Mazda 323 Sting 160i hatch (2000)
Grinding noise coming from instrument cluster when going over 80kph. Diagnosed the problem as being a worn gear in the speedometer.

This post guides you to disconnect the speedo cable and then remove the instrument cluster.

How to loosen the speedo cable:

1. In the engine bay, unscrew the knurled coupling that fixes the cable to the transmission - pull cable up and straighten it as much as possible
2. Loosen the rubber boot around the cable at firewall
3. In the driver footwell remove the small squarish cover under the steering column
4. Remove the soft foot well trim
5. Remove the horizontal ventilation pipe - see pic 1a and 1b
6. Reach up and find the plastic grommet of the speedo cable coming through firewall
7. Press the two clips inward to pop the grommet loose (toward engine)
8. The cable is also held by a clip fixed to a bracket bolted to one of the foot pedals - try to unclip the cable - if this is not successful then remove the 14mm nut holding the bracket, move the bracket a little and then unclip the cable - you may need to unclip the clip from bracket
9. Reach up past the steering column to behind the instrument cluster and unclip the speedo cable from the cluster - find and press the clip release shown in pic 2

How to remove the instrument cluster:

1. Disconnect the battery
2. Remove the 5 screws on the plastic cowling on the underside of the steering column (make a note of different screw types)
3. The cowling is now loose - the lower half of the cowling (see pic 3) is clipped to the upper half with two clips (blue arrows) - press inward at the points shown with red arrows to unclip and separate covers, and remove
4. Unclip the white cable connector above the ignition switch
5. Remove the 3 screws in the dome of the instrument cluster cover, and also the 2 lower screws, and remove the cover
6. Remove the 4 screws holding the instrument cluster - be very careful not to drop these screws into the dash area below!
7. Carefully pull the cluster out far enough to reach behind
8. Undo the round cable connector (pic4) on LHS behind cluster - the trick is to reach behind the connector and find the U-shaped clip shown by the red arrow - push the clip gently in the direction shown, while at the same time pulling gently on the connector (toward engine)
9. Undo the speedo cable connector if not already done
10. Reach behind the RHS of the cluster and disconnect the two round connectors similar to above
11. Now the cluster is free to be removed

The repair of the gears in the speedo can be shopped out to instrumentation specialists (e.g. VR2 in Pretoria) for around R700. You could also try to find a replacement cluster at 2nd hand dealers but to find an exact match very difficult



Pic1a - ventilation pipe location

Pic1b - ventilation pipe

Pic2 Speedo cable connector

Pic3 lower part of steering cowling

Pic4 Instrument cluster connector

 

That's very good advice. The bulbs are cheap and it's a pain to remove the cluster on most vehicles. When I bought my used truck the bulbs behind the important part of the speedometer were all burnt out, so at night once I was faster than 35 it faded into darkness (until maybe 75, but I don't drive that thing that fast). I bought a pack of bulbs for maybe $8 and replaced them all. Not a job you want to do twice. I think there were 6 or 8 bulbs maybe? This Kodi nox was a 2003 Ford Ranger.