[Watermelon]

I know this topic has been heavily covered and I am well versed it what is needed to get the job done to get a 335i cluster with oil temp to work in a regular 330i. However my question is, can I not just solder my old eprom chip to the donor cluster? Or can I buy a new eprom chip and code my vin and mileage to it? What's stopping me from being able to just swap the chips? Both are used clusters btw

[Sensible_]

Originally Posted by Watermelon

I know this topic has been heavily covered and I am well versed it what is needed to get the job done to get a 335i cluster with oil temp to work in a regular 330i. However my question is, can I not just solder my old eprom chip to the donor cluster? Or can I buy a new eprom chip and code my vin and mileage to it? What's stopping me from being able to just swap the chips? Both are used clusters btw

What would be the point of this?

Just do it in the normal way... make cluster virgin (odometer and vin reset) then code like factory new with NCSExpert of ISTA.

[Watermelon]

the point would be that i would not have to buy a eprom programmer if i could just swap the chips, and i would not have to code anything.

[Sensible_]

Originally Posted by Watermelon

the point would be that i would not have to buy a eprom programmer if i could just swap the chips, and i would not have to code anything.

Ah, I see. I assumed if you had soldering tools you'd have a programmer.

I haven't tried your method but I don't think it will work. If there are any HW differences then I think you'll be in trouble.

[Watermelon]

So assuming that I can't just swap the chips. What's a good programmer that you would recommend, I don't mind taking the chips off the board. But if there's a cheap on the board programmer that would be ideal. Anything wrong with using an auto gauge cluster on a manual car? I can still switch it over to a manual one through ncs or winkfp right?

[Sensible_]

Originally Posted by Watermelon

So assuming that I can't just swap the chips. What's a good programmer that you would recommend, I don't mind taking the chips off the board. But if there's a cheap on the board programmer that would be ideal. Anything wrong with using an auto gauge cluster on a manual car? I can still switch it over to a manual one through ncs or winkfp right?

Correct. I'm not saying 100% it won't work, but an educated guess tells me it won't.

The R270+ is cheap and works well for this. Just use a SOIC 8 test clip with it rather than taking the chip off.