
Sound like it has good bones, so I'd not worry too much about the miles. These rig will last as long as one is willing to properly maintain. It would be cool to have one when it turns 500,000 miles and see that on the odometer, bragging rights. You should sue the PO just for robbing you of that honor.

You might want too matching serial number of title, engine, body & frame.

???? Where is millage stored????
 
Tah dah! I have some time left over from my Carfax account after shopping and buying my 2000.

Editing my original post - while the carfax may not be the news you were seeking, it at least corroborates your other data points.

Best of luck all the same.
 

Attachments

This may be obvious, but if you click the service history date (left column) on the Toyota site, you get a more detailed list of what was done (at least that's what I did when checking in mine).
 
In Colorado the title has a place the PO must state millage. Along with three boxes that need to be checked "actual, excess of mechanical limits or not actual-warning odometer discrepancy". This is under penalty of perjury in the second degree. In some states that means mandatory jail time. I'd give the PO one week to refund all but $1 and give a bill of sale for that $1.
 
In Texas our titles say "EXEMPT" for mileage after the car is 15 years old.
 
So if dash instrument cluster (Combination Meter Assembly) is replace, does that change millage?
 
Last edited:
@creege sorry to here that you were frauded. Looking at the Carfax that loeky provided seems as only basic maintenance was performed, maybe there is more info on the Toyota site. You said you recently repacked bearings and changed CV 's, how did spindles, tie rods, ball joints and bushings look? I would assume a vehicle with that amount of miles may have had other components replaced as well. Any indications of tamperment of the dash or gauge cluster? Even if the engine was replaced I still believe it is against the law to turn odo back.
 
2001LC said:
In Colorado the title has a place the PO must state millage. Along with three boxes that need to be checked "actual, excess of mechanical limits or not actual-warning odometer discrepancy". This is under penalty of perjury in the second degree. In some states that means mandatory jail time. I'd give the PO one week to refund all but $1 and give a bill of sale for that $1.
Click to expand...

x2, sounds like some serious fraud. The seller may be doing this habitually...
 
Last edited:
Thanks loeky for the carfax! You confirmed what I expected. In regards to sean's comments, the spindles and flanges in the front were noticeably worn, more so on the DS. I had them both replaced with the axle job. This weekend I'm going to do some more poking around like you suggested. When my mechanic did the work, we didn't know about the rollback, so we were just looking at it with normal mechanic's eyes. He was shocked when I told him, because it just didn't look like the kind of rig that had that many miles. He said the instrument panel could have been replaced.

This happened in Vallejo, CA. Be aware. I just saw a similar posting on Craigslist. This is definitely fraud and I do want to break my foot off up in his arse! I am that pissed! I've talked to a couple attorney's consulted insurance buddies and such, it has all led me to take my medicine and move on. If anyone is looking in northern California, more specifically the northeast bay area, contact me if you smell a rat. I'd be happy to help catch this bastard and provide all the detail you want.

I need to confirm the frame VIN is what it's supposed to be, I need to learn about the engine serial number and ascertain if it has been replaced, I also need to learn about this whole rollback thing, is the total mileage stored somewhere. Then it's on to prioritizing baselining jobs.

I went from being on Thundercloud 9 to thinking, "can I even take this rig on a road trip". Now I'm creeping back to where I need to be. You guys are awesome. Thanks!
 
TM just confirmed how easy it is to change mileage. I would think at nearly 500K miles the OP's rig would have shown some signs. The seller may have done more than just swap one part.
 
Oh! I noticed a "whine" noise in the steering column area upon startup. It's only happened once or twice. I've learned from this site that there is a TSB on the combination meter referred to as a continuous alarm. I wonder if this has significance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom