FTO AUSTRALIA

What happens if you remove the needles? Having a problem putting the dials in.

oh and they are not flimsy illuminus ones, they are brushed metal solid ones, cant bend them enough without making creases, especialy the speedo, with the long ass clock reset button.

SETTLE DOWN PEOPLE, dont all respond at once... sheeesh
ok i pulled the damn needles off to put dials on hassle free, put everything together, my car was "apparently" idling at 4500rpm hehe and doing 35 km/h while in park LOL. after fidling a bit the speedo, rpm and aircon work fine. but my fuel needle is not moving. then again i havent filled up yet so it may reset not sure. just goes to show you can pull the neeedles out and it will still work, you just have to set it your self while the car is on, then it will read properly. my car is 5 km/h slowe then 100. meaning at 100 im really doing 95 which is as it was before i pulled needles off, and rpm is spot on too, 2800rpm at 100 or something like that cant remember exactly.

by the way it looks WICKED. i got the kick plates, face plate, and brushed metal surround and dials i left the rings normal and as i thought it looks the BLING BLING. muahahaha. ill try get pics up soon for your enjoyment.

I would highly recommend you do not pull the neddles off. I have had endless troubles getting them back on, and in the right position. I also managed to break the plastic post on one of them.

Having said that, if you do have to, be very, very careful. Best thing it to get something under the needle, on each side of the post, and slowly lever it up. When you need to put them back on, I found it easier to put it all back in, and drive the car. Get the temp up to normal running speed, and push that needle back in, where it should be. Do the petrol when you fill the tank up, and set the speedo when the car is running, but still. The revs, take note where they idle.
Do not push the needles all the way in. Take note of how far the are out, if they go in to far, they 'jam' and won't move.

pagan wrote:SETTLE DOWN PEOPLE, dont all respond at once... sheeesh

You'll often find that not many people will respond to a topic if it has been covered before. If they do, you'll often find the responses will be slower and have less detail. It is for this reason that it often pays to do a search first as chances are you'll find the information you're after.

i had trouble with my fuel guage too, and that was without taking the needle out. I found, that I needed to push the needle back to empty and then it seems to now be working fine/

hey pagan r those the stainless steel dial kit available from funky's??

if so would ya mind postin some pics of em at nite as i have been wantin to get a set but havent seen what they look like at nite time yet

I had a problem with the fuel gauge too. It wouldn't go lower than 3/4 full. I repositioned the black tab underneath the dial (the one that stops light bleeding through the dial hole) and everything was fine.

rx boy i think you may be on the ball with that one, i too think i may not have positioned the black tab perfectly and it may be touching the neddle.
Slither, i got them from the FTO SHOP they are the brushed metal... not illuminous dials, cant remember, see through dials i think they were called, but they elliminate all the same so you know what i mean. they have a brushed aluminum face and beneath it site a red plastic identical dial. there was a choice of colours, red blue or green i think, i chose red. ill get some pics soon and post them so you can have a look, i have to say i love it, it turned out better then i was expecting, the red is very strong, and clear.

If the tab overlaps any part of the needle cup, it will cause friction and may not allow the needle to move freely.

It's quite hard getting them on perfectly, but u can keep peeling them off and reapplying to a certain extent.

Just a weird question for anyone who has removed their stock dials - did any of u find the word "K=150" written on the reverse side of the old dial? Two of my dials did . I hope that wasn't the mechanic's way of remembering how many k's the car had done before he tampered with the ODO

with the metal ones the last thing you're going to want to do is kink them...


and no this topic has not been covered before (for metal ones)

(sorry i hadn't noticed this topic until now)


if you do remove the needles (which i have done once)... do it very carefully they have a metal spoke which goes into a control motor.... you will have to recalibrate all your dials which is a couple of hours work unfortunately...

basically you will need to cars and a nice quite road...

take a digital picture of your dials with the car ON!!!! that way you can reset your normal postions for battery / rpm / fuel / temp... oh make sure the car is on and warmed up properly before taking the picture...

i can't remember if i sent you tip dials on manuals... if they are tip's the car DROPS into 3rd at 48km/h so that's a good way to calibrate your speedo... (its what i've done) without having a second car to test against...

anyways give me a buz if you need more help

i got the indiglo ones and they look really nice but what a nightmare trying to install them!! those needles are a pain in the ass to get accurate again.
With the fuel one i just put it to where it was and had bit of trouble with the RPM and speedo when my friend told me to drop it from the top and let it fall by itself and see how much difference there is between where it is and 0. then adjust accordingly. The RPM is now dead accurate becuz i can check that with my APEXI SAFC II, but the speedo is out by only 5km which isnt too bad. i dont wanna touch anymore anyway.