All language subtitles for M M S01E07 1080p WEB h264-BETTY_track3_[eng]

All right.

So, you ever wonder
how all these cars
we just randomly happen

to buy off the street
run so good for our tests?

Well, it's not magic, people.
I do it! [laughs]

So sometimes, I just got
to sit these tests out

so I can actually make
some stuff happen
behind the scenes.

I'll catch you
on the flip side, though.

Don't worry.
I'll be right here.

All right. You ready
to see if this
speedometer rolls back?

-[Bisi] Yeah, ready.
-[Tory] All right, let's go.

This could work.

People are like,
"What are these idiots doing?"

Well, I cannot believe
that someone would
actually do this.

[Tory] What? Wait a minute!

[narrator] Meet the team...

We'll be at work in no time.

This might be the miracle
coolant that everybody's been
searching for.

[narrator] With the mechanical
expertise...

[Faye] My main concern
is structural integrity.

I think this is gonna work.

[narrator] To test
all things automotive...

That was beautiful.

The more air we push through,
the more fuel will siphon out
and boom!

-[narrator] This is
Motor MythBusters...
-[Faye] Whoo! Come on!

This is the weirdest thing
I've ever seen!

[narrator] Where science
meets the streets.

-Something really bad happened
to me not too long ago.
-What?

I bought this car
and it had 50,000 miles,

the paint looked great,
interior was beautiful.

And what was the problem?

I found out it had
350,000 miles.

So they rolled back
the odometer 300,000 miles?

Yep.

And around the world,
people lose millions
of dollars a year

-to odometer fraud.
-Huh.

So I had to figure out,
okay, how do they do this?

So I put this contraption
together

and you see it go forward,
right?

[Tory] Yeah.

-[Bisi] And counting
is going upwards, yeah?
-[Tory] Right.

When I go backwards.

[Tory]
It's not going in reverse.

-[Bisi] It's not, so.
-[Tory] No.

How did they do it?

I don't know.

-What do you think?
-I don't think--

-I don't think it's possible.
-Well, why don't we do this?

Why don't we get
a bunch of different cars,

-put them in reverse,
let them run...
-Okay,

And see if the odometer
rolls back.

That may be a good myth,
actually.

Can we turn back miles
by going in reverse on a car?

[narrator]
Well, here's a classic myth.

Want to shave some miles
off your car?

Simple.

Drive it in reverse.

I mean, it's so much
in our culture

that it was in the movie
Ferris Bueller's Day Off,

where they add
a bunch of miles on their car

and they thought,
"Let's put it in reverse

and we'll get those
miles back."

[narrator] It's a classic
caper, but we chose
not to buy the clip,

and Ferris Bueller's "Pay-Off"
covered the cost
of an '80s Caddy

with mechanical odometer
and a Honda hybrid
with digital readout.

[Bisi] This '85 vehicle here
and this newer 2011 hybrid,

I think we should jack it up
and get the drive wheels
off the floor

and drive it in reverse.

We'll put a brick
on the gas pedal...

-[laughing] And see
what happens.
-And let them run.

-Oh, no!
-I don't want to do
the brick thing.

I think that's a great idea.

All right, so we have
all the odometers recorded.

I say we just start up
the cars, put them in reverse,
let them run.

-How long are you thinking?
-Half-hour?

Sounds good.

All right. Are we sure that
these are front-wheel drive?

We'll find out in a second,
won't we?

[Bisi] That's hauling!
That is fast [laughs]

I'm going to get in the CR-Z.

[Tory] Cool.

All right,
let's start a timer.

-[Bisi] Yes.
-Half hour.

[Tory] All right.

I'm curious
about the Cadillac.

-[Bisi] Oh!
-[Tory] What? Wait a minute.

-[Bisi] It's counting upwards.
-[Tory] It's going forward,

even in reverse.

[Bisi] Oh! That's crazy.

The numbers are going up.

That's pretty clever, though.

That is.

That's smart of
the manufacturer to do that.

So no matter what you do,
it's actually
covering distance.

-Yeah.
-Even if you're going forward
or backward, it's clocking.

[Tory] All right.
How's this one doing?

[Bisi] It's going upwards.
Yeah.

-[Tory] Okay.
-[Bisi] It's going up.

-[Tory] All right.
-Same thing.

So these modern cars...

They figured out
how not to cheat the odometer.

So it's actually
whether it's going forward
or backwards,

it's increasing mileage
on the car.

Right. If you were trying to
shave miles off your odometer,

the modern-day cars are
not going to allow you
to do that.

That's right.

[narrator]
Yep. It's pretty clear.

Based on the comparative tests
between an '80s analog system

and a 2011 digital odometer,
driving a modern car
in reverse

won't wind the clock back.

So Tory and Bisi are going
to look for older vehicles

that might be reverse-winding
clock contenders.

[Tory] Well, Bisi, I mean,
I guess the good news
is odometer fraud

is a lot harder to do
than you would think.

You can't just throw the car
into reverse

and start shaving miles
off your odometer.

[Bisi] But fraudsters
are still finding ways
to wind back odometers.

What a shame, not to mention,
highly illegal.

You know, every day
millions of people
drive their cars

and they look at their gauges,
they see the speedometer,
the odometer go up.

Right.

And they have no idea
what's going on
behind the scenes.

-Oh!
-So this is the perfect
representation of...

-[Tory] So we broke it down.
-[Bisi] ...of what's
in a car.

-And this is a transmission
out of an old van.
-That is correct.

-That is correct.
-All right.

And so, now right here,
this is the cable

that's connected
to the odometer.

Yes. And there's a reed wire
that goes all the way
to the odometer.

[Tory] Yeah.

And as it spins,
it spins some assemblies

inside the gauge cluster
as well.

[Tory] So as this is rotating,
it's actually spinning
this cable

and that's turning our
odometer.

[Bisi] Yes, it does.

You know,
what is shocking to me

is the fact that
they're using plastic gears
to spin that cable.

You know,
forces are not exerted
on those gears,

and it's much more
cost-effective
for the manufacturers

to use such components.

Yeah, I just feel like
something as important

as knowing the miles
on your engine,
a gear like that,

I feel like if it, you know,
broke a tooth,

now you're going to
start skipping miles.

It's really robust.

But tell you what,
when I build your car,
I'll use titanium.

-How's that?
-I feel better already.

-Sounds good.
-All right, hit the gas.

-Just allow me to demonstrate.
-Hit the accelerator.

Sounds good.

"The gas."

[both laugh]

All right,
so that's the transmission
which is just spinning

and that's spinning this gear,
and inside here,

there's a cable
that's spinning
and attached to the odometer.

[Bisi] And you see there
are miles moving up.

It's painful.

Oh, all right, well,
why don't we see

if we can actually
break into an odometer
and roll back the numbers?

[narrator]
Remember these words, folks.

It's illegal to roll back
your odometer.

So there's basically
two types of odometers,
digital and mechanical.

-I want to explore
the electrical side of things.
-Okay.

-And I'll look at
the mechanical.
-Sounds good.

[Tory] So what I have right
here is a mechanical odometer
from the 1980s.

And I have the cable
attached to a drill

just so you could see
the mileage increase.

Now, as I'm spinning
the cable,
it's recording those miles.

Now, the top part,
that is the trip mileage.

Down at the bottom
is the mileage of the overall
life of the engine.

So right now, I have 322 miles
on this odometer.

So what I'm going to do is
see if I can open this up

and figure out a way
to roll that 322 miles
back to zero.

I mean, obviously,
you're probably thinking,

why don't you just
put it in reverse
and make it go backwards?

Well, if I do that,
you can see
what's happening here.

That little lever
as it's rolling forward,

it's pushing this gear
forward.

But when you go in reverse,
that arm lifts up.

It uses a gear freewheeling
ratchet

that rotates and spins
the counter up

when going forwards
and idles
when going backwards.

Just like a bike does,
pedal going forward,
free-wheel when not pedaling.

One other thing you can
look for to know

if your odometer has been
tampered with is
if you pop this gear off,

the numbers will
never line up completely.

All right, as you can see,
I've got it back to zero.

Now, I'm just going to put the
odometer back together

and see if we can
detect whether or not
I've been tampering with this.

Now that it's back together.
Let's just do a test.

So while Tory is investigating
the mechanical odometer,

I'm going to use
this specialty tool
to look at how easy

or challenging
it would be to modify
a digital dash display.

How does a digital odometer
work?

In place of a mechanical
drive cable, a magnetic sensor

tracks the number of gear
turns in the transmission,

then it is conducted by wires
to the onboard car computer,

which interprets and converts
the information into
a mileage count.

So what I'm going to do
is I'm going to attempt

to change the mileage
on this vehicle.

This tool is actually
a professional tool

that allows for odometer
calibration in the event

that you may have
an odometer that went out
and you need to correct it,

or you had a vehicle
that had a discrepancy

and you want to get it back
to the original format.

What's interesting is that
this particular device

only allows for
kilometer measurement.

So I'm going to convert
my mileage to kilometers

and have the opportunity
to put this back
when I'm done.

So we're now at 106,264 miles.

Let's knock off a good
30,000 off this.

So 70,000 miles.

So I'm going to go ahead
and put this in.

There we go.

Enter!

These are bunch of checkered
lights coming on,

some flashing of the dash
itself.

And that says my adjustment
is complete.

And look, it gave me
69,615 miles, so slightly off.

So now, let's put it back
to the original mileage.

Okay.

This is a professional device.

Not everyone can get
access to it,

but where there's a will,
there's a way

because unscrupulous
characters can actually
change your mileage.

So what can we do to prevent
you from getting a vehicle
that has been tampered with?

Well, vehicle history reports
are one good place,

because every time a vehicle
is serviced or registered,

that number is
put into the system.

Wear items like the pedals.

Do you have a low mileage car
that shouldn't have had
any pedal wear whatsoever,

but the pedals look like
it's been stomped on
for hours and hours and hours.

That's a dead giveaway.

The headliner.

Are there rips
and tears there?

How easy is it
to bring down the visor?

It doesn't have that nice
tautness to it.

Check the manufacturer date
on the tires.

Does it match the mileage
of the car or have the tires
already been replaced

when the car has
very low mileage?

There's so many ways
to look at that.

And, yeah, protect yourself.

So how did your experience
go with the digital odometer?

Tell me about yours first.

[chuckles] Oh, man!

So it was unsettling
how easy it was
to pull this thing apart.

And then I was actually
able to roll it back to zero
and I put it back together.

And I thought this is,
like, too simple.

I mean, we're basically
showing people how to change
an odometer.

However, watch what happens
after I put it all
back together.

Tory, it's going up
in 1,000 miles, not 1 mile.

Exactly.

So this was a little
comforting to realize that,

you know, it's not that easy
to break into
a mechanical odometer

and change the numbers.

So this did give me
a little bit of comfort.

Well, in my experiment
with the correct tool,

it was frighteningly easy.

-Really?
-Just plugged it in.

That's not good.

Select it with
just some menus.

Put in the mileage you want,
and, presto.

Unfortunately, it seems
there aren't really any cars

with tamper-proof
digital odometers.

-[Tory] And that was it?
-[Bisi] That was it.

-Oh, that's terrifying.
-It is.

Oh, so it's important
for consumers to do
due diligence

and look around the vehicle,
look at more than

just the mileage to determine
the age of their car.

[narrator] But this myth's
not quite done and dusted.

Remember the '86 Cadillac
on blocks?

In the '80s, cars would only
wind their odometer forward,

as Tory has found,
where a ratchet system
prevented the clock

from getting wound back.

So is it possible
pre-'80s cars

could wind their clock back
in reverse?

As luck would have it,
there's a '67 GTO to test.

[Tory] Ha! I can't believe
the producer's letting us
drive his car,

backwards, no less.

-[laughs]
-I guess you want to drive.

-Yes, I do.
-All right. Let's go.

It's like some '70s cop show.

-[laughs]
-Hit it.

-There's a crime in progress.
-[laughs]

-[Tory] Oh!
-[Bisi] Oh!

-[Tory] Feel that rumble?
-[Bisi] Yes.

[Tory] Yeah.

He's very concerned about us.

We'll be fine. Don't worry.

I don't need a guide
to get out of a garage.

-[Tory] Bisi drives backwards
all the time.
-Yep.

He's super-protective
of his car.

You look nervous.

-Go easy on her.
She's old.
-[Bisi] Of course.

And you know,
there's parts that,

you know, might break,
because she's old.

So let's take it
real nice and easy,
okay, guys?

-[Bisi] Cool, cool.
-[Tory] What could
possibly go wrong?

-[Bisi] Nothing at all.
-We're driving backwards.

How fast are we going to be
able to go?

[Tory] All right.

-You're ready to see
if this thing rolls back?
-Yeah.

I'm having a hard time
believing that.

[Bisi] Well,
we'll find out now.

There we go. You ready?

-Okay. All right.
-Let's go.

[Tory] So right now
we are at...

96,486.9 miles.

Barely broken in. [laughs]

[Tory]
I mean, this could work,

but what a pain in the butt.

I know, is it even worth
doing this for miles
and miles and miles?

This would be so annoying.

[laughs]

The amount of money
we're going to spend on fuel
in doing this...

-Right.
-With a V-8,

-it won't even be worth...
-No.

-[both chuckling]
-...the advantage
of the price.

[Tory] Oh, that sounds good.

[Bisi] Tory, move back.

[Tory] Right now, we are at...

[Bisi]
Oh, it's moving quite a bit.

Like how many times
have we gone around
this block?

-Quite a bit.
-Yeah, this is not...

It is not an efficient way.

[Tory] Well, let's see.
We've been driving,
I would say, about 15 minutes.

[Bisi] And we probably
consumed eight gallons of fuel
doing it.

Yeah. This does not seem like
the most efficient way

-to get miles
off your vehicle.
-[Bisi] Not at all.

[Tory] We didn't hit anything.

[Bisi] Yeah,
she's in good hands.

-[Tory] Everything went well.
-Yeah?

[Tory] She runs
like a grizzly bear.

[Bisi] Yeah,
smells like one, too.

-Okay.
-[Tory] Yeah. Thanks.

-Everything's fine?
-[Tory] Yeah, it's fine.

Actually, we've shaved
a couple of miles
off your odometer.

[Bisi] Yeah.

[Tory] So these pre-'70s
old-timers will wind the clock
back in reverse.

In the GTO,
the fixed gear system
with no freewheel cassette

means the odometer
is mechanically connected
directly to the driveshaft.

Reverse, and one mile traveled
means one mile off the clock.

And then that cable drive
was universally replaced
by the '80s.

Electromagnetic sensors count
each drive shaft rotation
as additional mileage.

Forward or back,
the miles go up.

But, Bisi, when we drove
the GTO in reverse,

we actually wiped
miles off the engine.

So how are we going to call
this myth?

Well, we did test vehicles
from the '80s and the 2000s,

and it seems that
going backwards

didn't make the numbers
go down.

It's painfully obvious
that manufacturers
went out of their way

to make odometers
a lot more sophisticated.

All right. So cars made
after the '80s,

it's not going to work
so much.

However, old-school cars
from the '60s,
like the GTO, can.

So I say we call this one...

plausible?

I love it. Plausible it is.

Sounds good to me.