Dashboard Light Control?

Might be a dumb question, but is there a dashboard light control switch anywhere to dim down the dashboard lights? Those lights are blinding at night and would like to turn them down. I know in my '07 there was a control, but haven't seen anything in my 2017.

 

Yes turn left and right the trip meter button

 

You can spin the odometer button/reset switch left/right to dim or brighten it

e: f; b

 

I just discovered this and was wondering if there was a thread. Helped tremendously.

 

Got my Tacoma about 2 weeks ago, and I had to make a 6 hour round trip drive in the dark this week. I figured this out about 30 minutes before the trip was over.

 

My problem in my 2019 TRD Sport is that with the headlight switch in the DRL position, there are no instrument cluster lights at all. On a cloudy day (lots of those here in Seattle) or when driving under trees (lots of those also) the instrument cluster gauges can't be read. The only way to turn them on is to put the headlight switch in the side marker lights-on position, or the headlights-on position. However this causes the Nav screen to go into night mode, which is too dim for daylight use even on a cloudy day driving through the forest. The nav screen can be locked into day mode but you have to go through three touch screen touch commands to get to day mode. It really needs a dash light tactile switch, or even the old fashioned turn-the-trip-meter-reset to full bright, then one more click.

 

Did you ever find a solution for this? Drives me nuts.

 

What I did is turned the navigation screen to daylight so it wont go to night mode and always use side marker lights-on position instead of DRL.

 

I've not found a good solution. I drive at night also, and can never remember to reset the nav screen before I'm underway, so setting it to day mode so I can use the side marker on position in the daytime just creates a new problem. These touch screen systems in general are just not well designed for driving a car while using them. They are much better suited for using while sitting in the driveway or parking lot!

 

Has anyone done this? I'm trying to wrap my old avionics tech head around it but not seeing enough of the schematic to understand how this works.

 

Thanks! That is pretty clever. Time to break out my multimeter!

 

Well, I finally got around to trying this, and sorry but it won't work. The meter illumination that lights the speedometer and tach are not on the circuit fused by the PANEL fuse. That fuse protects the circuit that controls the lights on the dash controls for the Heat/AC, 4WD, etc. but not the meter illumination. I need the speedometer and tach to be illuminated while the lights are in the DRL position during the day, and the solution proposed by Caribe just won't do that on my truck. I have a 2019 Tacoma TRD Sport 4X4 with manual transmission. There is no AUTO position on the light switch. There is a METER fuse, but the illumination still works with that fuse pulled. The meter illumination is apparently controlled from the ECU on a circuit that is not independently fused. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

 

Thanks very much for the schematics. It shows that the combination meter illumination is on the PANEL fuse circuit, however on my truck, when I pull the PANEL fuse the gauge illumination still comes on when the light switch is in the parking lights or headlights position. However the panel controls do not illuminate when the PANEL fuse is pulled. The large figure you included is at a resolution such that the labels are illegible, so maybe I'm missing something important. But in my truck the speedo and tach still illuminate with the PANEL fuse pulled. Thanks again for your schematic, and I'd appreciate any further "illumination" on the subject.

 

In my post above, #15, I stated that "it won't work" because the gauges were still illuminated with the PANEL fuse removed. However, I didn't actually try it. After Caribe sent the additional diagrams, I could only conclude that it has to work. So I wired it up as Caribe suggested. Sadly, now I can say it doesn't work. In fact, the behavior is exactly the same as it was before the modification. There are no panel lights (illumination of speedo and tach, illumination of heat/AC controls, door locks, window switches, steering wheel buttons, overhead switches) unless the light switch is set to parking lights or headlights. I have attached a photo to show my modification, maybe I made a mistake. I used the WASHER fuse socket as the power source since that one is energized only when the ignition is on, and verified that the hot side is the outside side of the fuse box. I also verified that the outside side of the PANEL fuse is the hot side. So my installation is that the add-a-fuse on the WASHER socket has a 20A fuse in the bottom position, and a 5A fuse in the top position. The add-a-fuse in the PANEL fuse socket has a 5A fuse in the top position, and the bottom position is empty. The add-a-fuse in the PANEL socket is oriented so that the terminal common to top and bottom positions is on the load site of the socket. So even though the PANEL circuit is now energized whenever the ignition switch is on, the panel and meter illumination is still dependent on the light switch being in the parking light or headlight positions. And as I stated earlier, the combination meter is still illuminated even with an empty PANEL fuse socket if the light switch is in either the parking light or headlight position, but not in the DRL position. So despite the wiring diagram, this illumination is not protected by the PANEL fuse. I thank Caribe for the suggestion, and I don't understand why it doesn't work, but it doesn't.

 

Well, if you need a hot ACC, you can reuse the add-a-fuse assembly. Sliding Roof to P/Outlet No.1 or P/Outlet No.2...

 

Has this been figured out at all? I have a 2021 with auto headlights and would apps like to see the illumination of gauge cluster like most cars do have today….

 

Also looking for a solution here, really disappointing there doesn't seem to even be a way to re-wire them to stay on