VIN # On engine? Possible rolledback odometer..

SON240sx Automotive
1

So here is what’s happening, I’m buying a '90 240sx Fastback and I got CarFax to give me a report on it. When it was registered a year ago the odometer was showing 153k miles, which is about 246k km’s. Right now the car reads 220k and some change. So my question is if there is a VIN# on the engine to see if it is the original? From what I understand the only reason to change the odometer would be if the engine was KA24de, so would there be any noticeable differences that can be seen without opening it up.

~B

2

Was it a US car? It could have just been swapped to show KM instead of M.

3

Nope, I’m pretty sure it was originally bought in Toronto.

~B

4

There’s no vin’s on Nissan Motors.

5

There should be one in the engine bay though.

6

There is an identification number on the motor, and it can be matched up to the chassis number.

Odds are you wouldn’t roll back an odometer 26K. If you’re going to go to all that trouble, you’d make it drastic enough to be worth it.

A couple things could have happened. One, the odometer broke at some point or was unhooked. When the vehicle was registered, they asked the guy what the mileage was. He didn’t know, so he made a rough estimate rather than go back out and look at the car. Maybe the cluster was swapped out.

I don’t get why the engine’s originality would be an indication of mileage. No one is going to roll back an odometer to match the mileage of the donor car the motor was pulled from.

New odometers are much harder to trick. Ask how many people have done JDM cluster swaps of “63,000” km showing, only to have the odometer roll over to “264,000” after they drive the first km. Old odometers, you could just click them back with a jewellers screwdriver. I’m not going to post how to do it on new cars :wink:

The only reason people change odometers is to get warranty work done after the time is up, or to trick buyers into shelling out more for “low mileage” examples.

I don’t see why someone would change the odometer if they swapped in a KA … unless you mean change the cluster.

7

hahaha maybe he put it in reverse…classic faris buler

8

I noticed on my car last week the trip odometer or whatever ? the button got stuck somehow so it wasnt counting or recording the kms. I noticed it after driving 2 days and I was still @ 220km or so and was like wtf ? so I just sorta touched the button to reset it and heard a tiny click and then it starting counting again ?

9

Yea I did mean the whole cluster, I thought you needed to if a KA24DE was swapped in the place of a KA24E. Where abouts is the VIN # on the engine itself?

~B

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11

Are you just quoting or do you know that for a fact Jedi_Car_Fan?

12

he’s quoting, But I know that for a fact.

there is no VIN on the kae’s or kade’s

13

whereabouts?

EDIT: too slow

14

It’s not a VIN, but the motors are stamped. They crud up easily so sometimes you have to get a wire brush on it and clean it up.

I’ve seen them on both KAs and KADEs.

All blocks have to be stamped.

15

So the car has a DOHC in it now? and some one put in a DOHC Cluster, and its off 26k?
After its over 200k and the age of the car I would not even care how many kms are on it.
KA engines are Cheap!

And they are right there is no vin on the motor. And the motor will be labled K57 or sompthing like that but it will do nothing for you. (on the block)

16

All they need to do is change the Tach. Don’t need to change the whole cluster. I think you should just look it over again.

17

The number on the block will have a casting date. If the date is newer than the chassis, you know the engine has been swapped.

It’s not a direct cross reference but it is a good indicator.