Incorrect Tesla Odometer (Over-counting miles)
Seeking advice. Very disturbed by my finding.
I don’t daily drive my car (work from home). Over 5 months of weekend driving (small trips for the most part), my M3SR+ added over 7k miles. I highly suspected it was inaccurate.
Today, I did some highway driving. And 18 mile trip added over 28 miles. Not talking about range or battery- talking about the actual miles clocked on my odometer- the ones that make my warranty expire and decrease the value of my car.
I am shocked. $36k on a car that is literally lying about its odometer count.
What should I do? I want this fixed, I want a new car, I want the miles dialed back to 30k which is probably the accurate amount (currently reading 51k). Thanks in advance.
Read a post about the same thing and they took it to Tesla who gave them some BS message about range being more or less bc of driving habits.
Do you have your odometer set in metric? 18 miles is about 28km.
Good guess but no, it is miles.
ya know, I've been wondering how mine shows we've added almost 30k miles in a year. I'm going to do a test tomorrow
It’s nuts to imagine driving that much unless you do Uber every day.
There’s a lot of other reasons to drive that much. I work from home but still roadtrip and drive a lot
This is not a tire size issue- the difference between the biggest and smallest possible tires would not account for that discrepancy.
That's super weird. Any chance you have the wrong wheel/tire config selected?
I don’t think so… but where would I check that? Thanks for your response.
Is it the stock tires? Search the tire size for your car and check if it matches your wheels. Use tirerack.com for example
Screen
Settings
Service
Wheel and tire
If its wrong and you can't change it, the service center may have to do it via a ticket in the app.
Anyone who changes the size of their tires without calibrating the odometer is going to have incorrect mileage. Do the size of your tires match what your car says?
Where do I check this?
It’s in the service menu.
Would be pretty funny if you had it set to kilometers and thought it was set to miles…?
That would be funny, but no it is miles.
Bingo!
Check your speedometer against phone app gps speedometer. If they both match it’s very unlikely that your odometer is counting wrong. If they don’t match, it’s likely the speedo gear is set wrong for your tire size
Is there a speedometer gear in Teslas? I would expect the computer to be counting tire revolutions
I meant digitally, I don’t believe there is a physical Speedo gear
It would be counting axle rotations, not tire. It calculates the distance from the rotations of the axle, so if you have the wrong tire size set it will throw off the calculation. A 20" goes 11% further than an 18" in the same number of axle rotations.
I also feared the same thing, please tag me if u can
New to Reddit. How do I tag you?
I messaged u!
That happened to a Honda of mine years ago. They had to replace the odometer which resets it to zero. Then you have file paperwork with the DMV and when you sell it later it is a total pain. Best of luck.
That’s insightful. Thanks.
I would verify this more scientifically and take pictures. Put in a route into the nav and note the distance calculated. Compare to same route on Google maps. Take picture of odometer reading. Do the route, note odometer. If the number doesn’t match, bring the evidence to Tesla.
Very helpful. Thank you.
This is huge if true
Yea but what to do? Talk to a freaking lawyer? I feel like Tesla is going to give me the same BS answer they have the other person I mentioned. I’m going to update the post after I talk to them tomorrow
Record evidence and get it to a news station. If this is a thing, more people need to know.
I find it comical that some of the replies are to go to a lawyer or the news before having Tesla technicians look into it first ..
They don’t do anything about it
What to do = First verify your assertions. If your odometer truly records 28 miles for a 18 mile drive that means it is error by 55% ! Should be very easy to prove by driving over a known distance and verifying again. With that sort of error, if true, you could simply drive between two mile posts and it would be glaringly obvious.
Great advice. I plan on doing this asap. But my question is, what do I do with the findings? Take it to Tesla, the news, the President???
One step at a time. Get your findings first. In the highly unlikely event your odometer is over-reading by 55%, one might expect your speedo to be doing similar . You have not mentioned it showing over 100mph when driving in traffic. But nonetheless if your odometer really is way out, take your findings to them and they should fix things. Tesla servers log your car every minute or so, meaning it will be simple for them to verify if it is a legitimate fault as they can know precisely where it is when it is there. So they can calculate driven distance by GPS and compare same with odometer if they want to.
Thanks for this. Just getting around to checking the comments but great advice.
Sounds like your Tesla is showing you the odometer reading in KM instead of Miles. Could be a software bug?
Presumably you have set everything to miles. If you change the settings to km temporarily, does the odometer change reading?
I’ll quadruple check, but it’s not the case.
I believe my wife's car has the same issue. She does drive a lot. I don't think she's driven 28k in a year though.
I also have a model 3 purchased a few months after her. Mileage seems correct on mine.
It’s very bewildering. Idk what to do. I’m going to call Tesla tomorrow.
Keep the post updated.
I just had this conversation with a co worker who also has a model Y.
Like how do we know the computer records actual miles versus miles lost arbitrarily through heavy acceleration/weather/range.
I’ve suspected that it’s not recording this properly.I drive my Y on weekends and have accumulated 8000miles in 5 months.
The implications of this are massive. -early depreciation -early warranty expiration
Exactly. And thank you for sharing your experience. I hope they offer free exchanges for perfectly functioning S Plaids. That’s what I’ll open with once I have them on the phone.
I tested this on a trip today.
It is accurate and I must be wrong about this (for me)
Well....this would suck.
Sounds like you need a new odometer. Not sure how that would justify a new car.
Is this a troll? New to Reddit.
What should I do? I want this fixed, I want a new car, I want the miles dialed back to 30k which is probably the accurate amount (currently reading 51k). Thanks in advance.
That's a little dramatic my friend.
Do a fixed test:
Use Google maps to drive at least 10 miles from point A to point B.
See how many miles it says it will take.
Take your odometer before and after (not the range it says on how many miles you have left in the battery).
Your example of someone else having the same thing and mentioned range. Range has nothing to do with the odometer and actual mileage. The range IS based on many other factors. ACTUAL miles driven is not.
Any update on this? Have you spoken with Tesla? Thanks.
I took it in and told them about it. Now it doesn’t do it anymore 🤔
I ran a test with my MYP a few days ago and one of my other cars. Drove the exact same 10 mi. route back to back. My Tesla reads somewhere between 3 and 5 percent high. Hard to know exactly since the Tesla odometer doesn't record tenths, but if legit, would hit both warranties early. I think Federal law allows for 3 percent variation, or something like that. Not nearly as egregious as your case.
Thank you for sharing. I’ll run another test this week
How are you coming up with the distance you traveled? Remember that the distance on a map does not necessarily give you the actual distance you'll travel, it may be as the crow flies instead.
Apple Maps
My new Model Y I bough in late February shows I have driven 4,000 miles in 2 months and I work remote!
Yea. It’s crazy. But I’ve been bad at following up. Ironically, I’m trading my 3 for a Y next week- will keep strict records. I believe this happens on the highway as I’ve checked it a few times on roadways and it is accurate.
I noticed the same on my 20 MSP. It added 32 miles for 18 miles round trip.
Yea it seems to be pretty common. I did get a new MYP, and it doesn’t seem to be miscalculating by much c maybe 1-3 miles for a 25-50 m trip
I can’t believe Tesla got away with this for so long until you caught them.
Red-handed of course with your indisputable evidence you provided.
We’re so stupid and should be happy you came around. Thank you OP. I’ll call Tesla service today as well and put in a claim. I’ll mention “LevelMagazine3755 on Reddit sent me”
Haha
you are making an error. also what does the price have to do with anything? you sound like a major complainer who is often wrong