Okay so before I say anything I'm pretty sure as to why my 2005 Monte isn't starting, but I need an opinion from other Monte drivers as I couldn't find anything on line. When I bought my car the message center on the instrument cluster was not working, recently I had my cluster sent out to be rebuilt. I've talked to several people who say it's possible to try and start the car and be able to drive it without the cluster. So last night I got curious and went to start my car, upon turning the key you hear the engine get ready to start and it almost seemed like the battery immediately shut itself down. All lights and everything immediately shut off. I'm not sure if I just happened to get a dead battery the same time I decided to take the cluster out or if there is an underlying problem. But so has anyone else experienced this?

Update: Upon further investigation I realized I didn't actually tighten the battery terminals so it wasn't making a solid connection. Once I tightened everything down the car started up no problem.

 

I find that hard to believe that the car will run and drive without the cluster