Wow guys. If you've never done this, this is a scary job. I thought for sure I was going to break the plastic on the edges of the cluster. I bought German tools to help prevent that. I didn't want to take a chance on some Chinese knock off, that wasn't made to the right specs.

That cluster is in there, but TIGHT! I think the putty knife around the sides, top, and bottom did in fact help, but this was not a pretty job.

Now it's a matter of changing a few bulbs. And even THAT is difficult. Hard to get my hand back in there; I don't want to take off the speedometer or other cables.

haha I see where you're coming from, you have to stare at any potential damage whenever you're driving! I would recommend jumping the rheostat...as far as I'm concerned its just a failure waiting to happen. That's about it though, other than bulb failures and maybe an odo gear failure you're not going to be opening it much.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

I just now looked into that on the forum search, and I've already put my cluster back in, so I'm not going to mess with it again. The one article I read, was from a 1983, and mine's a 1994, so hopefully I have 11 more years to go on mine before it goes bad!