Instrument Lights - Let's Contact Toyota

@Prius Team is the team responsible at Toyota. They supposedly monitor the forum & respond when they are tagged.

 

Yes, if the sun comes out from a cloud on a hot day, the fan will increase speed if on AUTO mode and the fan speed has not been altered since. Most of the time it's subtle, but that's been my experience with every auto climate control system I've owned, including 3 generations of Prius.

 

yes, prodigy place has done the correct thing as i mentioned in post #2. they get a notification, and usually respond. then they'll have someone from corporate contact you.

 

Yes it will!

Sorry for the delay, I was on vacation for the last few days. I don't personally know exactly the right channel though, let me investigate and I'll get back to you.

 

Just popping in to let you know if you haven't found out already, but the headlights and the instrument dimming work the same across all the Prius models.

You turn the headlights on, and the instrument panel will or will not dim, based on ambient light! If it's bright outside the instrument panel will not dim with the headlights, whether manually or automatically turned on.

If it's dark the instrument panel will dim. You can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor to make it more/less likely to dim at certain light levels(from +2 to -2)

 

if 'today' is 8-9-17, fine, but if not, that's a long response time from prius team.

 

I'm confused, not trying to be argumentative. In every car that I have owned, including my 2010 Prius four, the dash lighting dims if you turn on the head lights. You then have to manually rotate the dash lighting adjustment wheel up past a stop to get the dash to go to max brightness.

Did that change to automatic sometime during the gen 3 run? In the gen 4, can you rotate the adjustment wheel to restore max brightness? If so, is automatic adjustment a safety feature or a convenience feature?

 

Disregard everything I say if you wish because I really don't know.
BUT..
I'm kinda unclear as to exactly what the problem is, and/or even if there really is a problem.

Could you post or quote directly what it saying on page 98, that you think it is NOT doing?

This is where I get kind of think there might be no problem at all. If you turn your headlights on during the day, The Prius goes into "nightime" driving mode. It assumes you are turning on your lights because you need them. The sensor on the dash reads the amount of light and IF there is plenty, IE: Daytime...I think it may by design be dimming the dash lights, realizing you have enough surrounding light and DON'T need them as bright.

If I remember right, turning on my headlights in my Gen 3 Prius DID dim the dash lights. The idea being...in the dark you don't need or want the dash lights to be as bright as during the day. In the dark, for a display you need less light for the same visual revelation.

I also remember my brightness dial being quite a bit touchy. It definitely had a point where it went from dim, brighter, brighter...to BOOM...fully bright. It was kind of hard to adjust to a point I was happy with. I did get it where I liked it...then never touched it. But that was something maybe I should of complained about...I just wasn't sure anyone could ever fix it.

I could be totally wrong.

But I'm will admit I'm still not 100% clear on what the OP thinks is wrong.

 

OK..I'll just bow out.
Good Luck.

I think those instructions are more than a little ambiguous however, and at least the second part IS what I remember.
That is " If the taillights are illuminated in a dark area the instrument cluster WILL dim." -unless you evidently are on setting 1 or 22.

Are you on setting 1 or 22?

 

Most hopeless or ill planned crusades end up abandoned.

 

There was another issue on gen four 2016 that got corrected in 2017. Even though the Manual said one thing, and the car another, Toyota basically told owners to pound sand.