Glare on windshield at night

I am 5'6 and I get the glare.

 

I do leave my lights on full time. I'm sorry I'm being a dim bulb, but are you saying if I leave my ilghts off during the day it will make a difference?

I'm 5'6 and I'm not seeing the sweet spot!

I bet someone could do a cool almost OEM treatment and solve this problem that Toyota undoubtedly could if they wanted to!

 

I completly eliminated the glare with a piece of card.

Get a black peice of card and some sticky fixers.
Place over the projector outlet for the speedo, it is the reflection of the outlet you can see in the mirror in front of you.
Cut a shape out of the cardboard so that you can still see the speedo in all seat positions. You may need to experiment to get this just right, you want to be able to see the speedo, but still have the card cover as much of the surrounding area as possible.
Now cut the around the outside of the card so it fits nicley out of sight on the dash.
When you are happy stick it down.

Worked perfect for me.....

 

Green Speedometer Reflection: That is similar to what I did initially. But if I remember correctly, I couldn't eliminate the green speedometer reflection completely this way until I folded the card/paper to include a short vertical wall (like Nerfer did using electrical tape) at a 90 degree angle to the horizontal overhanging piece of the card/paper. But maybe if I had experimented with cutting the horizontal overhanging piece (like you did) the reflection would have been eliminated without the vertical wall. Anyway, I ended up discarding the contraption because the speedometer reflection never bothered me.

Yellow Passenger Air Bag Light Reflection: I haven't seen anyone mention this, and like the speedometer reflection, this reflection never bothered me. But again if I remember correctly, I think I managed to eliminate this particular reflection by putting a horizontal black card/paper on the dash area overhanging the yellow light (but no vertical wall was needed).

Anyway, as you, Nerfer and I have indicated above, these reflections on the windshield can be eliminated with a properly shaped and located piece of paper that blocks the reflection or projection of the light source onto the windshield.

 

How do you adjust the brightness of the instrument panel? Is it the button on the centre console. The manual describes it "When you push the button with the tail lights on, you can cancel the reduced brightness of the in the instrument panel".

 

I'm not sure about theblackbag's approach, but my tape is on the lower part of the dash in front of the display, not on the overhang (it sticks up, not down). Both approaches may very well work, I didn't have any problem with blocking the display for the driver.

PoulS - it's a dial behind and to the left of the steering wheel.

 

Re: Glare on windshield at night & dim steering wheel control lighting

I have a question somewhat related to the glare and turning the instrumenation illumination down but it really is along a different track. I too notice the glare, but my issue has to do with the lighting on the control buttons on the steering wheel (radio, A/c, Defrost etc.) I find them too dim to read at night and I don't think they are controlled in the same manner as other instrumentation lighting. Does anyone know if there is a way to adjust the lighting intensity on these controls?

Thanks

HOV-Legal (in VA, at least for now )

 

Actually, now that I re-read theblackbag's approach, I realize that I don't quite understand it. But as he said, it works.

 

Poul, in the US and maybe Canada they have a dial to turn the brightness up and down. If Euro Prius is like the Aussie one you press the button with an illustration of a gauge which is under the centre video screen. It dims in 3 stages then full bright on the next press. The instruments and display go full bright with the lights off regardless of the setting then dim again when you turn the park or headlights back on.

 

It is a rheostat wheel located at the bottom left hand side of the dashboard, where the EV switch is found on the European models.

 

Re: Glare on windshield at night & dim steering wheel control lighting

I have the same problem but from what I can tell these are not backlit lights but just have some glow in the dark properties! I hope I'm wrong and someone will tell you the answer but that is what I concluded.

A great car with a few unfortunate oversights, light display glare and being unable to see buttons at night

 

Yeah, something of a more organic shape, maybe with the same texture and color as the dash. It might be tough to get it to stick to the dash's texture permanently with the temperature a dashboard usually reaches from the sun.

As others have said, it seems to be more of a flaw in the basic dashboard shape near the surface where the instruments reflect up. But interior design elements are one of the pricier alterations and car companies aren't very fond of doing them in between complete model changes.

 

I am only 5' tall and the glare is a BIG problem for me. Exactly in my line of vision. We have a lot of deer in this area and when I drive at night I can't see for squat! I will try the ideas I have read about here but don't know how successful I will be. If someone would invent and sell a "fix" I would be a customer.
KansasPrius

 

This is where having a dash cover is good. I took a thin strip of wood (painted black) and slid it between the cover and the opening. A small piece of velcro keeps it from sliding and that's attached so it clings to the underside of the cover. It can't be seen from the driver's seat.

 

KansasPrius,

Yes, experiment with the ideas you've read about here. If lowering the brightness of the lights doesn't work, then experiment with the projection blocking ideas posted by nerfer, blackbag and me --- I am 100% confident they work (but you have to experiment with the degree of horizontal overhang and/or height of vertical wall to fit your height, sightline and seat adjustment).

 

The BIGest issue, for me, are the turn signals and high-beam indicator.

I applied some window tint to those areas. Kinda worked, but when I had sunglasses on during the day I couldn't see those indicator lights.

 

Re: Use of Black Foam to create nerfer's Vertical Barrier

I posted this in another speedo glare thread, but I think it should go here too.

I believe there are basically 2 ways to stop that green bar of speedometer glare onto the windshield:

1. Horizontal Barrier: Place and tape a 6 inch long card horizontally onto the sloping dash in the area of the speedometer projector/mirror so it hangs over the projector/mirror just enough to stop that green bar speedo glare or overspill onto the windshield.

This method works, but the amount of overhang required varies from person to person. 1/2 inch of overhang might work for me, but for someone else that same amount may block some of the actual speedometer reading. So this method can be problematic when you have more than one driver of the car.

I think method #2 described below is an easier and better way to go.

2. Vertical Barrier: Tape a 6 inch long, 1/2 - 3/4 inch high vertical barrier onto the sloping dash right at the edge above the speedometer projector/mirror, as first suggested by nerfer earlier in this thread and by donee in a subsequent speedo glare thread where he talked about using black foam for a vertical barrier.

This method works -- seemingly by the vertical wall acting to reflect, disperse or redirect that overspill of speedometer green light away from the windshield. And I think it works better than method #1's overhanging flat card because it's easier to do and no future adjustment seems to be necessary for different drivers. As Ron Pompei would say,"You set it and forget it."

Anyways, I had a roll of black 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch foam self-stick tape lying around, so I thought I'd give it a go. Here are the photos:

The roll and 6 inch long piece of foam I used:



Tape the foam onto the dash at the edge above the speedometer projector/mirror:



And here's how it looks from the steering wheel/driver's seat:



Not too bad looking. And it works!

Note that you don't have to use foam as the vertical barrier. I think anything opaque would work, as nerfer showed above with his creation of a vertical barrier by pinching wide electrical tape in the middle to form the vertical barrier, with enough horizontal part of the tape left to tape the thing down.

 

This glare problem was driving me CRAZY! I recently bought my Prius (2007) and my daughter and I drove it from Raleigh, NC to Albany, NY (college visit). We mainly drove after daylight hours and through the night. The green glow was DIRECTLY in my line of sight - - for 10 hours - - each way! And I agree about the dim steering wheel buttons - very inconvenient.

Since I am an engineer by training - I decided to come up with a fix - and I think I've got it finally. It is very asthetic, simple and COMPLETELY ELIMINATES THE GLARE. I am going into production and hope to have them on the market soon. I'm also a single mom and unemployed - so I'm hoping I can generate even a small income with this as well. Wish me luck!

 

Here's a very easy fix that doesn't look too bad in the daytime. Get a piece of black felt from a craft store and sticky velcro. Voila. Every few years you have to change the felt because the sun bleaches it.

 

I finally figured out what's causing this after being unable to reproduce in my 2008. I saw it on a friend's 2004. It's the clear plastic lens that faces up and toward the windshield. If it's dirty or fogged by age/humidity you will get this unintentional reflection. "Green Glow"

What happens is the light heading towards the second reflector passes through this clear piece of plastic. If the plastic is clean and clear, as mine is, you will not see any green glow.

You can't easily see this from inside the car, but if you go outside and look down through the windshield on a sunny day you can. Get a *clean* towel and squirt some windex on the towel, then (from inside the car) you can clean this lens. If it has been sun damaged and cleaning doesn't fix the foggy appearance, it must be replaced. Be very careful as it's simply polycarbonate plastic and it will scratch easily!

It's easy to fashion a new lens after a trip to the plastic store. It takes about an hour for removal and re-installation of the dash. Here are my instructions for removal of the Combination Meter circuit board, just follow instructions 1-16. You don't need to do past 16, unless you want to remove the actual board.

Another option besides replacing the plastic is to remove it. It's purpose is to keep dust off the first mirror, which is hard to get at in order to clean, so I'd recommend just replacing it if you can't clean it.

Once this lens is clean and clear you will not see the green glow!