Thought I'd post this here for posterity in case anyone searched for it. I attempted to swap my 00 cluster for an 04 cluster (my 00 had bubbling from heat in the plastic graphics layer, it was separating, looking grotty). And then tried an 03 cluster.

I'd read this thread which was helpful https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...er-swap-75994/

In my case I swapped the PCB to the new cluster to retain my odometer and avoid a reset with a dealer/nanocom.

-- The speedo/tach/all lights work properly.
-- 03/04 fuel and (the useless) temp gauge do *not* work, the mechanism that moves the needle in these 2 gauges is slightly different in 03/04 -- little resistors behind the gauge
-- Even if you snip off the resistors on the 03/04 they still do *not* work. Tried that.
-- Then I tried swapping in my known good 00 fuel / temp gauges. To do this, I removed needles straight up from above, unscrewed the 2 small black screws you can see on the front of the graphic cluster.
-- Unfortunately, both gauges were sticky once I reassembled. They move with ignition on... but ... Something about removing the needles/needle shaft causes them to not "fall back to 0".
-- I then tried the same thing, swapping in fuel / temp gauge mechanisms from a spare 2000 cluster I had. Both fuel/ temp gauges also were rendered useless after I removed the needles. I was very delicate (and have redone instruments before). Well ....
-- So I gave up and am reinstalling a replacement 99/02 cluster with my PCB.

Perhaps if you just swap in a 03/04 cluster and Nanocom the mileage it'll work, but now I know that PCB swap probably is not a good option.

 

some needles have spring returns to the 'peg' and some are set positions at the factory....
Also, there can be minor differences in the PCBs, gauge design, and plugs, and not just resistors....
needle shaft diameter different? rubbing on face?

 

I've had 50/50 results in swapping in say an 03/04 Cluster into a 99-02. Either it will go right in and work perfectly or it will go in, and the Temp/Fuel gauges will read 100% opposite. I think it does have to do with the firmware revision or chipset on the PCB on the gauge Cluster. My 02 Kalahari is rocking an 04 Cluster and it was 100% PNP. I just used the Nanocom to SYNC the mileage and I was done. I did it on another 02 years ago and I had two 03-04 Clusters. First one = Temp/Fuel was the opposite, second one was fine.

Think link mentioned above was when I did it by swapping the PCB from the 00-02 to the 03-04. That was before I owned a Nanocom unit. The most recent one I did = just swapped it out and SYNC'd it.