Installed a fully digital instrument cluster on my 2017 Ford Ecosport

I have seen this cluster being developed during my professional experience, so I was very much sure about the technical feasibility.

BHPian jhenu recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone.

I am back with another big upgrade for my facelift 2017 Ford Ecosport

It’s a full digital instrument cluster/speedometer upgrade for the facelift model.

You would’ve seen these kinds of fully digital clusters in luxury Sedans and SUVs not on a mid-segment car, even though if present it would’ve been a partial one having segmented displays with LCD.

Bad part 1st. Sorry to say it’s not for the older models before 2017 as the architecture and the pin configurations are totally different. In fact, the older model cluster has the immobilizer key programmed, master for the vehicle configuration and also follows different electrical architecture, so it’s not possible practically. That’s it about the bad part.

Okay, coming back to the facelift model, it follows different architecture which is more flexible than the former one I said above, and also we can incorporate many modules from its other sibling such as latest generation Puma, Kuga, Focus, Fiesta Escape etc. provided some software and hardware customization done.

As I listed the possible feature mods in this below link, I am introducing the next modification here in this thread.

Again this is also a late release due to vehicle unavailability. now I bought a facelift model so releasing next mods is very easy for me.

I bought this part two years back from a US 2020 Escape, and bringing to India was very difficult. I was worried about possible damage to the part as it’s a complete LCD unit with heavy heat sink around.

if broken it will look like this:

I have seen this cluster being developed during my professional experience, so I was very much sure about the technical feasibility and virtually realized the compatibility with the dashboard. I was not worried much about the dashboard fitment part as I am very much interested into sculpting things.

Only challenging part was on the software. Not all the software low level details can be known unless we actually worked and tried it on the vehicle and also using the UDS protocol. This is a very big part so I am not going to touch now, in a nutshell we need to software configure the cluster to make it support the actual vehicle configurations either in the NVM or in the EEPROM.

First you need to get the cluster from the Escape( LJ6T-10849-DEK ) or Kuga(NV4T-10849-DFC) Puma(L1TT-10849-FPB), Fiesta Focus etc… but you need to find out correct KM or Miles, Diesel or Petrol, AT or MT types based on your vehicle otherwise you need support on modifying the EEPROM to make it compatible which is not available publicly. On top of it, the configurations and the frame modifications. This part is costlier as the quality of this HW and SW part is high. i guess the new one costs roughly 2000$, used one may be available at half of its price or even lesser.

So lets see some physical structural differences.

Both old and new cluster side by side front view:

Back side view:

Connector closeup:

Front side glass frame:

Glass frame rear:

Mounting screw holders:

LCD without outer frame and drilled new screw holes:

I have to trim the outer lens and the plastic frame carefully without a single scratch on the lens or damage to the LCD.

I have used handle tools from Black and Decker, Dremel tool will work. The intention is not to make any single change in the dashboard as reversing things back to stock is trouble free.

As i have flashed the PUMA software, my cluster shows the startup logo from PUMA: