I highly doubt it. I used my friends 98.5 cluster in my car once to test something and mine worked fine after I put mine back in.

But while I used his cluster in my car it gave the same problems you desribed with yours.

Tony 1998 SVT Contour (B/MB) #542 3L 1998 SVT Contour (SF/MB) #1266 parts car 2000 SVT Contour (SF/MB) #1533 3L swap to begin!