Okay, before anyone beats me up, I know there are kits available to overlay the gauges/dials on an instrument cluster... Moving on.

I have a 2001 C2 Coupe/6Spd manual with black gauges/dials on my instrument cluster. I recently acquired (at a ridiculous price) a 1999 C4 Cab/6Spd manual instrument cluster with silver/aluminum gauges.

Now, I realize I can't do a 1 for 1 swap for two main reasons: 1. The odometer setting can't be changed (mine is at 42K the new cluster is at 114K) and 2: the C4 fuel sensing unit/wiring is different than the C2 cluster.

Here's my plan (see diagram): Disassemble both clusters and combine Part C (the electronic guts & odometer info) from my C2's cluster with Parts A and B (the dials and facia) from the C4's cluster.

Theoretically, I think this should work. Where am I going wrong? I appreciate ANY help/advice/expert knowledge in advance. Thanks.

 

My 2nd hand info is the cluster odometer value can be changed. Not by a dealer tech using a Porsche diagnostic tool though. This has some kind of limit that only a new cluster with a very low (nearly zero) odometer reading can be changed. Once.

Check with your local dealer to see where it sends customers for gauge/cluster work and then ask the shop if it can change the odometer for you.

Or you can contact Palo Alto Speedometer in Palo Alto CA. Here's a link:

http://www.paspeedo.com/

Supposedly it can do this. 'course, you'll have to call and if you learn this can be done ship the cluster to the shop.

There is a place in Las Vegas, NV,

http://autoparts.repair/

that also does instrument/cluster work. A tech there I talked to told me he could transfer all that is "unique" from my old original cluster to a new (used) one.

However, I decided to just leave the "new" used cluster's odometer alone.

I noted in the car's owners manual the old odometer's mileage and the used odometers mileage at the time the dealer made the swap. The work invoice from the dealer contained this info too.

 

Thanks for the reply, but I'm really more interested in the compatibility issue between the C4's Part A & B with the C2's Part C than in resetting the odometer. Will something short out if I try to mate them and then install them, or is the worst that will happen will be an inaccurate fuel gauge reading? Or something else? Any ideas? I don't mind trying something that fails...as long as I don't cause major damage doing so. Push comes to shove, I'll just do a gauge facelift. Thanks again, Macster.

 

Can't help you regarding electrical compatibility/signal compatibility between the two different clusters.

Just a reminder: A new cluster is very expensive. I seem to recall the price of a new cluster for my 2002 Boxster was around $2K. A used one cost me nearly $500 and I made sure I got one *exactly* like the one in my Boxster so I didn't have to worry about incompatibilities. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin the new 'used' cluster or worse damage my car's electrical system trying to get a strange cluster to work.

 

Thanks for the advice, Capt Obvious. ;-)

 

Yeah, I know.

 

Oh....I thought this would be about using an Ipad for the instruments with the ability to monitor and clear DTC codes and read engine data on top of being able to see aftermarket wideband and other sensors.

It's possible now but I predict that some sort of phone like device will become an important display and data acquisition device.

Park the car and leave a blank space where it was because you take it with you.