Instrument cluster swap 98 XJ?

Here's the situation - I recently bought a 98 2-door XJ 2WD 5-speed.

It came with the "idiot light" cluster, so it basically has just a speedo.

My son is now driving it to school, and really wanted instruments, so I found a factory instrument cluster from a 97 XJ that has a tach & all of the gauges.

It's under the tree, and I have a feeling that we'll be putting it in before the Christmas turkey is served.

Two questions:

Any tricky things to watch out for when doing the swap?

Can anything be done with the digital odometer on the new cluster to show the current miles on the vehicle?

I have heard that the unit itself holds the mileage, not the vehicle's computer, so I'm afraid that we'll be stuck with whatever the new cluster states.

Is it there anything I can do to remedy this?

Thanks!

i think the mileage is saved in a few places. not sure if it will detect a new cluster and update it with the correct mileage. at least on a Grand Cherokee. its saved on the PCM, BCM and Cluster. but i could be wrong.

I think the mileage is only in the cluster, or if it is in the ecu it's not checked as an error . Later jeeps the mileage gets complicated, on the xj it is still rather simple, but I'm not sure the ins and outs of the 96 up XJ.

Bottom line is You'd have to send it off somewhere to match mileage. Someone did DIY a way to program the mileage but it's not easy and cost a few hundred for parts to connect it to a pc

Here is a link to a guy who did the swap with pictures of disassembly.
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/...p-how-752630/#/topics/752630?page=1&_k=lk1c98




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One guy says the mileage is stored in the IC13 circuit board, swap them and the mileage remains original. Haven't found a wright up on that yet.

Mileage may be in the pcm as well but nobody had reported a error because of mismatched mileage. Only trouble would be emission check where they plug into the computer and reselling the jeep with inaccurate readings. I'd just notify the DMV and say the old cluster failed and had to be replaced which seems common enough.


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The miles are on the cluster. If you plug in another cluster it will show the miles on that cluster regardless of miles on the jeep.

Other than that its plug and play, easy swap.

I have heard rumors that there is a way to change the miles on the cluster using a drb3, but for the average person the best way to fix miles is to find a cluster that has similar miles to what is on the jeep.

i swapped my dummy light cluster for a full cluster, as far as I know there isn't an easy way to reset mileage. while its out, id toss some new lights in the cluster for him.
If you wanna get a shop really confused, the first time they got my jeep, it had 170k on the odometer, I swapped clusters, next time I went it had 195k on the clock (2 weeks later) then I had to swap clusters again because my oil and temp gauge didn't work, few weeks later I showed up with 265k on the odometer lol

Thanks for the responses. I think that we'll just live with the new reading.

No emissions or annual inspections here in sunny Florida, so nothing to worry about on that front!

Ah, yes that is what I like about the south. No busy body government trying to over look our rigs.

In Fl you title may already be mileage exempt depending. I'd just make a note of the mileage discrepancy for your knowledge and any future buyers, although most of us XJers tend to hold on to our jeeps. 90% of the Xj owners in my searches about this were nonchalant about the mileage difference because they never planed on selling.


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As part of the swap, you'll have to change the oil pressure sender, and the coolant
temperature sender, for the ones that are compatible with the gauge instrument cluster
setup.

The "idiot light" instrument cluster uses senders that are not much more than
on/off switches.

The gauge instrument cluster uses senders that are variable resistors.

Be sure that you are clear about needing senders for the instrument cluster (not "idiot lights" cluster) when you go to your auto parts store as they often miss this detail.

I know that's true for the older xj , from what I read it seems plug and play for 97-01. Either way it'll be easy enough .


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97-01 is plug and play