leedav

Last night I took my car out and noticed a delay of about 10 seconds between when I turned on the headlamps and the time the dashboard numerals and the backlight for the switches went on. This evening I went out again and it took several minutes. I turned the lights on and off after stopping and restarting and there seems to be a short but variable delay before the display lights come on.

The digital dash display (the daylight part) works fine. Any thoughts?

shap

I had the same issue on my 02cab. For a couple days, the interior lights (dash etc) wouldn't come on right away, and eventually they didn't come on at all... turned out to be a bad sensor - not sure which sensor though

leedav

Thanks. I was thinking maybe relay. Today it took 12 minutes when I took a kid to school at 7:30, and 7 minutes when I went to work. When it comes on, it never is as a result of a bump or stop, and it never goes back off. The sensor theory sounds reasonable. I'm taking it in on Wednesday.

Loren

shap is correct there is a brightness sensor in the instrument cluster - right under the redline on the tach.
In darkness (or near dark) the sensor should read 90% plus and in bright light (i.e. sunshine) it should read about 2%.
Now for the bad news... unless it is a loose wire in your instrument cluster they will likely have to replace your cluster.

leedav

Loren,

1. Why is it bad news? My car is 1 year old and has 6100 miles
2. If this is the case, why does the dimming control not respond?


Thanks

Loren

1. Just because they will likely need to replace the cluster. I think a loose wire is not likely - most of these problems are a bad cluster. Under warranty - you should be okay.
2. Why do some light bulbs last 10 years and some last a few months - some electrical parts just die.

leedav

Thanks Loren. I'll post a result next week.