Gauge display dimmed, why?

[RedKatanax9]

The glow on my P5's gauge display all of a sudden seems darker than usual. The display lights do come on but it's just darker than before, it's especially obvious when the sun is setting, the ambient light is sorta bright and sorta not, it became hard to tell if the headlights were on. I'd made sure the dimm button is all the way up, I checked all the fuses, everything appears to be normal. This happened to you before?

 

[Rudy23]

Happened to me but I (dumbass) accidentally moved the dimmer switch when I was cleaning the car. Took me two days to figure it out -re dumbass.

 

[defchino]

This happened to me recently as well.... I have no idea why.

I noticed it after I took out my gauge cluster to paint the bezel. Was about to take it out again to fix it but then I noticed the problem went away. Two weeks later it came back again. Dunno if maybe its a loose plug or something. If it persists I'll take it apart.

 

[jflo]

dimmer switch...make sure it's turned all the way up

 

[Lord_Zath]

I'd made sure the dimm button is all the way up

^

 

[RedKatanax9]

This happened to me recently as well.... I have no idea why.

I noticed it after I took out my gauge cluster to paint the bezel. Was about to take it out again to fix it but then I noticed the problem went away. Two weeks later it came back again. Dunno if maybe its a loose plug or something. If it persists I'll take it apart.

Good to know I am not the only one. The weird thing is that the display lights do come on, but just darker. So it can't really be the fuse, maybe one of the bulbs burn out?? I will prob take it to the dealer next week if I can't figure out what's going on.

 

[Protege52003]

i have done this a couple times over the past couple years and takes me a mintue to realize what i have done.........

 

[misbehave]

Yeah, they are kind of dark. Dark to the point that during I couldn't see the guages clearly on cloudy/rainy weather, dawn, evening, or when I am driving inside tunnel.
They actually show OK during night time. So I just bought some blue LEDs and stick them behind the wheels and point them towards the guages and have them turned on when I drive except night time.

 

[RedKatanax9]

update

So I went through the fuse box again, after pulling the radio fuse and reinsert it, the display "seemed" to be brighter. Perhaps something had a short when I went through the audio install, and by disconnecting the fuse the display was resetted??? Weirdest thing ever.

 

[+ friction]

My 2002 seemed alot darker than my 2003.5...not sure why, though.

 

[mountjonas]

i noticed mine are dim, too. i'm always trying to make them brighter, but it's all the way up. what made me realize how dim they are was how people kept saying they liked how the daveb rings made a nice glow with the lights. yeah... mine are... not so glowy. maybe one of the lights burned...

 

[misbehave]

i noticed mine are dim, too. i'm always trying to make them brighter, but it's all the way up. what made me realize how dim they are was how people kept saying they liked how the daveb rings made a nice glow with the lights. yeah... mine are... not so glowy. maybe one of the lights burned...

Mine are too dim too, especially during evening. They are ok during night time though. I have to point 3 LEDs light onto it and have them on during earling morning, evening, and under cloudly or rainy weather.

 

[elias1974]

^ are those led's powered?
where did you get those...pretty cool

 

[RedKatanax9]

Mine are too dim too, especially during evening. They are ok during night time though. I have to point 3 LEDs light onto it and have them on during earling morning, evening, and under cloudly or rainy weather.

Holy shiat! Those are some desperate measures. I've been considering doing the LCD mod by Zap Wizard http://www.zapwizard.com/ It's under projects>Protege>completed mods>LCD gauge indicator lights.
He replaced the gauge display with LCD bulbs, looks hawt!

 

[misbehave]

^ are those led's powered?
where did you get those...pretty cool

Thanks!
Both Walmart and Target carry them.

 

[misbehave]

Holy shiat! Those are some desperate measures. I've been considering doing the LCD mod by Zap Wizard http://www.zapwizard.com/ It's under projects>Protege>completed mods>LCD gauge indicator lights.
He replaced the gauge display with LCD bulbs, looks hawt!

I thought about doing Indiglo(sp.) guages but I feel kind of a waste consider that I already have white face gauges.

 

[Mounty]

If you want to save money and don't mind orange backlight, just pull the 2 bulbs and take off the orange "condoms." I did that for a while and it was brighter, just be prepare for the "new color."

 

[mountjonas]

what exactly is the "new color"

 

[MP3intheSTL]

Mine did the same thing a couple of times.
I change my battery and it fixed it, has never happened again in about 5 months.

 

[Mounty]

what exactly is the "new color"

Well, it's a nasty orange. I don't know how to describe it otherwise.