I just bought a 2002 monte carlo ss. This car originally came from canada and i live in Michigan. So whenever there is a problem and something shows up on the message center in the dash, its in the canadian symbol. My high beams just went out and it showed a picture of a wrench and a headlight. I wasnt sure what that meant so i looked it up in the manual to figure it out. In the manual it shows what each picture in the message center in both united states and canadian version. The united stares version simply said highbeams out. I want to switch the setting from candian to united states. Could someone tell me a way to do this..?

 

Prob have to swap gauges maybe? Not really sure on that, is ur gauges in kilometers?

 

The guages are in mph and stuff. Not kilometers. The only thing i want to change is what is displayed on the message center. The united states version is just so simple and i dont want to have to look up each symbol in the manual everytime one shows up.

 

I believe there are 2 different clusters. For example, the parking brake symbol on the US version says "BRAKE" where-as on the Canada cluster it's a symbol (not in the message center). I can see the symbols in the cluster (when they're not lit) and I don't have the canadian brake symbol. So I'm assuming there's a Canada and US cluster.

 

canadians cant read!! lol jk!

 

I know. Thats why they need pictures.

 

I'm not 100% sure on the Monte for this... but with J-body cars (Cavalier/Sunfire), you can just swap in the cluster from either country and it will switch. Since the mileage is stored in the BCM, it should switch over and be accurate as well.

 

I think you have to switch the cluster. But I'm not 100% on that.

I hate the stupid symbols too. The reason we have those symbols here in Canada is because of Quebec. The french speaking province. As if they can't read english or something.

Also, if you have the Canadian cluster, the smaller guages will be labelled in metric. And the fuel guage has a white dot for full, and a symbol that looks like a letter O for empty. Again, this is because Quebec doesn't know what the words "full" and "empty" mean.

 

On these cars it's stored in the cluster and you'd have to have it reprogrammed. The 06-07 montes had it in the computer so you could swap clusters. Then again, those years you could also switch the gauge between MPH and Km/H with a button.

 

Well there ya go, good to know as I'm swapping a Monte electrical system with SS supercharged cluster into my Cavalier...

I wonder what the mileage on the cluster will be..?