Hi guys.

So I'm trying to remove the needle from my speedometer to put in backlights and work on the warning lights...

But am unsure how to remove the needle. I tried pulling straight up with moderate pressure but didn't want to make an expensive mistake.

Any advice??? thanks!

 

If you're installing indiglo or similar gauges, you don't really have to remove the needles. they slide in behind the needles, but you have to be careful to avoid, as you said, expensive mistakes.
On the mx3 cluster, backlighting bulbs are installed in the back of the gauge cluster. Pull out the cluster, and they're in plugs similar to the ones elsewhere on the car, 1/4 turn, and you have a bulb free.
I changed them all out when installing reverse glow gauges.
Regarding your question though, i do not know how the needles come out. didn't want to risk breaking any of them...

 

the needles pull straight off with a little elbow grease.

*but their orientation is positioned by a magnetic winding (kinda like the LDVT- linear differentiable-variable transformers we learned about in school), so the needles aren't timed per say, they are only calibrated by the electric current

I wanted to remove the gauge faces to make the new install look cleaner and also to fix the odometer- the darn thing keeps going forward I dont understand? lol

Thanks again for the bulb tip, what color did you use? and where did you find your bulbs?

 

http://s955.photobucket.com/albums/a...rrent=m5-2.jpg

 

That's great! Thanks for the pic and the information!

I did that work on my first mx3 about 6 years ago. Stopped driving the car about 4 years ago due to bad 'JDM' engine. I don't recall what color I used. Been too long, lol. I still have the car, so will check and get back to you...
I think I bought the bulbs at AutoZone.

I've that same problem! Odometer just keeps going! It stopped in the old mx3. Just after that, it started up in the one I'm driving now. Hmm, maybe it's a Mazda thing?

 

I know this is an old one, but am finally getting my first mx3 back on the road and had to deal with the gauges.
I used clear bulbs in the back, to change the factory color. Didn't think the green would look good with the gauges. Clear turned out much better, in my opinion, though I never checked the gauges with green light...
If I remember correctly, factory bulbs had green rubber covers, so I just removed the covers. I may have had to replace one bulb, can't remember for sure...