Module Cloning · Donor Unit In · Plug-and-Play Out
A secondhand DME, alarm box, body control unit or cluster arrives married to somebody else's car. We move your car's identity onto it — VIN, immobiliser data, coding and adaptations — so it fits, starts and behaves exactly like the unit it replaced. No dealer, no online session, no new keys.
Every control unit on a modern Porsche carries two things: the software that makes it work, and a block of data that ties it to one specific car. VIN, immobiliser secrets, the rolling security data it uses to talk to the other modules, and the coding that says which options this car was built with. Fit a used unit and all of that is still pointing at the car it came off — so the engine won't start, the alarm won't disarm, the windows and lights behave like a different specification, or the cluster shows somebody else's mileage.
The dealer answer is a new module and an online coding session. The cloning answer is cheaper and reversible: read the data block out of your original unit, write it into the donor, and correct the checksums so the module accepts it as its own. The donor becomes your unit. Your existing keys still work, because the immobiliser data never changed — it moved.
What we clone
Send the dumps and we return a ready-to-fit file, or send the pair of modules and we do the reading here. Either way the donor goes back knowing it is your car's.
01 — Cloning services
Engine ECU / DME
Bosch ME5.2, ME7.8, MED9 and MED17 engine controllers. VIN, immobiliser data, throttle and fuelling adaptations and variant coding moved to the donor, checksums corrected. The car starts on your existing keys with no immobiliser matching.
£150Alarm & immobiliser
996 alarm modules, 997 and 987 PAS units, and the electric steering lock that pairs to them. The full secret set is carried across, so a replacement box accepts the keys already in your pocket rather than needing a fresh teach.
£90Body control unit
Front and rear body control modules. These two are paired to each other as well as to the car, which is what makes a straight swap fail — we rebuild the pairing along with the VIN, key data and equipment coding so lighting, locking and comfort functions all come back correctly.
£165Cluster & gearbox control
Instrument clusters and gearbox control units. A replacement cluster is matched to the car and set to the vehicle's genuine recorded mileage so the reading is unchanged by the repair; gearbox units carry their VIN and learned shift adaptations across.
from £99Module coverage
Identify the unit from the sticker on its case — or send us a photo of both modules and we'll tell you whether they'll pair.
The process
The work happens on files. You can do the reading and writing yourself, or send both modules and have them come back ready to fit.
Step 01
We need the original — even a dead one, as long as its memory still reads — and the donor. Read each with whatever you normally use and email us the files, with the part numbers off both units. If reading isn't practical, post us the pair. We carry a large selection of used control units in stock too.
Step 02
VIN, immobiliser secrets, security pairing, learned adaptations and equipment coding are lifted out of your original and written into the donor's structure — not pasted at a fixed offset, but placed record by record where that unit expects them. Then every checksum is recalculated.
Step 03
Back comes the finished dump, ready to write to the donor, with a note on anything that still needs doing in the car. Your original file is kept untouched as a fallback, so the job is always reversible.
Common questions
Yes — that's the whole point of cloning rather than replacing. The immobiliser data moves across intact, so the cloned module challenges your keys exactly as the original did. No new keys, no teach procedure, no dealer visit.
Ideally yes, and always the same hardware family. A different suffix on the end is usually fine; a different generation or a different software version often isn't. Send us both part numbers before you buy the donor and we'll tell you whether it will work — that check costs nothing and saves the wrong unit being bought.
Dead on the car and dead on the bench are different things. Most failures are on the power or driver side while the memory reads perfectly, and the memory is all we need. If it genuinely cannot be read, cloning isn't possible — but there are other routes for some units, so ask before writing the car off.
Yes. Cloning is a repair method — it puts your own car's data back onto working hardware, and it's what the trade does every day when a module fails out of warranty. We work for the registered keeper or their repairer, we don't remove immobilisers to defeat security, and cluster work is carried out to preserve the vehicle's genuine recorded mileage, not to alter it.
Sometimes. A few units can be read and written over the diagnostic port with the module still in the car; most need to come out and be read directly. Tell us the car and the module and we'll say which applies before you start taking trim off.
Yes — independent Porsche specialists, auto-electricians and diagnostic engineers make up most of this work. If you're sending modules regularly, ask about trade pricing and same-day turnaround.
Get started
Email the original and the donor with the part numbers off each case. We'll confirm the pair is a match before any money changes hands — £90 to £165 per module depending on the unit, and nothing at all if we can't return a working clone.
Free match check before you pay · Existing keys retained · Original dump returned as a backup
