Dear all,

I discovered that my odomoter measures distances incorrectly. On a stretch of highway with 1-kilometer markers for up to the 5-km mark, my Civic's odometer read around 5.7 km. My mechanically inclined friend thought it may be tires that are the wrong size.

Questions:
1. What could be causing this problem?
2. What is the remedy?
3. How can I turn back the odometer to the right mileage?

By the way, I felt the front left tire, and the inner portion feels bald, while the outer part has more tread. Could this be related to the odometer issue?

 

You need to get the wheels aligned to keep the tire from getting worn down unevenly on the inside. Likely the right one is the same way, in that case it is a simple toe-in problem.

With tires that are smaller than the expected stock size, the wheels must turn more revolutions for the car to move the same distance over ground.

Also "Some people say" there is a conspiracy by car makers to make odometers turn too fast and run out the warranty early.

At that many km, do you really care how many miles any more?

 

mk378, thank you for your reply. Tomorrow, I plan to check whether my tires are smaller than stock size.

 

My Hanes manual doesn't seem to indicate what the stock size is. How can I determine what the stock tire size is for my Civic 95 1.5 Lx?

Two responses:
1) At how many km? :-) At the incorrectly measured mileage?
2) I care just for my own records. I sometimes drive my Civic for work. Until I learned of this odometer problem this month, the invoice I'd often give has mileage determined by the incorrect odometer. This means I have been asking for more mileage than I ought!