Changing Odometer from Kms to Miles (Moving from Canada to USA)

[Blackfox]

Hi all !

I'm having what seems to be a nightmarish issue.

My 2005 Camry is still pretty new (12,000 Kms) because I've been driving only short distances, and is well maintained, so I don't want to sell it anytime soon.

But I just moved from Toronto to Boston and while the Speedometer is not an issue since it has both Kilometres and Miles, I however need to change the odometer settings from Kilometres to Miles. The problem is I spent countless hours calling several US Toyota dealers and even Toyota USA, and they all say they can't do it.

I'm pretty sure it's just a policy to avoid people importing the cheap US models to Canada (the reverse of what I'm doing) but well, it HAS to be doable, since the odometer is digital it has to be just a stupid software flag in the computer. I really need some help to find someone able to do it or hack it myself.

While I don't think it would be an issue to clear the car from customs (I have 30 days I believe), I'm guessing when I start servicing the car in the US if I don't fix the damn thing the guys will start reporting my Km odometer in Miles to Carfax and it will royally screw up the report forever.

You guys are my only hope, I really don't know what to do

[CJCride]

Originally Posted by Blackfox

Hi all !

I'm having what seems to be a nightmarish issue.

My 2005 Camry is still pretty new (12,000 Kms) because I've been driving only short distances, and is well maintained, so I don't want to sell it anytime soon.

But I just moved from Toronto to Boston and while the Speedometer is not an issue since it has both Kilometres and Miles, I however need to change the odometer settings from Kilometres to Miles. The problem is I spent countless hours calling several US Toyota dealers and even Toyota USA, and they all say they can't do it.

I'm pretty sure it's just a policy to avoid people importing the cheap US models to Canada (the reverse of what I'm doing) but well, it HAS to be doable, since the odometer is digital it has to be just a stupid software flag in the computer. I really need some help to find someone able to do it or hack it myself.

While I don't think it would be an issue to clear the car from customs (I have 30 days I believe), I'm guessing when I start servicing the car in the US if I don't fix the damn thing the guys will start reporting my Km odometer in Miles to Carfax and it will royally screw up the report forever.

You guys are my only hope, I really don't know what to do

If TN is your only Hope you will be Fine!
I would contact CarFax and ask them it might be something they are familiar with.

Oh Yes is Boston as Nice as They Say?

[Blackfox]

More on this issue since I gave a bunch of calls:

The bad news
Toyota won't do anything to change the settings of the computer, so basically if you really wanna do it you have to hack it, just as if you were actually cheating... I'm not willing to go that way, at least for now...

The (not so) good news
Metric system is actually legal in the US, just not commonly used, so you can keep an odometer in kilometers. Carfax WILL keep track of odometer in Kms as long as it is reported as such, so the main problem is to make sure that EVERY single time someone is reporting the odometer reading he makes sure to either do it in Kms or divide by 1.61. Apparently most DMV and insurance are used to do it (at least in New England) but I guess it can be a pain to explain that to some local dealers for basic maintenance.

My conclusions
I'm going to put a huge sticker over my odometer each time the car goes into maintenance, stating "THIS ODOMETER IS IN KILOMETERS, DO NOT REPORT THE ACTUAL READING AS MILES (OR DIVIDE BY 1.6 BEFORE YOU DO SO)" and see how it goes from there... I'm not too optimistic but it's not like there are a lot of other options.

And my mood...
I live in the US, I love the US, but I must admit I don't understand why it's still the only country in the world using a middle-age unit system... Anyway car manufacturers (including Toyota) aren't doing a lot better either : they allow you to change the Celcius/Fahrenheit display but not the Kilometers/Miles ones, without any logical reason since it's obviously just a minor software flag.

Originally Posted by CJCride

Oh Yes is Boston as Nice as They Say?

So far so good, I'm impressed

[TexanF250]

My Jag will actually allow you operate in correct units or in metric units. I would not get too worked up about this. I worked for a company that had a truck shipped down from Canada. There was some reason that they had to keep the metric display but I do not recall what the reason was.

I bought a metric Harley Speedo from a guy who was buying Harleys from overseas and bringin them into the US. He was swapping out the metric speedos with US speedos and then selling the metric units. All he sold was the speedos. He did not sell the speed sensors with them which tells me that you might be able to pop in a used US cluster and be OK.

Toyota is telling you they cannot do it because the techs do not know how to do it. You might check wiht a company that specializes in importing cars for folks and doing the DOT conv4ersions that are neessary. They may know what's involved.