GT500 cluster installed - some observations MY COLOR 2005-2009 S-197 Gen 1
Legacy TMS Member
Joined: January 18, 2008
Posts: 910
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From: Glenview, IL
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Joined: August 3, 2008
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I paid full retail for the parts and install at my local Ford dealership about 4 miles from my house. I did call Steve at Tousley Ford who will sell it for ~$230, but then you have the issue of bringing in outside parts to your dealer to install. I would also have to pay for shipping from them to get to me, shipping my old cluster back to them for the core charge, and floating the $300 core charge while all that was going on.
Retail cost was ~$330, labor to install was ~$150. All total with labor, taxes, etc. was $534, no dealing with shipping or core charges. I went out of town Sunday through Tuesday, so I dropped the car off Saturday evening, picked it up Tuesday afternoon. It can be done in 48 hours. If I would have been in town, I could have dropped it off Monday morning and picked it up Tuesday.
They have to order the cluster with your cars mileage, it is overnighted to your dealer, then installed the next day. To install, they have to download the data from the cluster, which I believe has to do with the security of the key / car, to the new cluster, you can't just pop it in. That's where the ~$150 install charge comes from. Based on what the service guy told me, that process takes about 2 hours.
The big deal for me was that the speedometer started going out on my old cluster too, it was starting to stick in a few spots, which in a very short time would have left me with 4 dead gauges (tach, fuel, volts, speedo). I limped along with a dead tach, fuel and volt gauge for about 2 years, enough was enough. With the right set of circumstances, I might have been able to save anywhere from $40 - $80, but that's probably about it, and I would have had the burden to carry with shipping and core charges. It's not a super cheap swap, but given the issues and the payoff, dollar for dollar this might be my favorite mod to date. Forgot to mention earlier, the GT500 cluster is the exact same price as the standard GT cluster.
Of course, I haven't purchased a supercharger yet...
Retail cost was ~$330, labor to install was ~$150. All total with labor, taxes, etc. was $534, no dealing with shipping or core charges. I went out of town Sunday through Tuesday, so I dropped the car off Saturday evening, picked it up Tuesday afternoon. It can be done in 48 hours. If I would have been in town, I could have dropped it off Monday morning and picked it up Tuesday.
They have to order the cluster with your cars mileage, it is overnighted to your dealer, then installed the next day. To install, they have to download the data from the cluster, which I believe has to do with the security of the key / car, to the new cluster, you can't just pop it in. That's where the ~$150 install charge comes from. Based on what the service guy told me, that process takes about 2 hours.
The big deal for me was that the speedometer started going out on my old cluster too, it was starting to stick in a few spots, which in a very short time would have left me with 4 dead gauges (tach, fuel, volts, speedo). I limped along with a dead tach, fuel and volt gauge for about 2 years, enough was enough. With the right set of circumstances, I might have been able to save anywhere from $40 - $80, but that's probably about it, and I would have had the burden to carry with shipping and core charges. It's not a super cheap swap, but given the issues and the payoff, dollar for dollar this might be my favorite mod to date. Forgot to mention earlier, the GT500 cluster is the exact same price as the standard GT cluster.
Of course, I haven't purchased a supercharger yet...
Last edited by reyno626; Nov 22, 2009 at 11:05 AM.
GT Member
Joined: September 8, 2009
Posts: 105
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From: AZ
My cluster is crazy!
Hello, I need to chime in on this thread.
The cluster in my 05 GT is starting to go bonkers and I need to replace it! (Oil/Temp/Fuel gauge working/not working at random) I don't want to drive my car with my gauges all over the place, its driving my crazy. Ford here in Phoenix quoted me $700 to replace mine!!!! Sorry Ford, not gonna happen.
To anyone who has done this swap, are there any online instructions/pics of the install? I realize people are saying its an easy installation process, but honestly I don't know where to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks much,
Pat
The cluster in my 05 GT is starting to go bonkers and I need to replace it! (Oil/Temp/Fuel gauge working/not working at random) I don't want to drive my car with my gauges all over the place, its driving my crazy. Ford here in Phoenix quoted me $700 to replace mine!!!! Sorry Ford, not gonna happen.
To anyone who has done this swap, are there any online instructions/pics of the install? I realize people are saying its an easy installation process, but honestly I don't know where to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks much,
Pat
Legacy TMS Member
Joined: January 18, 2008
Posts: 910
Likes: 2
From: Glenview, IL
Steps to remove your speedo....
Hello, I need to chime in on this thread.
The cluster in my 05 GT is starting to go bonkers and I need to replace it! (Oil/Temp/Fuel gauge working/not working at random) I don't want to drive my car with my gauges all over the place, its driving my crazy. Ford here in Phoenix quoted me $700 to replace mine!!!! Sorry Ford, not gonna happen.
To anyone who has done this swap, are there any online instructions/pics of the install? I realize people are saying its an easy installation process, but honestly I don't know where to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks much,
Pat
The cluster in my 05 GT is starting to go bonkers and I need to replace it! (Oil/Temp/Fuel gauge working/not working at random) I don't want to drive my car with my gauges all over the place, its driving my crazy. Ford here in Phoenix quoted me $700 to replace mine!!!! Sorry Ford, not gonna happen.
To anyone who has done this swap, are there any online instructions/pics of the install? I realize people are saying its an easy installation process, but honestly I don't know where to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks much,
Pat
- Disconnect your battery.
- Then take off your Spedo cluster cover. (I just took my steering wheel and put it in the furthermost down position.) The speedo cluster cover just pulls out, giving you access to the bolts.
- I believe you need a 7mm socket and remove the 4 bolts. (it might be a 6mm. I really don't remember
which one but have your small ones there.) - Once those bolts are removed then you can unplug your speedo from the back. There is just one cable to remove.
- Then to reinstall do the reverse.
GT Member
Joined: September 8, 2009
Posts: 105
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From: AZ
Holy smokes!
- Disconnect your battery.
- Then take off your Spedo cluster cover. (I just took my steering wheel and put it in the furthermost down position.) The speedo cluster cover just pulls out, giving you access to the bolts.
- I believe you need a 7mm socket and remove the 4 bolts. (it might be a 6mm. I really don't remember which one but have your small ones there.)
- Once those bolts are removed then you can unplug your speedo from the back. There is just one cable to remove.
- Then to reinstall do the reverse.
Last question is, what are my options for picking up a new gauge cluster? Ford? Ebay? Online classifieds etc?? Will the dealer transfer my mileage for me?
I am DEFINITELY convinced that I can do the swap myself, just need advice in regards to getting a new cluster. (Preferably a GT500 cluster)
Thanks again!
Pat
Shelby GT350 Member
Joined: February 24, 2005
Posts: 2,227
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From: Delray Beach , FL
KC , 05stangkc on the forum , is a parts manager and he can get it for you. Another member got it from Steve at Tousley Ford , do a search and you'll find a link to him , I don't know if there's a difference in price between them. Also I see you have an 05 and if it didn't come with the IUP cluster , you may not have the harness for switch. Mine was made in Nov 04 and mine has it , but sometime later Ford stopped putting the harness in if the car didn't have the IUP cluster ...
GT Member
Joined: September 8, 2009
Posts: 105
Likes: 0
From: AZ
KC , 05stangkc on the forum , is a parts manager and he can get it for you. Another member got it from Steve at Tousley Ford , do a search and you'll find a link to him , I don't know if there's a difference in price between them. Also I see you have an 05 and if it didn't come with the IUP cluster , you may not have the harness for switch. Mine was made in Nov 04 and mine has it , but sometime later Ford stopped putting the harness in if the car didn't have the IUP cluster ...
Legacy TMS Member
Joined: January 18, 2008
Posts: 910
Likes: 2
From: Glenview, IL
the dealer can download the info from your old cluster to the new one.
Shelby GT350 Member
Joined: February 24, 2005
Posts: 2,227
Likes: 22
From: Delray Beach , FL
My local dealer wanted $500 for the cluster and $300 to program it. So I called the guy at Tousley Ford to find out what needs to be done and he said the cluster had to be programmed for the car keys and the passive anti-theft. He said that it was the same process as when you have a spare key made , if that's all it is it seems pretty easy from what the oweners manual says and just requires you to have two keys to do it. reyno626 you said you did the install yourself , is that all you had to do ?
Last edited by 05YellowGT; Dec 10, 2009 at 10:52 AM.
Shelby GT350 Member
Joined: February 24, 2005
Posts: 2,227
Likes: 22
From: Delray Beach , FL
I just called Tousley again and this time I talked to Steve and he said that as far as he was aware nothing needed to be down loaded and it was just plug and play. So I went ahead and ordered it and it should be in next week and we'll see. If it does require something being done , then I guess I'll have to fork up $300 the dealer wanted , but at least I didn't get hosed for the $500 they wanted for the cluster ...
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Joined: July 31, 2007
Posts: 31
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I just called Tousley again and this time I talked to Steve and he said that as far as he was aware nothing needed to be down loaded and it was just plug and play. So I went ahead and ordered it and it should be in next week and we'll see. If it does require something being done , then I guess I'll have to fork up $300 the dealer wanted , but at least I didn't get hosed for the $500 they wanted for the cluster ...
Shelby GT350 Member
Joined: February 24, 2005
Posts: 2,227
Likes: 22
From: Delray Beach , FL
OK , got mine installed and here's the scoop for anyone thinking about doing this. If you have an 07 or later and order yours from a dealer where they will put your vin and milage in the cluster , then you probably won't have to do anything else other than install the new cluster. This is extremely easy and you can do it yourself in less than 20 minutes , a dealer is probably going to charge you an hour minimum. I however have an 05 and I don't have the TPMS on my car so I got the warning on the message center and the light for it. So any feature you don't have on your car will give you a warning , such as ABS , TC , and etc. All of the information about this is stored in the cluster module configuration data and that is what has to be transported from the old cluster into the new one in order to get rid of the warnings , if you don't get any warnings you won' need to do this. One dealer wanted to charge me two hours to do this , one for each cluster he said , but I checked with another dealer and they did it for one hour labor. I got my cluster from Steve at Tousley ford , 800.328.9552 , for $237.42 and since my old cluster was a 2 gauge I didn't have the info center and had to order the switch too and it was $42.24. Then add shipping and a $300 core charge that is refunded when you return the old cluster. Hope this helps anyone else considering do this ...
