Well, the only reason I thought about buying one of these is that I have a Dale Jr car and these are Dale Jr. clusters. You are not going to find a Dale Jr. cluster in the JY unless you are very lucky. Secondly, a reman cluster from the dealer is probably going to be way more expensive than what these are.

I don't stock up on easily gotten parts but when I have a special edition car where special edition parts are in limited supply, I sometimes buy them in case I need them. Especially in this case when these clusters are a known problem.

Last year I saw a guy on CL out of Florida selling a brand new set of Dale Jr. embroidered floor mats, all four of them. I bought them even though I didn't need them at the time, but these mats are a limited edition item that are a wear item so in the future when my original mats are wore out, I will have the correct replacements. If I happen to see other parts specific to my Dale Jr. car that I find for a good price, I will probably buy them. That is just me though.

Wayne

 

Ok Wayne....I understand your point...My cluster ran me $250 from the dealer...My pace car doesnt have the standard cluster either but the dealers do have them but not brand new...You can always call your local Chevy parts dept and give them the VIN off your car and they will look up the cluster for you...ask them the price for the refurbished cluster just out of curiousity and see what they go for now..I am pretty sure a lot of the Dale parts are still available for at least the next 10 years or so but i could be wrong...anyway....good luck and save for your other up coming Monte issues.Oh, All the Montes are pretty much the same and the parts can be interchanged...The dale version...the pace car version...the LS all have common parts as long as the engines are the same...in our case the 3.8...the only diff is that yours has the super charger and stock it only adds 40 horse power which is kinda lame and cost per horse power when it was an option wasnt worth the extra cost for it. A turbo kit is available which gives it a lot more horse power for the buck..much more than the super charger. The Monte Carlo alone in my book is a known GM issue car! Not only just the cluster but the vehicle as a whole!

 

I'm sure that a refurbished Dale Jr. cluster is still available from GM. Like I said before, my current cluster was replaced at about 54,000 miles and I only have 95,000 miles on it now so I'm sure its still good for a while.

I know that all of the Monte's are all the same. The special edition stuff is mostly all cosmetic.

I have already had the intake gaskets replaced as well as the plastic elbows. My actual intake manifold is metal and not plastic so I should be good there. Whatever else breaks I will get fixed as it happens.

Some vehicles have specific issues and whether or not you like the vehicle enough to deal with those is what determines if you keep it. I had the dealer look up my Monte's warranty history and the only thing it came in for warranty was the instrument cluster. That is way less than my 98 Chevy truck that I bought new had. The original owner of the Monte said they didn't have any problems with the car so maybe this is a good one.

Wayne

 

I hope that your Dale version runs well and doesn't give you major trouble in the future! Me on the other hand is a different story. I purchased my Pace car with 7500 miles from a car collector in Conn. I got a very good deal on it so I took the chance cuz i had a 1988 TransAm GTA which gave me loads of problems with the 5.7 liter engine and i vowed that I would never purchase another GM product. Here comes this 2002 Monte Carlo Nascar yellow Pace car and I bought it! Before i purchased it...it was already in the dealer for the intake manifold gaskets recall of 2003..this was repaired under warranty. I also purchased an extended warranty on this car because i was told that I should because of known issues with this 3.8 engine and transmission. I purchased it in 2005,My warranty was up in 2010 and I had aprox 60k on it...its then all my problems began and money began to flow out of my pocket for repairs but when it was under the warranty there were no issues...so talk about bad luck for me!Among a lot of things that i needed replaced out of warranty was the coolant tubes...the intake gaskets once again (upper and lower) another improved version of the composit upper intake plenum and much more! Enjoy your Monte and keep the warranty current because you never know when you will need it! Take care! AL

 

I hope I don't have a bunch of issues. My intake gaskets are the newest version that are metal vs composite so hopefully I don't have intake manifold gasket issues anytime soon. I don't have any type of warranty on mine so it will be all out of pocket. If this car becomes a money pit then I can always send it down the road.

I have a 98 chevy K1500 truck with the 5.7L that I bought new. The intake gaskets in it have been replaced three times and I don't even have the latest design gasket set in it so I'm sure it will have to be done again. I've had other ignition component problems but I like the truck and have put up with the BS all of these years.

All models have certain weak areas and it's up to each person to decide if they want to deal with them. Take care.

Wayne