I am considering purchasing this SE gauge cluster on eBay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1858193067

I have a few questions for anybody that has done this or for anyone that knows anything about it. I did a search and did not find quite what I was looking for.

I found this thread http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....5&pagenumber=4 , linking to this link http://www.fortunecity.com/silversto...ft/79/id22.htm. It explains how to change the circuit board on a 2000 Maxima so that the odometer reads the real mileage of your vehicle. Do you think this would work on the '98 cluster? I don't see why it wouldn't.

Also, I really couldn't find any instructions on how to actually install the cluster. I don't have any idea what I will be doing. Do I need to take the whole dash apart to get to it? Are there a whole bunch of wires plugged into it?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

first question..
does your gauge cluster have a digital odometer? and is the cluster your buying have the same? if they are the same .. all you do is swap them out and you are done..

 

Yep, mine does have a digital odometer. So it sounds like the swapping out part is not difficult.

But I am wondering about the circuit board swap... whether it can be done or not, so the new cluster reads the correct mileage.

By the way, your maxima is AWESOME! I wish mine was red.

 

that i do not know.. i would not try to swap them out.. and just leave it.. you know how many miles are on the car...
thanks..

 

you might be able to take it to some kind of speedo calibration shop and get them to do it. just make sure you show them both clusters and tell them you are swapping them out. that way your legal

 

I would gues swaping the ciruit board shold be a pretty similar thing in our cars. Just look at the back of the SE one when you get it and see if you can remover the circuit board. I was lucky, I bought my SE cluster with more mileage then my car had and waited until the mileages matched up before putting in the SE one.

 

I'm going to be doing this on my 95 as soon as the guages show up. Answers to questions:
1) Well I have analog odometer so I'm just going to roll it forward to match my miles.
2) There shouldnt be too many wires. If you've ever done car work, you'll notice Nissan made some very nice plastic connectors that you just unplug.

See those clips? Those are standard throughout the 4th gen to my knowledge. Unplug those three clips, plug em into the new ends on the new gauge cluster and you should be good to go. Also, I agree with redmax that your ECU should not have troube transferring the odomoter. On digital odometers, that is stored in the ECU and read by the speedo, (that way you can't "reset" your miles by simply unplugging and plugging the guage cluster). Hope this helps. I'll let you know how my install goes.

 

Just wondering, wouldn't it be easier to buy a set of those guage sticker sets that I've seen sold in magazines. Do they not make those for Maximas?

 

So, the mileage isn't even stored in the gauge cluster... it's stored in the car's ECU? So when I switch the gauge cluster, it should automatically change over to the correct mileage?

 

yeah i'd think that'd have to be the case. beacuse then to get your car to 0 miles youd just have to take out the gauges and put them back in. i could be wrong. there could be a memory cell there. but who knows.