I was talking to pat and rob and was thinking about putting an SSEi or SSE (SSE hopefully, if I can find it, no boost guage) guage cluster in my car. I'd really like the digital guages (Compass, odo). I'm curious how this will all work out and how hard itd be to wire up...

1) How will the odometer react, will it set to what it was before?
2) How hard will it be to wire up the compass box in the trunk?
3) Door opening sensors..how will that work out?
4) What year clusters will be compatible? 96-99?
5) How much custom wiring will need to be done?
6) Overall, how feasible would it be?

Thanks for any advive / tips.

ok i have looked into this....ive done ALOT of reasearch.....lets get the basics down..the SE gague cluster has one connector...the SSE/I has 2....and fortunally the wires that are used in the SE cluster are mixed up in the 2 connectors for the SSE/i cluster....you will need a FSM to decipher the wiring....its not that hard...i have all the wires figured out (for 93)

1) the odo is stored in the cluster....this will be a problem
2) the compass does not have to be located in the trunk....you need the compass and the wires then tie them into the wires that lead to the cluster
3) not only is it the doors but also the trunk and the hood....this will be one of your problems....
4)96-99 will work for ya because the differences in the fuel gague resistance
5) you will also have to figure in the ALM and the check gagues warning along with having your milage count in the digital odo
6) it can be done....you will have all the features of the cluster....you may loose the sweep feature, door, hood, and trunk, warnings and also the ALM

get a FSM.....do your wiring HW

I'm having second thoughts about this (still waiting on a response from Randy, though). I'm worried about messing crap up, electrical isn't one of my finer points. I also REALLY don't want my odo to be off.

Thanks for looking into that Pat.

Not to disagree with Pat. Vig, I would highly recommend not trying to accopmlish this cluster swap because of all the complexities as called out by Pat. IMHO it wouldn't be feasable at all.

It'* possible. You might want to consider getting a complete dash harness so you'll have all of the necessary connectors. It also might be easier to make pin-out changes at the connector rather than splicing and soldering. As for the year of the cluster, I'm more inclined to say 97-99 and skip the 96. In 97, the fuel sender indicates fuel level via a vairable resistance to the PCM. The PCM then sends a Pulse Width Modulated signal to the cluster to drive the gauge. I haven't peeked at a 96 manual yet so I can't confirm if the circuit is the same as the 97. The senders were different between 96 and 97 but if the PWM signal is the same then a 96 could be used.

Pat did a great job explaining the process. The most important was to have [both] service manuals [if using a cluster from a different year]. I have a 97 FSM when Bill allows me to use it so I can help you out there. Personally, I would research every connector, wire, sensor and switch before spending any money on parts. When I did the motor swap in my 90, I mapped out almost all electrical connections before grabbing a wrench. To give you an idea, this was what my spreadsheet looks like.

Mark also did a great job explaining the difficulty level. Would I do it?... maybe. Only if I knew where every wire was supposed to go and knew how much effort it was going to take. I'm also very comfortable with vehicle wiring and electronics as this is what I've been doing for a living for 16 years. You too should be very confident in your skills before attempting. That being said... I'd do a HUD transplant while I was at it.

Randy your spread sheet is awesome....

and i think that is what im gonna do, grab the whole dash harness out of my donor 93 SSEI and throw the HUD in my SLE while im at it.....im gonna explore the ECC too since i basically have access to a car that is EXACTLY that same year and everythign

Yes, that spreadsheet is very impressive. I know it represents a lot of research to compile all that wiring info.

Yeah it does, I was starting to change it for 96 and 97, took soooo much time.

Randy- that is definitly impressive. How long did that actually take you to do?