HELP swapping from se to svt gauges

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

ihave a '98 se and just swapped the whole interior from a svt from a totaled parts car and now having problems with the gauges.
everything was great ,everything pluged in but know i am having a problem with the fuel gauge,its working backwards. when i put gas in the gauge goes toward empty and goes towards full.
yes i did a search and only found hot to fix the needels,nothing on how to fix the gauge.
can i just change the gauge and swap the gauge face?

any help would help me

thanks
richard

Just go back to your original gauges but put the SVT's gauge faces over your originals. Keep in mind, the speedo on an SVT goes to 160, whereas all the other speedo's stop at 130.

rocketman, What year SVT did the gauge cluster come from? For a 98 Contour, the only cluster that will work is a 98 SVT cluster. 98.5-00 clusters will not work.

Originally posted by ChattavegasSE:
Just go back to your original gauges but put the SVT's gauge faces over your originals. Keep in mind, the speedo on an SVT goes to 160, whereas all the other speedo's stop at 130.

Ok, so he'll have a working gas gauge but a useless speedometer.

hey guys thanks for the response how can i tell the difference on what year the gauge cluster.
i know the car was a 98 but it might be a 98.5? whats the fastest easiest way to fix this?
thanks

Yeap, pretty much lol! I just know there is a problem; not how to fix it!

Originally posted by rocketmanrw:
hey guys thanks for the response how can i tell the difference on what year the gauge cluster.
i know the car was a 98 but it might be a 98.5? whats the fastest easiest way to fix this?
thanks

98 gauges will say NORMAL across the temp gauge on the left. 98.5-00 will not say anything at all on the temp gauge.

Also, 98 compared to 98.5-00 gauges have the E-brake and ABS lights in opposite positions from each other.

you can also look at the back of the gages, the 98.5 to 00 gages have three vertical and three horizontal pins behind the speedo, the 98 gages have the three vertical pins I believe but in the location of the horizontal pins there is iirc a small ribbon cable and connector, I do believe pics have been posted before

I have a 98 cluster with mileage of 154k.

PM me if you are interested.

I just recently acquired a 1999 Contour SE, I am looking to mods to both interior and exterior. I am looking to change the gauge cluster that I have to an 99 SVT cluster with a tach. Do i need to do anything different or can I just throw in the new cluster? Or will I need a whole new circuit board and mounting panel? Also how difficult would it be?

Originally posted by SniperUML:
I just recently acquired a 1999 Contour SE, I am looking to mods to both interior and exterior. I am looking to change the gauge cluster that I have to an 99 SVT cluster with a tach. Do i need to do anything different or can I just throw in the new cluster? Or will I need a whole new circuit board and mounting panel? Also how difficult would it be?

For a 99 SE, just swap with a 98.5-00 SVT cluster and you are all set. No modification, but IIRC, if your car did not come with a tach, you will need to run a signal wire for it.

Originally posted by CSVT1214:

Originally posted by SniperUML:
I just recently acquired a 1999 Contour SE, I am looking to mods to both interior and exterior. I am looking to change the gauge cluster that I have to an 99 SVT cluster with a tach. Do i need to do anything different or can I just throw in the new cluster? Or will I need a whole new circuit board and mounting panel? Also how difficult would it be?

For a 99 SE, just swap with a 98.5-00 SVT cluster and you are all set. No modification, but IIRC, if your car did not come with a tach, you will need to run a signal wire for it.

no contour with a V6 didnt come with a tach, if you got a V6 you have a tachometer. sounds like his 99se has a zetec, which means he has to find a gauge cluster from a 98.5-00 Contour Sport (zetec) you can tell if its for an I4 because there is a little "4" underneath the tachometer on that cluster, plus the redline goes to 6500 RPM's as opposed to 6750., which is kind of rare.