Carrera Gauge Swap

[Cloudsurfer]

Originally Posted by KevinH1990

You are correct.

The advantage to this method is reduced cost. I paid $155 for my damaged 996 cluster. The article on the Pelican website said that a good used cluster would cost $500. I expect that a new cluster would be over $1000.

Palo Alto will reprogram the mileage, but I think their price is $200. Add the cost of two-way shipping and your total cost would probably be closer to $250. If you have any other programming issues, most people would have to pay a shop for access to a PIWIS or PST2 so add the cost of to at least an hour of labor for that.

On the other side of the ledger, I did have to buy an EPROM programmer and clip. I was able to sell it on to another board member at a slight discount, so the net cost was only $25.

This was more or less an impulse project for me, and I don't think I would have done it if I couldn't keep the cost down. I also admit to a bit of thrill when I got it to work.

I see your point, and can especially appreciate the satisfaction when you get things to work

I happen to have a PIWIS, so the coding part for me isn't a big deal, but I am curious if doing this via the EPROM route also yields the correct mileage in the new cluster?

[KevinH1990]

Originally Posted by Cloudsurfer

I am curious if doing this via the EPROM route also yields the correct mileage in the new cluster?

Yes - See post 13 on page 1 of this thread . You can copy the encrypted mileage from the Boxster cluster and insert it in the code for the Carrera cluster. The example in post 13 is for the "old-style" clusters that were in the 97-00 cars. The process for the 01-04 cars is a little more involved. Send me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send you the instructions.

I imagine that the folks at Palo Alto Speedometer have discovered the key to the encryption process and that allows them to insert any mileage they want in the cluster.

[Cloudsurfer]

Originally Posted by KevinH1990

Yes - See post 13 on page 1 of this thread . You can copy the encrypted mileage from the Boxster cluster and insert it in the code for the Carrera cluster. The example in post 13 is for the "old-style" clusters that were in the 97-00 cars. The process for the 01-04 cars is a little more involved. Send me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send you the instructions.

I imagine that the folks at Palo Alto Speedometer have discovered the key to the encryption process and that allows them to insert any mileage they want in the cluster.

That would make sense. I always figured that the folks who advertise being able to do this had reverse engineered the EPROM bit.

[topradio]

Well I have to say a big thanks to you all, especially Benjamin for sending me the gen and his 996 file. I got around to finishing off this mod today and reprogrammed the eeprom (changing the bits to enable the voltmeter) It works great

I am going to post this mod on Boxa.net making reference to the work you guys have done.

Keep up the good work.

[gavinyuill]

Originally Posted by KevinH1990

I imagine that the folks at Palo Alto Speedometer have discovered the key to the encryption process and that allows them to insert any mileage they want in the cluster.

I can do this as well if needed, but don't want a load of dodgy low mileage cars on the road

[KRAM36]

When using your existing Boxster circuit board, did it retain the car's vin and mileage?

[Reebuck1]

Yes it does retain the original Boxster data...mileage ,ser.#
The issue is turning on the two new 996 gauges. The question for me is can the Porsche dealer turn on these two gauges or do you have to remove the board and re-program the 93c56B flash chip with an EPROM programmer? I am at the Porsche dealer as I type and I'll let you know tomorrow.
I am using the 996 gauges with my original Boxster mother board. Two outside gauges do not work yet and analog speed gauge runs about 7-8 miles faster than my digital speed gauge. OTHER WISE ALL ELSE WORKS.

[KRAM36]

Getting the volt meter to work seems to be an eprom deal, but for the oil pressure I think you have to install a different sending unit on the motor and run a wire from it to the cluster?

[Chuck W.]

Originally Posted by KRAM36

Getting the volt meter to work seems to be an eprom deal, but for the oil pressure I think you have to install a different sending unit on the motor and run a wire from it to the cluster?

For mine, the volt meter needed nothing to be activated. The oil pressure does require a new sender unit and a wire to the new cluster.

[KRAM36]

Originally Posted by Chuck W.

For mine, the volt meter needed nothing to be activated. The oil pressure does require a new sender unit and a wire to the new cluster.

Now that's interesting. It's the 01 to 04 cars that require the newer cluster. This is beginning to look like an easier mod to my 03 then what the Pelican article shows.

Just need to find gauges for a Tip trans from a convertible with white gauge faces.

EDIT: Since I will be using the Boxster circuit board, do I still need gauges from a convertible?


.

[Reebuck1]

Oil pressure gage requires a 996 oil sending unite with two leads. One goes to the wire that is already on your 986 and the second lead requires you to run a wire to your blue pin connector on the back of your gage cluster. Pin # 9 or #13 I can't remember which one right now. I'll check for you later.

No answer from the Porsche dealer today (on turning on the extra gages)they have to replace a bad theft module
before they can get to the gage cluster. They ordered the bad part and it will not be in until Thurs. I'll let you know.

[KevinH1990]

On my 2000, I had to do the EPROM programming trick to get the voltmeter to work. That may be a difference between the "old" and "new" style clusters. The oil pressure gauge worked fine after I hooked up the 996 sending unit and inserted the wire in the back of the cluster.

The programming should also took care of the speedometer error and the top motion light. However, the top motion light on my 996 cluster worked before I programmed it. The VIN stored in the cluster indicated it was from a coupe, but it had the bulb already installed for the top motion light. So, the VIN decoder site may have had an error.

There was quite an extensive discussion on Renntech about this and most people indicated that the dealer couldn't help them.

[Reebuck1]

Thanks Kevin ! My problem was I could not get my EPROM reader to read the chip in on 986 mother board. Chip showed # as ( sc 56M ). This was not listed in the EPROM inventory. I tried entering the 93c56B chip
number but it showed no data when I tried to read the 986 chip. So I could not see the data on the chip. I had to take the car to the dealer because of a window issue that turned out to be a bad theft control unit.
(Waiting for part to come in now.)
I figured while I was at the dealer I would have them turn on my new cruse control install and also turn on the two new switches on my 996 gauge swap.
They tried BUT failed.
Reason appears to be the result of my installing the 996 motor and having my
986 DME flashed as a 996 ROW. The guy who did my re-flash locked the DME so it would not revert back to the original 986 coding if I disconnected the battery.
SOOOOOOOO we are trying to work our way through this.
Any thoughts on how to get at the flash chip?? It would be easier if I could just do the mother board chip instead of having to go the DME path.

[Trey T]

Sounds fishy....

People only flash ROM, right? If so, ROM doesn't get erased or reverted back unless there's another device/software piggy-back onto it to give it a command... which sound really odd.

I don't much about Porsche ECU programming, but to me, I have never heard of such thing for other cars.

Originally Posted by Reebuck1

... The guy who did my re-flash locked the DME so it would not revert back to the original 986 coding if I disconnected the battery.
SOOOOOOOO we are trying to work our way through this.
Any thoughts on how to get at the flash chip?? It would be easier if I could just do the mother board chip instead of having to go the DME path.

[Reebuck1]

I am no expert. In my case I installed a 3.4 996 motor in my 98 Boxster (986).
My 986 (2.5) DME could was not programed run the 3.4 996 motor without a re-flash.
I had two choices:
1) a USA flash that would use the existing secondary air pump and related vacuum tubing. or
2) a ROW (rest of the World) flash that would allow me to remove the secondary
air pump, etc.
I chose the second.
When I was at the Porsche dealer trying to get them to turn on my reciently installed cruse control. They made the comment that the DME was locked.
I assumed that it was done by the individual who did my ROW flash in order to keep the DME from reverting back to the original 2.5 USA flash should the battery be disconnected.. That assumption could have been incorrect.
Can anyone comment???

[Trey T]

What I'm saying is that if the guy locked your DME, I believe he just simply lock it so no one else can touch it. I don't think it has anything to do with "losing the flash" when battery is disconnected.

There's a reason why they call it "flash" because you ONLY "FLASH" ROM not RAM. Another wway of looking at is you don't lose memory from your "flash drive" (aka usb stick) when you remove it from your computer.

For more clarification, I suggest you google ROM (Flash ROM) vs RAM.

[Reebuck1]

Thanks Trey T, I read your suggestion and I think I 've got it.
The solution looks like...change my the cluster coding values for a 996 cluster put into a 986, the order code (EEPROM ?)contained in the vehicle section of the DME needs to be set properly. In my case it would need to be set to the order code for a 996 cab so that the 996 cluster would be recognized and allow recoding. The order code would need to be set to either 996310 - Cabriolet USA or 996311 - Cabriolet RoW

Once this (EEPROM flash chip) is changed in the DME section, an entire scan of all the control modules needs to be carried out and then you will be allowed to enter into the instrument cluster module and change the coding to turn on cruise activate the temp & oil pres. displays. If the model type is still set to 986 or is blank in the vehicle data section, when the scanning of all modules is carried out the cluster won't be recognized as it will be looking for a 986 cluster.

Does that sound correct??

....

[Reebuck1]

If this does not sound correct could someone please speak up !!!!!!!!!!!!
Car back from the Porsche dealer. They did not turn my gauges on. Reason: they were afraid they would possibly disrupt my 996ROW flash.
Further research suggest that this will not happen BUT ......I have to first turn the gauges on in my current gauge cluster. My present gauge cluster (seen below) is a 1998 Boxster gauge cluster that looks like a 996 cluster. It is a boxster cluster because it still has the cars original mother board in the cluster. All that was done was to add all the 996 digital gauges ONLY to my 986 cluster.

Then I need to comparing the data on the flash chip in the 996 mother board with the data on the chip in my 986 cluster(same location on both clusters). The difficulty I am running into is although the chip are in the same location on both mother boards they appear to have different chip numbers. The 996 board shows 93c56B and the 986 board shows sc56M
I can read the chip on the 996 board BUT can not read the chip on 986 board.
Why:: because the chip number does not show in my GQ-4x EPROM Programmer chip listing. Anyone have any ideas??
To help clarify when I installed the 996 motor in the car I ran the extra wire from the 996 oil sending unit to pin #9 blue plug in the back of the gauge cluster to pick up the signal. That was not clear on my note below.
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc401/jonhoward42/Boxster%20Cruise%20Retrofit/06%20-%20Wiring%20-%20Connecting/6-04-InstrumentClusterConnectorwithVWWireInstalled.jpg


6-04-InstrumentClusterConnectorwithVWWireInstalled.jpg Photo by jonhoward42 | Photobucket
Once I am able to read the code on the 986 chip I can change the code to turn on the two gauges. At that point I can use a PIWIS to turn on the gauges in the cluster and then use the PIWIS to do the same thing and turn the gauges on in the DME.
That means there are two steps to do with the PIWIS.
ALL SHOULD THEN WORK.............Does this sound reasonable???

[Reebuck1]

Ok, here is what I am going to try.

I am going to take the used Mother board I got from the old 996 cluster I bought to make the swap with and re-assemble it with my original 986 analog gauges. Install it in the car and see if the car will run. If it does ( I believe it will) then I will take it to Porsche (to use their PIWIS) to TURN ON my volt and oil pressure gauges even though they will not be in the car. This should allow Porsches PIWIS to sink the 986 DME that thinks it is a 996 ROW DME with the cluster that thinks it is a 996 cluster because it now has the 996 mother board in it. Hopefully I can then bring the car home and put the 986 cluster with the 996 analog gauges in and all should work. I will have to recode the 986 mother board so that the two gauges read OPEN.
If anyone thinks I have lost my mind please let me know. I'll report back once I get it all done.
Keep your feed back coming it has helped a lot !!

[Chuck W.]

Originally Posted by Reebuck1

Ok, here is what I am going to try.....
!

You persistence and determination is admirable. Never give up, never say die..... and keep us posted.