Quote:
Originally Posted by ken729
I read your initial post again and then I checked to see how my 200LS works - during the day I don't see any illumination of the odometer or radio buttons - just the channel display is fully illminated, When the automatic headlights go on when its dark out , the odometer and radio buttons illuminate while the channel display ( ie 104.7 or whatever) dims a bit. The only variable dimming of the panel/ radio buttons my vehicle has is when the headlights are on at night. If you are experiencing dim lighting of the radio display during the day, that is symptomatic of the automatic head lights being on on durng the day. This exact scenario happened to me last summer when the connector to head light sensor in the dash came off. I could hardly see the radio display during the day. There are most likely other causes of this, too ( ie dirty sensor cover).
To answer your question about tolerances using a multimeter, if your battery voltage when the car is off for a few minutes reads 12.5 volts DC or thereabouts, then your test voltages when the car is off should be very close to that. Problems with night time excess variable dimming still point to the headlight/dimmer switch or low circuit voltage being at fault.
Good luck.
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I explained in one of my prevous posts that I know for sure my lights are not on during the day and the displays are still dim. So, it's not the sensor that tells the lights to turn on and off. And I know it's not that the displays are just worn out either... the radio is new. When I bought my car, I put an aftermarket radio in it. After a few years, the after market broke. I recently bought another factory radio and replaced the after market with the factory radio again. The odometer and new factory radio are both the same dimness, so it's not the displays just old and worn out. Something is telling it to be dim. But the lights are not on. I can hear it click when the lights turn on. When the lights are off, when turning the knob, it doesn't change the dimness of the display like it should if the lights were on. I've gotten out and verified they're not on. It's not the day/night sensor in the dash. It's something else. The only thing that makes sense to me is the on/off switch that turns the lights on and off, because the knob turns and causes the dash to go brighter and dimmer... which if the resistance in that has increased and somehow the displays always feed through that, maybe that would cause it to be dimmer.
So, my next plan, whenever I get around to it, is to take the dash apart and going to see if I can just unplug the on/off light switch to see if I can remove the resistance and see if it goes to full brightness.