Not sure if this will help anyone, but I was having this same problem in version 2.0.

The .css file to change was ina different place thn what is listed above: limesurvey/styles-public/lime-progress.css"

Also, the style changes I made produce the desired effect - at least in Chrome - but they are slightly different.for noob/non-coders like me, I included the original .css markup that ships with 2.0 (commented out) along with the additions I made.

/*****
Default styles for the jQuery UI progress bar
*****/

/*
#progress-wrapper {
width: 252px;
height: 2em;
margin: 10px auto 0 auto;
font-size: 12px;
}
*/

#progress-wrapper {
width: 25em;
height: 2em;
padding:0;
margin: 1em auto 0 auto;
font-size: 12px;
}


/*
#progress-wrapper #progress-pre {
float: left;
margin: 0 5px 0 0;
width: 45px;
text-align: right;
}
*/

#progress-wrapper #progress-pre {
float: left;
margin: 0 0.5em 0 0;
width: 4em;
text-align: right;
}


#progress-wrapper .ui-widget-content {
float: left;
width: 150px;
height: 1em;
text-align: left;
border: 1px solid #666666;
}

#progress-wrapper .ui-widget-header {
background-color: #AAAAAA;
background-image: none;
border: 1px solid #666666;
}

/*
#progress-wrapper #progress-post {
float: left;
margin: 0 0 0 5px;
width: 45px;
text-align: left;
}
*/
#progress-wrapper #progress-post {
float: left;
margin: 0 0 0 0.5em;
width: 4em;
text-align: left;
}

/*New addition*/
#progress-wrapper #progressbar {width:15em;margin:0;font-size:12px}

Seems to work.
-Nebraska David

Keep this up and you're going to have to drop the "noob/non-coder" bit

Thanks David - that tweak works great in limesurvey 2 with the limespired template - I have checked it in chrome, firefox and IE.

The problem had niggled me for a while, but being a 'noob/non-coder' felt ill equipped to tackle the problem - I think you did yourself down with that label!