original miles

[dgaribay15]

Is there any way of finding out if the miles on my mark ii are original? The previous owner said "as far as I know their original" but couldn't get a definite answer.

[Barry Wolk]

"Original miles". One of my least automotive favorite terms. Actual miles is a better term.

Off my soap box.

One way that I've been able to sort out the "actual" miles is to look at the brake pedal. A car with 30,000 miles will have mild wear. A car with 130,000 will have a corner pretty much gone.

My car was as close to "remanufactured" as was possible in 1994. It had 38,000 miles before a NOS odometer/speedometer was installed. It had 2,800 on it when I got it in '02. It's currently reading 13,000+.

[dgaribay15]

Its funny that you mentioned about the brake pedal because the previous owner said the exact same thing. But whos to say that he didn't swap pedals. The pedal on mine does look in pretty good shape with limited wear at 59000 miles. Theres got to be a more accurate way

[Barry Wolk]

I suppose you could tear the engine down and measure the wear on the crank bearings.:rolleyes:

[dgaribay15]

no, not today

[Chuck Lutz]

That's a great question. When I got my car it showed 67k on the odo. With the car I received folder with 19 years of receipts and notes (for which, I'm grateful). I notice that somewhere back a new instrument cluster was purchased and that made me begin to wonder. I too have looked at all the other telling places excessive use would show up and don't see any thing that would indicate many more miles. I found a guy selling an instrument cluster and bought it about 2 weeks ago with the idea of taking it apart, cleaning and restoring it and someday put it in the car. My existing one shows some staining on the metallic light blue faces and my clock loses time. Oddly enough the new one shows 71k and my car shows 68k so it's pretty close. Maybe hook up a drill and run it back to the mileage that the car has when I exchange it?

[Will Hawk]

I am not sure but you may not be able to run the odometer backwards. If you can't you can always run if forwards, but that takes a lot of time. Looking at the brake pedal is a good idea, but how about the gas pedal. Another good place to look is the drivers seat, door panel, and carpet. But due to the age of these cars that might not be very accurate, but always good to cheek out when buying a used car. Would like to hear from some of you as to. how much wear your gas pedal has to the mileage show

[Barry Wolk]

This discussion has been had on many automotive web sites. The consensus is that accelerator pedals do not show much wear because the are pushed head-on while a foot sliding off the brake would have a much more apparent wear pattern.

There are, of course, many factors in using the brake pedal wear as a major indicator, but I know of no other single item that's more telltale.

Seat wear and tear is not always a good indicator, either. I'm 6'5" and 280 lbs. I wear things out. My wife's interior lasts forever.