Swapping BSI caused odometer mileage to change

I really need advice on what I can do.

I have a work van I left in to be fixed in my local mechanics, while it was being repaired I was using my Citroen Pluriel 1.6 Sensodrive. He phoned me and told me the van was ready, so I beelined there to pick up the van and asked if I could park the Pluriel there until my wife can bring me back to collect it. No problem.

I went back the next day to collect it and it was blocked in and told to come back at 7pm which I did. I jumped in the car, drove it up the road and the rad fan came on and the dashboard lit up light a Christmas tree, and the temp gauge was completely in the red and engine light on. I drove back to the garage and asked what happened to my car and them I noticed the Odometer it had gone from 127,000 to 374,000 kms. I was furious and they said it was nothing to do with them, they hadn't a clue what happened. They connected their laptop and turned off all the lights etc.

They denied everything, they said they didn't go near my car.

When I dropped off the van the head mechanic came over and asked me if it was petrol or diesel, when I went to collect it the first time I was basically fobbed off and told to come back, they wouldn't give me the car back.

In their carpark there was an old Citreon C3 that they were working on, It´s actually been there for months and it´s one of their own cars they intend to fix and sell.

I took the reg number of their C3 and checked the history online and low and behold it had 374,000km the last MOT and I have the VIN number.

I believe they took the BSI out of my car to check if that was the part broken in their car and when it didn't work they put it back but by doing this they took the mileage with it.

Is there anyway the VIN number of the car with the 374,000km could be now on my BSI because I really want to go after them but I need proof ? If I took it to Citroen would they be able to see what car it was connected to?

My car is worthless now and if I try and sell it in the future nobody would believe me. I don't care how much it costs I really want to go after these lying, untrustworthy robbers. They shouldn't be in business and I'd like to see to that,
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I believe they took the BSI out of my car to check if that was the part broken in their car and when it didn't work they put it back but by doing this they took the mileage with it.

Yes. If you swap BSI over the odomoter will take on the one with the highest mileage. Same for swapping the speedo unit, that will reprogram the BSI with the new mileage if it is higher.


There are some tools to reset the mileage, but they are not official and you won;t get the mileage back by just swapping bits back. - which quite probably has already been done,

Speak to your local trading standards and citizens advice or search out a mileage correction service

Thanks Arfur,

Unfortunately I live in Spain, actually the Canary Islands , and I don't believe there's a trading standards or citizens advice office on the Island. I was hoping that maybe the VIN no. of their vehicle might be stored in the memory somewhere. If not I think it might be a lost caused.

Thanks gain

No. I don't think the connections to BSI etc are logged or even changed, just the mileage odo.


I know you have to manually set the VIN when you swap BSI, so it doesn't happen automatically.