crg5990

I have a question that I haven't been able to have answered after some searching, on changing out the Instrument Panel and ECU during a manual swap. I know that I could technically use the
Auto Cluster and ECU but I would like the swap to be as OEM as possible so I'm changing both, BUT I would like the odometer to still read the current and correct mileage of my car.

What are my options for being able to match the mileages between electronics?

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criminaltc

Do like Ferris Bueller did.

I really don't think you can get them to match or alter the odometer in any way. There must be a chip or memory bank in the cluster somewhere telling the car how many miles it has at any given moment. I've never jacked with a cluster to see if I could find it or swap it or what. Otherwise, it might just be in the visual screen itself. Can you swap screens? That's probably where the memory bank is.

draxcaliber

The mileage is stored in the gauge cluster of the vehicle. So if you swap gauge clusters, you're swapping mileage.

crg5990

And that's about as much as I've ever heard or read on the subject haha

So I would like to think that Toyota (or someone in the world) has had to deal with changing a broken cluster at some point in time and there must be a way to copy the mileage over to a cluster that's non original to the car (but still OEM). Has there ever been anyone that has done it or heard of someone that has? Idk how many miles are on the cluster I have and wouldn't prefer to ride around with it saying I have 150xxx miles if I only have 60k lol

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draxcaliber

Not really, due to fraud prevention, it is a big expensive to do at a dealership to get a new gauge cluster and program in new mileage.

criminaltc

Yeah, there's no way they would even do it for you if you were to ask. You'd just have to know how to do it. Like Drax said, you can't have any change in mileage, due to roll back fraud and that grimey sweaty cheap overweight sales guy that dresses like he's stuck in the 80's trying to sell you a "mint" '89 Tercel with only 23K miles on it.

crg5990

Technically I wouldn't be changing the mileage at all though no? I feel like bringing them the car with the original cluster and saying "match it" wouldn't be breaking any laws or whatever. Sucks that there's no way to get it done though

criminaltc

That's what I was saying. Drax completely circumnavigated my remark about pull that memory from your old cluster and installing it on the new one. That's gotta be something that you can do. I would try that first. Otherwise, yes, I know what you mean. If you have the old one still installed, then yeah, that's gotta be something they can do. Just bring them the new one. I didn't know if you wanted to spend the money for them to do that because I'm sure they'll charge you a bit more than expected, but I'm sure they can do it. Otherwise, check out the new cluster and look for the memory or something and mess around with it.

sciontc_mich

Really.. I thought the ECU had the mileage encoded directly on it and the clusters would just reflect that.. hmm...

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criminaltc

No. You can swap ECUs and your cluster isn't effected.

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draxcaliber

Correct, I've swapped ECU's, mileage stayed the same.

crg5990

I mean, if it cost a grand to do it then I probably wouldn't bother unless I had nothing better to spend the money on lol but a few hundred I could swing probably. I guess I'd have to call the dealer, especially since I would have no idea what I'm looking at if I pulled the electronics apart on the cluster haha Now as for swapping ecu's, will that cause an issue with inspections or anything? Idk wether mileage or VIN # or something is recorded via the obd connection

draxcaliber

swapping ECU's doesn't change anything and had nothing to do with inspections. gauge cluster has mileage, and if you have the mileage wrong, that will affect documentation on the car.

criminaltc

Only if you "roll-back" like Walmart, like I said earlier. But that isn't what you are doing. It only effects "documentation" when trying to sell it. If they mileage is less than that last time the mileage/car was "spotted"
(i.e. brought into the dealership for anything), then you won't be able to sell it at a dealership or car lot, they want no part of that. But for what you are attempting, that won't matter for inspection. Mileage can be where it wants.

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draxcaliber

What's really funny is if you want, just pull your gauge cluster out and your car won't record any mileage. ofcourse you won't have any indicators to tell you speed, rpm fuel and engine temp etc...although a scan gauge could fill in for most of that...

crg5990

Haha well if I had a ton of money I'd retrofit a motec or something into the dash lol but I was looking at both my auto cluster and manual cluster and I figured out, I could just pull the tach gauge face from the manual and put it in the auto cluster no? The missing PRND321 windows are the only thing that's different that I could tell. I'll have a manual ecu so I won't have a CEL and I can just tape over the PRND321 LEDs behind the gauge face in the event they light up.

criminaltc

Sweet! That's what I was saying! To take a look at it and see what you can't or can swap! I think that'll do it. Any luck since?

crg5990

Well I pulled apart the auto cluster when I took it out of my car, as much as it would come apart. On the back of the motherboard there's a small blue rectangular piece soldered, and then security taped, to it. I'm assuming that that is where the odometer memory is stored so I didn't mess with it. I'm going to take the gauge face from the manual cluster (the thin plastic face with the numbers and crap on it) and put that into the auto cluster as a replacement of the one with the PRND321 windows since after all that dis-assembly, that's the only difference I found. What remains to be seen is if the auto cluster works completly the same as before, but with a manual ecu on the other end of it.

criminaltc

I'm psych'd.