Is it possible to get US odometer to work in a Canadian FR-S?

[H1C]

Hi all,


I recently bought a second FR-S, a 2015 Canadian example purchased from a dealer in NY who imported it. As a courtesy before delivering it to me, they had the Canadian instrument cluster reprogrammed to display the odometer in miles rather than km's.

They did not notice, however, that the odometer stopped working. It's stuck at the mileage it was programmed to display. I noticed this on my first test drive after the car was shipped to me. The trip odometers tick up by a few tenths of a mile but then reset themselves. They do this repeatedly.

The dealer was very apologetic and agreed to pay for what's necessary to fix this. I got in touch with a local speedometer shop, who suggested that the easiest thing to do would be to get a US cluster and program it with the correct mileage.

So I had them do that and installed the US cluster. Unfortunately, it behaves just like the reprogrammed Canadian cluster did: the odometer is stuck, and the trip odometers repeatedly tick up by a few tenths and then reset themselves. And like the reprogrammed Canadian cluster, the non-odometer-related functions work: the speedometer, thermometer, fuel and coolant gauges, in-gear indicator, and rev alarm all work. Remote locking/unlocking work as well.

The next thing I did was take it to a Toyota dealer to see if they could find out what the issue is. They kept the car for much of a day, and determined that it's not a hardware issue. The ABS sensors, from which both the speedometer and odometer get their signal, are fine, and the entire CAN BUS network is sending signals just fine. There are no DTC codes.

There was a Techstream initialization procedure that's supposed to be done when a new instrument cluster is installed, to pair it to the key transponder, so they did that. But the remote locking/unlocking worked before the initialization in any case, and this initialization procedure did not get the odometer to work.

After discussing with the dealer's master tech, who worked on the car, we decided that the next steps to try are:

1) Get a US ECU and see if that gets the US odometer to work;
2) If that doesn't work, get an un-modified Canadian instrument cluster and pair that with the Canadian ECU.

The tech was not optimistic about 1) working. He said he's seen other instances of Canadian Toyota models (not FR-S's though) whose installed US odometers were never able to be made to work, even after installing a US ECU.

I have a US ECU on the way and will try that first, since I'd prefer to have an odometer that displays in miles.

Has anyone here had experience with getting a US instrument cluster to work in a Canadian car, or vice versa, or know whether this is even possible? And if it is possible, what steps are needed?

Thanks for reading this long post and for any suggestions!

[Opie]

The issue is in the cluster wiring I'd bet...if you swapped two clusters and getting the same result...I'd get a wiring diagram and check each pin at the cluster plug....

[H1C]

The master tech did that -- he said the plug for the cluster is ok. He put an oscilloscope on various parts of the CAN BUS network and he said the relevant sensors and ECUs are sending signals correctly.


Given that the CAL IDs for US and Canadian cars are the same, he surmised that there's some firmware or other difference between the US and Canadian ECUs that codes the signals from the ABS sensors into miles and kms respectively. He thinks that the US and reprogrammed Canadian clusters just can't process the odometer message that the Canadian ECU is sending.

[Opie]

Originally Posted by H1C

The master tech did that -- he said the plug for the cluster is ok. He put an oscilloscope on various parts of the CAN BUS network and he said the relevant sensors and ECUs are sending signals correctly.


Given that the CAL IDs for US and Canadian cars are the same, he surmised that there's some firmware or other difference between the US and Canadian ECUs that codes the signals from the ABS sensors into miles and kms respectively. He thinks that the US and reprogrammed Canadian clusters just can't process the odometer message that the Canadian ECU is sending.

Pretty sure they use the same cluster....
Is there are part number on the (Canadian) cluster that was taken out? I could cross reference it to the US part number.

Also, am pretty sure that what the cluster displays is determined by the region/country setting setting in the BIU or ECU, not actual cluster programming...

I'd almost bet that whatever they tried to "program" caused the issue and what ever holds the odometer info and gives it to the cluster to display got boogered up....

[Opie]

Yes, I knew it....it the Main Body ECM customizable settings is where you select the destination (market) for the car, this changes the cluster to display mph or kph and miles or kilometers based on the region. There is no programming necessary...

This is all the original dealer should've changed. I'd bet they shorted something in the unit attempting to reprogram it that is causing the issue.

[H1C]

Originally Posted by Opie

Yes, I knew it....it the Main Body ECM customizable settings is where you select the destination (market) for the car, this changes the cluster to display mph or kph and miles or kilometers based on the region. There is no programming necessary...

This is all the original dealer should've changed. I'd bet they shorted something in the unit attempting to reprogram it that is causing the issue.

The used car dealer in the Buffalo region that I got the car from seems to do a decent volume in imported Canadian vehicles. They have a speedometer shop that they use on the regular to do the km > miles conversions for them. They did mention that certain brands can be problematic, Toyota among them.

Canadian cluster for 2015/2016 MT: 85002CA450
US cluster for 2015/2016 MT: 85002CA430


I believe that the US and Canadian ECMs have different part numbers as well.

I can see how programming the Canadian cluster could have shorted something in it, but the fact that the US replacement cluster behaves exactly the same way makes me think that the issue is external to the cluster hardware. Unless programming the US cluster with the correct mileage damaged it in the same way as the km > miles conversion programming hypothetically damaged the Canadian cluster.

Is that image from the BRZ service manual? I will definitely bring up the main body ECM customizable settings when I go back to the Toyota dealer with the US ECM. Thank you for that.


Edit: I'm looking in Techstream for the 2015 FR-S and can't find documentation about main body ECU customizable settings, unfortunately. This might be something that only Subaru's dealer software can do.

[Bach415]

I had a similar issue when I reprogrammed my cluster myself. The issue is the cluster does not like the first/single digit modified for some reason. Don't know why. So what I did was added all the miles drove, made sure it was similar to the original first digit, then change the rest of it.


Example: My mileage was at 56053 on original cluster (2013). The 2017 cluster mileage was at 25069. What I had to do was drive til the original cluster (2013) hit 56059 (so the mileage is accurate in terms of the single digit), then reprogrammed the 2017 to 56059 miles. It has not had an issue til this day. I am at almost 100k miles.

[CharlesBrugger]

Thanks for the info, you all made my day.

[H1C]

Originally Posted by Bach415

I had a similar issue when I reprogrammed my cluster myself. The issue is the cluster does not like the first/single digit modified for some reason. Don't know why. So what I did was added all the miles drove, made sure it was similar to the original first digit, then change the rest of it.


Example: My mileage was at 56053 on original cluster (2013). The 2017 cluster mileage was at 25069. What I had to do was drive til the original cluster (2013) hit 56059 (so the mileage is accurate in terms of the single digit), then reprogrammed the 2017 to 56059 miles. It has not had an issue til this day. I am at almost 100k miles.

This is very interesting, but I don't think it's the issue with my car. The US cluster's mileage was 93,913 when it came out of the donor car. The mileage that I had programmed into it was 66,133, so the final digit stayed the same on the donor cluster.


But I'm glad to know that the cluster is able to be programmed by someone other than Subaru or Toyota and not have the odometer be frozen as some sort of built-in tamper-proofing fail-safe.


I had the engine ECU and main body ECU from the same donor car installed today at the local Toyota dealer. The odometer is still frozen. The dealer's master tech called Toyota USA's technical department and explained the situation and asked for their advice. They told him that the last thing to try is install what they call the ABS actuator/ABS ECU from a US car.



If that doesn't work, I'll have to get an unmodified Canadian cluster, program the correct mileage in km's, and re-install the Canadian ECUs and ABS actuator.

[Bach415]

Originally Posted by H1C

This is very interesting, but I don't think it's the issue with my car. The US cluster's mileage was 93,913 when it came out of the donor car. The mileage that I had programmed into it was 66,133, so the final digit stayed the same on the donor cluster.


But I'm glad to know that the cluster is able to be programmed by someone other than Subaru or Toyota and not have the odometer be frozen as some sort of built-in tamper-proofing fail-safe.


I had the engine ECU and main body ECU from the same donor car installed today at the local Toyota dealer. The odometer is still frozen. The dealer's master tech called Toyota USA's technical department and explained the situation and asked for their advice. They told him that the last thing to try is install what they call the ABS actuator/ABS ECU from a US car.



If that doesn't work, I'll have to get an unmodified Canadian cluster, program the correct mileage in km's, and re-install the Canadian ECUs and ABS actuator.

You can always contact GeraldJustProjects and ask him more about it. He was one of the first to get a 17+ cluster into a 13-16 model and would probably know more.

[H1C]

Thanks -- found his website and reached out to him. Hopefully he'll know how to get the odometer working!

[H1C]

Originally Posted by Bach415

You can always contact GeraldJustProjects and ask him more about it. He was one of the first to get a 17+ cluster into a 13-16 model and would probably know more.

GeraldJustProjects also suggested to put in a US ABS controller. He said the engine and main body ECUs have nothing to do with the odometer calculation.


He's right. I just found out that the Canadian engine and main body ECUs that were taken off the car have the same part numbers as the US ones that were put on.


So that leaves the ABS controller as the remaining possibility as to where the distance traveled calculation is being made, in km or miles. I'm feeling optimistic that it'll fix the issue. I ordered the one from the same donor car as the cluster and ECUs, and will have it installed next week. Fingers crossed.