Dealer reset both trip odometers

[LDB]

I took my car to the dealer this morning for it's 6 months oil change and a warranty repair item. I have no idea why but they reset both the A and B trip odometers. I reset them each time I fuel to know how many miles to put in. That killed this tank of course. So I filled up, about 4.6 gallons, and used my lifetime average mpg to determine how many miles to use.

I know it's not absolutely correct but couldn't think of any other way to solve the problem. In 6 months I'll be sure to 1. write down my trip odometer miles just in case and 2. tell them to put a note on my ticket to not reset them. Any other thoughts/ideas/suggestions on how I could have salvaged it this time and/or things to do next time?

[Jay2TheRescue]

Oh, I've had my trip odometers, and MPG computer reset. Then to top everything off, they unplugged my Scangauge, and didn't plug it back in!

[gonzobob]

Does your car have an oil change reminder? Maybe they were trying to reset that and accidentally reset the trip odometers. Or maybe they disconnected the battery and that reset the trip odometers.

If you've logged all miles here, you could simply add them all up to get an odometer estimate at your previous tank fill.

I wonder if you can switch to using odometer readings rather than trip odometer readings on this site. That would avoid the problem in the future. An external gauge that has a trip odometer like a ScanGauge or UltraGauge would also do it.

[Draigflag]

This happens almost every time you visit a dealer now, I think it's when they update the software on the cars ECU. I've learnt now to take a picture on my phone of trip miles, and the total miles so I can see if they've been driving around, and if need be, work out the miles in case they did reset the trip meter.

A 6 Month oil change? You must have been racking up some miles!

[benlovesgoddess]

I think i'll be the same - my first service due in less than a month, i think they always change the oil...

[Charon]

Disconnecting the battery for whatever reason usually resets the trip odometer(s) and the clock, and may cause the radio to lose its station memories. It also usually causes the car's computer to have to "relearn" your driving habits. Dealerships may reset the clock as a courtesy, but they cannot reset the trip odometers even if they bothered to write down the numbers. Odometer tracking, along with your faithful notebook, is the solution.

[B3NN3TT]

Yeah, if you don't have an analog trip odometer, use absolute mileage tracking.

Any time a dealership does ANYTHING to a car they first disconnect the battery. Eliminates the chance of shorting out the ECU.

[LDB]

I don't think they disconnected the battery because nothing else was affected but it's possible. I spoke to the service manager and he said it probably happened when resetting the service minder. I will just be sure to take a photo of the dash next time. And yes, so many miles. [/facetiousness] Next Monday will be the 1year anniversary of purchase and I will have around 7800 miles.

[Draigflag]

Well ship that oil over here, I'll happily do another 10,000 miles on that

When I disconnect the battery on my Honda, all the trip measurements remain there just fine. Like I said, part of routine servicing now usually involves some kind of software update, I'm guessing it's probably that that reset your readings, but who knows.

[cuts_off_prius]

Aghhh! Same thing happened to me when I got an oil change at the dealer about a week ago. It was the next day after I filled up, maybe after 20 miles or so after fill up. I then figured I'll just skip this tank and also reset my MPG as I left the dealer to see what I would average on the highway on the way back (averaged 26 MPG). Now I have no way of knowing, but my trip meter is basically my miles thus far plus the miles before the reset. Maybe I'll just skip the distance portion or do a rough estimate. If we had been doing the odometer reading option on fuelly, this wouldn't have been an issue.