Milage in ECU or gauge cluster?

Spooled

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Mazdaspeed Protege
I need to replace my instrument cluster myself (dealers charge WAY too much, so I am salvaging one), but I don't want to commit a federal crime doing it by having the wrong milage on the new odometer. Is the milage stored in the ECU or in the cluster itself? I have a friend that should be able to update the cluster if it's stored there, but I want to know what to expect. Also, is there any VIN or serial information stored in the cluster that will look weird to a tech?
 
i would assume it is stored in the cluster, b/c people who swap mp3 ecu's mileage isnt effected.
 
i believe it is stored in the cluster. as long as you disclose there is a mileage discrepancy to whomever buys the car from you, i did not think there was a problem.
 
OK, thanks. I will probably just have a tech match the milage to my current cluster.
 
I'm not sure how it's stored. I think the actual mileage is stored on the ECU, and the trip is stored in the gauge. When I disconnected my gauge cluster I lost my trip count, but not my mileage. Any ideas?
 
Milage is kept in the guage cluster itself. The ECU does not keep track of milage. I *believe* the cluster utilizes EEPROM memory which allows storage of data without erasing it on power loss, along with the ECU.
 
There is probably some kind of battery in the cluster for the odometer that only powers the total mileage, which is the more important part...or types of memory that is not lost during power failures...

Like Paul said, nobody commented on different odometer readings when swapping ECU's...

the simplest way is to get a notorized document when you do the swap...You can get a document to keep with the owner's manual that states the mileage before the cluster swap...that is what everybody did back in the 80's when the U.S. employed a s*** system of having every foreign car's speedometer only display up to 75mph...Almost every Porsche owner went and swapped out for a european cluster that had higher numbers and looked cooler...it is completely legal as long as you have the document officially notorized, and have it during the sale of the vehicle...and it costs like 6 bucks to get the paper work completed...
 
its stored in the gauge cluster most likely, my friend who will remain anon, switched his gauge cluster and it reads the mileage from the old car
 
Installshield 2 said:
...the simplest way is to get a notorized document when you do the swap...
...it is completely legal as long as you have the document officially notorized, and have it during the sale of the vehicle...and it costs like 6 bucks to get the paper work completed...

Where would I get something like this? Will the dealership be able to do this? Who do I have to go to to make it official. Thanks for the great info by the way!
 
Spooled- why do you need an instrument cluster......and what did you do so its not under warrenty?
 
Turbo Matty P said:
I'm not sure how it's stored. I think the actual mileage is stored on the ECU, and the trip is stored in the gauge. When I disconnected my gauge cluster I lost my trip count, but not my mileage. Any ideas?

If your not sure, then why post? Your just giving out false information. Two people already answered the question with the correct answer. The mileage is stored in the gauges, NOT the ECU....
 
Spooled said:
Where would I get something like this? Will the dealership be able to do this? Who do I have to go to to make it official. Thanks for the great info by the way!

Not exactly sure on "how" you go about it...Contact a notary service center...Which is where you go if you do a private car selling, they are needed for the title transfer...Notary service guys are pretty common...I didn't think any were in my area and it turned out that more than 5 were...just check your phone book for notary related stuff, or try a post office (they use them for notarized letters)...And yes like you mentioned, the dealership will probably have some sort of contact with a local notary service...

You will most likely need someone from the notary place to go with you to swap the cluster...They first verify your current mileage, then verify the new mileage...and plug in the adjusted difference for the paperwork...You could theoretically do the swap in the places parking lot...in which case you only need the dude to walk out and look at your odometer before and after the work...Just explain to them what you are doing and they can let you know how to go about it better than I can...
 
now if this is simply eeprom, then why can't it be electronically erased??

is anyone aside fom mazda manufacturers authorized to do this?
 
Pheonix said:
now if this is simply eeprom, then why can't it be electronically erased??

is anyone aside fom mazda manufacturers authorized to do this?

find the chip, first of all.

it is possible it is EEPROM located as part of a microprocessor.
So you'd have to find both all the MCUs and EEPROM chips on the board, examine each one. Desolder, rip apart, hack away at the expensive gauge cluster. EEPROM reader/writers aren't exactly cheap either. *shrugs*
i mean , anything is possible, with the right resources and time, but....
 
sucks, i have this gauge cluster, 2k1 i think, same as mine but with tach. only fuel/temp gauge unscrews. the other two need to be de-soldered.

i thought the mileage was held on a chip attached to the speedo but it's mounted right to the board, just one chip to rule them all.
i would use it but it has 23k+ more miles than my car.

maybe, thought, the eeprom is entirely seperate and is hidden behind the speedo. perhaps i'll be fully gutting this cluster after all.:confused:
 
it would be very interesting to figure this out though. i just dont want to sacrifice my cluster for experimenting.
 
wow, just found out that every one of these units are swappable.
very easily.

the solderpoints are polls which go into each gauge and there are two clips in which you press and then the gauge will pop right off.

my webspace is down, any free places to upload pics that won't be deleted the next day.
 
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