UK MY18 Digital dash retrofit

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Lots of people asking on facebook etc where/how i did this so thought i'd post something here for all to see. I know lots of us don't venture out from the UK section very often

Firstly, all my info came from the guys over in the US sections. This post linked below is a goldmine of information.
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99275
Credits: [MENTION=20657]db252[/MENTION], [MENTION=32917]p6cl[/MENTION], [MENTION=29356]breeves002[/MENTION], [MENTION=6944]zackmd1[/MENTION], [MENTION=25893]DanMc85[/MENTION]

The actual screen I ordered from the US because Ford UK parts department wanted ~£2,600! :eyebulge:

Part numbers are in the first post on that link. There are different screens for auto/manual.

I eventually managed to get one from OEMFordPartsDirect for $1294 (inc $300 core charge which you won't get back).
https://www.oemfordpartsdirect.com/oem-parts/ford-instrument-cluster-jr3z10849alc

This was the third supplier i tried to order it from, the first two both cancelled my orders without any communication at all.

I've been in contact with some of the US guys who are doing this too and one of them ordered it the same day as me from the place i did succesfully get it from and had his order cancelled because "they can't do orders for clusters over the internet."

Levittown parts also say something similar about the GT350 dash on the forums that they can't sell them online. Yet i did get this one and so have some others. It seems a bit hit and miss.

They wanted a ridiculous amount of money to ship to the UK, and I also worried that that might harm my chances of a successful order so I had it shipped to my US Stackry address.

When ordering the cluster they ask you your mileage and it then comes pre-programmed with the figure you provide. They will ask you why you want it too, and I just said I was retrofitting it to an older model and they were fine with that.

The rest of the bits, switches, steering column have/had back orders in the US so although they were much cheaper, i was very impatient and ordered them from Ford UK as I was told they were all in stock in Germany and would be here in cpl weeks. Could have saved £235 if i'd have waited and got them from the States, but that could have been weeks/months.

UK / US part numbers & prices

2150670 / JR3Z-9C888-AA- Switch (upper left)- £49.46 / $18.01
2150672 / JR3Z-9C888-CA- Switch (upper right)- £49.29 / $18.01
2161894 / JR3Z-9C888-EA- Switch (lower right) - £50.63 / $17.90
2165236 / JR3Z-3F791-AA - Steering column housing (w/ SCCM) - £178.84 / $81.70
2198276 - Bezel (RHD) - £123.63 (still backordered)

Cheapest cost by buying most parts from the States, $1,430 + shipping (~$50) / taxes (~$350) so total from States $1,830 (~£1,290)
The Bezel from the UK is £124
so total £1414.

Installation involved removing most of trim around dash/steering column area, replacing Steering column control module, replacing 3 of the 4 steering wheel switches, unplugging old cluster, cutting the bit of plastic behind to make room for the deeper sitting new dash (dremel jobbie), mounting new cluster, programming via OBD2 port with Forscan removing all the american luxuries that we don't get, finally replacing all trim.

The installation process is detailed further in the link posted above. The only difference for RHD is the plastic trim behind the clusters' cutting points are reversed.
If you find the above daunting and live anywhere near Bedfordshire i'd be happy to lend a hand.















Unfortuntately I'm still waiting on the trim bezel part from Ford UK, on back order but i was too impatient, and the mileage has to be pre-programmed by Ford into the speedo so if i'd left it any longer i'd have been understating the mileage (it's reading 120 miles more than my old one did) :headbonk:

massive thanks to the guys over in the US section of the forum for all their help on this & hopefully this will help some more UK owners to be brave enough to take the plunge as I've proved it works!!

Great work!

What happens however if your car has 20,000 miles, you tell them 20,000 miles for the new dash, but by the time it arrives you've done say 20,500 miles.

I did a cluster change on my M3, which failed as the mileage differential was beyond a few miles, which triggers a tamper alert on the dash and results in the cluster being lit like a Christmas tree to show the mileage has been tampered with.

As like I mentioned on Facebook, most cars have two ECU's registering mileage, one in the cluster and one elsewhere in the car, no doubt the actual DME. This is done to prevent people from just fitting a cluster with lower miles and thus clocking a car. As the two should always match.

I really do hope Ford have not fucked up by not including this anti-tamper otherwise this could be a way many filthy scumbags go about clocking Fords by simply changing out cluster unless even regular cluster are also very expensive too.

I'd just be shocked if Ford made it so easy to clock a car, hope its not the case.

Back on the cluster, wow man, good work and it looks totally awesome, the new Mustang has one of the best cluster and clearest I've seen to date, also seen one in the flesh and they are super clear, really like it.

Superb work...and congrats I guess! I had a flick through the US thread, which is really impressive. Shame you don't have the bezel yet - bet that's annoying!

Gibbo205 said:

Great work!

What happens however if your car has 20,000 miles, you tell them 20,000 miles for the new dash, but by the time it arrives you've done say 20,500 miles.

I did a cluster change on my M3, which failed as the mileage differential was beyond a few miles, which triggers a tamper alert on the dash and results in the cluster being lit like a Christmas tree to show the mileage has been tampered with.

As like I mentioned on Facebook, most cars have two ECU's registering mileage, one in the cluster and one elsewhere in the car, no doubt the actual DME. This is done to prevent people from just fitting a cluster with lower miles and thus clocking a car. As the two should always match.

I really do hope Ford have not fucked up by not including this anti-tamper otherwise this could be a way many filthy scumbags go about clocking Fords by simply changing out cluster unless even regular cluster are also very expensive too.

I'd just be shocked if Ford made it so easy to clock a car, hope its not the case.

Back on the cluster, wow man, good work and it looks totally awesome, the new Mustang has one of the best cluster and clearest I've seen to date, also seen one in the flesh and they are super clear, really like it.

Click to expand...

ok, so the americans are ordering with an inflated mileage reading and then just lining it up best they can. no one has reported anything critical. mine is about 100 miles out and I have a DTC on the IPC of "Invalid data received from the ECM/PCM - Alive/Sequence Counter Incorrect/Not Updated" which i assume is related to the mileage being not 100% accurate?

it is not causing any lights or notifications on the dash itself, I've just seen it in Forscan. I have been told that Ford can reprogram if necessary if you find a helpful dealer, whether they will or not is a different matter. guy on facebook group says he has tools needed to do it too although i can't verify that.

Safest/easiest thing to do I guess is to order with higher mileage and then wait to install when they line up.

SpArKy said:

ok, so the americans are ordering with an inflated mileage reading and then just lining it up best they can. no one has reported anything critical. mine is about 100 miles out and I have a DTC on the IPC of "Invalid data received from the ECM/PCM - Alive/Sequence Counter Incorrect/Not Updated" which i assume is related to the mileage being not 100% accurate?

it is not causing any lights or notifications on the dash itself, I've just seen it in Forscan. I have been told that Ford can reprogram if necessary if you find a helpful dealer, whether they will or not is a different matter. guy on facebook group says he has tools needed to do it too although i can't verify that.

Safest/easiest thing to do I guess is to order with higher mileage and then wait to install when they line up.

Click to expand...

Yeah makes sense, I guess Ford are not too concerned about people clocking cars if its just a code on forescan, but at least it shows up.

I think if I was doing this I would do as you say, order the cluster with say 500 miles more than my car had, then once my car had reached the miles of the new cluster, do the install when both matching and hope no error was flagged.

Once again looks amazing, if I still had my Mustang, I would of done this too.

Great job and if I had not ordered a 18 I would be doing this for sure as well as getting rid of syn 2

Having the digital dash is nice and all, however, do I think its worth this much to retrofit it...no. In all honesty, after the initial wow factor of seeing these gauges, I would be just as happy with my 18 if it had analogue gauges (especially if it was £1500 cheaper).

Great job on doing this though, and I can see why people would spend the money and get this done.

MrWolf said:

Having the digital dash is nice and all, however, do I think its worth this much to retrofit it...no. In all honesty, after the initial wow factor of seeing these gauges, I would be just as happy with my 18 if it had analogue gauges (especially if it was £1500 cheaper).

Great job on doing this though, and I can see why people would spend the money and get this done.

Click to expand...

see that just highlights that we are all different cos for me, the dash (& sync3) was the only thing making me want a MY18. The £15k upgrade cost on the otherhand, wasn't!

apart from the road of course, you spend all your time in the car looking at it. It has a digital speedo which was a HUGE disappointment for me when i realised mine didn't have one, having come from Audi's which have had them for years.

Also the performance shift indicator and dials set to sport mode is just awesome!! :clap2:

yeah it's expensive, but people spend £4k+ on air ride. £3k+ on forged alloys, ~£1500 on sequential indicators... it's all relative :cheers:

I think the new digi dash is quite nice, but I’m glad I prefer the old school retro look of my originals..

Awesome, saves me having to plug you for information during the sync3 upgrade

Can't wait to see this completed

Gibbo205 said:

Great work!

What happens however if your car has 20,000 miles, you tell them 20,000 miles for the new dash, but by the time it arrives you've done say 20,500 miles.

I did a cluster change on my M3, which failed as the mileage differential was beyond a few miles, which triggers a tamper alert on the dash and results in the cluster being lit like a Christmas tree to show the mileage has been tampered with.

As like I mentioned on Facebook, most cars have two ECU's registering mileage, one in the cluster and one elsewhere in the car, no doubt the actual DME. This is done to prevent people from just fitting a cluster with lower miles and thus clocking a car. As the two should always match.

I really do hope Ford have not fucked up by not including this anti-tamper otherwise this could be a way many filthy scumbags go about clocking Fords by simply changing out cluster unless even regular cluster are also very expensive too.

I'd just be shocked if Ford made it so easy to clock a car, hope its not the case.

Back on the cluster, wow man, good work and it looks totally awesome, the new Mustang has one of the best cluster and clearest I've seen to date, also seen one in the flesh and they are super clear, really like it.

Click to expand...

Nothing happens actually. The differential doesn't matter. The dealer can see the real miles in the PCM but nothing cares and no codes are set from the milage being wrong.

This is fantastic, good job!

Definitely something i will consider doing in the future. Only had my car a week so reluctant to start cutting it just yet!

marzman said:

Definitely something i will consider doing in the future. Only had my car a week so reluctant to start cutting it just yet!

Click to expand...

Don't worry that itch will soon need scratching

[MENTION=24944]SpArKy[/MENTION] very nice job and glad all the work us early chasers did helped out. It's nice seeing a reverse image with the RHD model and the cluster mod is taking off like crazy. Enjoy it and that cluster housing will be there before you know it.

db252 said:

[MENTION=24944]SpArKy[/MENTION] very nice job and glad all the work us early chasers did helped out. It's nice seeing a reverse image with the RHD model and the cluster mod is taking off like crazy. Enjoy it and that cluster housing will be there before you know it.

Click to expand...

[MENTION=20657]db252[/MENTION] mate, i'd been monitoring that thread every day for months. the second you guys figured out the high beams i had the parts website up on one of my screens. hovered over it for about an hour pondering if it was worth the money/risk it didn't work etc and then just clicked the button! :lol: then didn't look back.