Interior lights dimming

[kodiakdenali]

I know it's a long shot... For such a well done and well built truck it surprises me how many little things seem to have made it past the engineers' desks that I would categorize as utter stupidity. The operation of the fog lights with autolights being another!

 

Anyway, since the time change I've noticed on a number of occasions, especially while cloudy, that the interior lights in my truck are uncomfortably bright. The truck seems to detect daytime vs not daytime and change some behaviors accordingly, such as enabling the interior lights dimmer. when the truck thinks its daytime the interior lights are on full brightness all the time and the dimmer has no effect. In many situations I find that I really want to turn the dimmer down a couple of notches as evening is on the way but before it is dark enough for the truck to think its nighttime. This is especially true if whatever is on the nav screen happens to have a bright background. But of course, in daytime mode the dimmer buttons do nothing.

 

Does anyone else notice this? is there any solution? I wonder if it uses the cameras to detect daytime or if this truck still uses a stand-alone light sensor. I'd be tempted to try to bypass it and tell the truck its night time all the time (put a piece of vinyl over it maybe!) so that the dimmer would work at all times. Any side effects of doing this? Sunload sensing for climate control? I'm not sure what else such a sensor would affect.

[NorthskyblueT1]

Now you've got me curious and I'll have to pay closer attention to my truck.

 

I would *think* the easy fix would be to manually turn on the headlamps (turn switch from 'Auto' to the headlamp setting) so the dimmer switch becomes enabled.

Edited November 30, 2021 by NorthskyblueT1

[kodiakdenali]

Unless I'm doing something wrong mine goes based on the sensor only. Even if I have the headlights on manually the dimmer is still disabled unless the truck thinks its dark enough to be in "nighttime" mode. I find often enough, especially while cloudy, that its dark enough that I wouldn't feel comfortable without having lights on. Maybe not headlights but parking lights + fogs often and the truck might still think its daytime. its that scenario where the interior lights are uncomfortably bright but the dimmer still is disabled and the lights are on their full bright mode at all times.

[Phantom 4D]

I guess my 2019 Sierra is old school. Has the sensor on the dash, which I believe most vehicles have as standard. But the auto dim? I haven't noticed it. I'll have to check it. Have you checked light settings on the DIC?

 

[kodiakdenali]

I should review what's available in there. I haven't gone through the settings in a while.

 

I did notice one thing though, the dimmer isn't completely disabled even in day time. I notice mostly because I have aftermarket gauges which get their backlight from the backlight circuit on the row of switches below the climate control. the dimmer seems to work for that backlight and my gauges as a result, but in daytime mode the instrument cluster and nav screen are on full brightness all the time. I can still dim the rest of the interior lights, just not those. Unfortunately those are the ones that are causing the problem.