Is the local dealer service guy bs'ing me?

[SAWYER]

I have a Ford Freestar van that I need to replace the gauges on. I found I can get a whole instrument cluster for cheap on ebay. I looked for ahwile and finally found one that had almost my same mileage, only 2000 more miles. I am fine with that so I called my dealer asking if it would even matter. He told me I would have to bring it in because only a dealer shop could swap the clusters out because of an anti theft system that would be triggered.

I am thinking this guy is full of crap and just trying to get some work.

 

[michal1980]

its possible...

Without doing research on it, its 50/50 on the BS scale.

 

[cabri]

Call a different dealer and see what they day.

also, talk to a local trusted mechanic

 

[JulesMaximus]

I took the gauge cluster out of my Maxima to clean the inside and add some chrome trim rings. It was a piece of cake to remove. Can't imagine there would be any issue hooking up a new gauge panel. Try it and see.

Alternatively, is there a Ford forum you could ask this on? I'm sure someone more familiar with their vehicles could confirm or deny this. Maybe call another dealership and ask them?

 

[jagec]

I can't speak to Fords, but I've done that swap in Japanese cars with no issues.

 

[Midwayman]

I've heard of cars that you need the dealer tool to pair gauges with the ecu. A little googling seems to indicate that there is a theft protect mode and you need a tool to reprogram the ecu. Sounds like a $300-400 handheld tuner can disable the theft stuff. If you have a speed shop locally you may ask them if about what you're doing and if they can disable it if you bring the ECU in.

 

[Jimzz]

Some newer vehicles you have to set it to the main computer. Even radios sometimes have to be programed to the car. The old way was to type in a code now its tied to the computer.

I would check on some ford forums to see if its setup like that in that car. So it could be.

What year is it?

 

[SAWYER]

2004

 

[Jimzz]

2004

That's seem to be older than what I would think is coded to the ECU. I don't think you should have an issue but that's just a hunch.
Maybe he was talking about copying the cluster information and then reloading it to the new one. Like mileage perhaps.

Also what is wrong with the dash. Seems many are fixing theirs instead of replacing like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1_FVOVj2ms

 

[Hartle4]

i have swapped one before it requires a reflash of the PCM for it to work at all, it wont even start. some shops are capable of doing the reflash to but they have to purchase the programming tools and software to do so.