Instrument cluster lit up while lights off during day?

Cookbook method to solve your problem.

Step 1 Read your manual.

Step 2 Sit in drivers seat and have wife stand in front of truck.

Step 3 Turn knob to first position (auto), if you are outside and it is daylight, the you must wait for it to get dark. Scream at wife to see if anything changed, does instrument panel light up? If not got to step 4.

Step 4 Turn headlight switch to next position (day time running). Scream at wife again to determine which lights came on. Scream again if she could not correctly id which light was which. Did panel lights come on? Go to step 5

Step 5 Turn headlight switch to next position. Note any changes. By this time you will be sleeping on the couch.

Lessons learned.

Your panel lights will not come on with switch in off position (poor design). They will come on if your switch is in auto and it gets dark or you turn on your daytime driving lights or headlights. My 2013 Tundra had permanent on daytime driving lights. I have owned six Toyota trucks, four cars and one SUV. One thing that you can count on is that Toyota will come out with a good design, then change it to piss you off

 

While I have no problems seeing in the daylight..I know the answer is no, and I am asking for cathartic purposes, but is there any way (short of leaving lights on all the time and covering up the ambient sensor) to keep the dash illumination in “night” mode? My dash going schizo in the evening when I drive through trees and under overpasses is quite obnoxious, but I would rather not have the above mentioned workaround.

 

What's illegal about this? Is it legally different, possibly, to drive with headlights on during the day?

 

Driving around with your fog lights on anytime there is no fog is what’s known as a “d*** move.” They’re aimed parallel to the ground so they blind oncoming traffic. Headlights point down at the road.

OP it seems the options are to either live with the auto setting or leave your headlights on all the time. The latter is the safest option, it’s always best to be seen while not blinding other folks in the process.

 

SAE fog lights are able to be used at any time for illumination. They don’t blind oncoming drivers. If they did they would be worthless in snow and dust. Fog lights do not illuminate that far in front of vehicle. They are solely there to illuminate the corners so you can identify lane markings and stay in the road.

Now the idiots that put full on spots in place of the fogs and drive around with them on, well we won’t get into that.

As per most state laws you are allowed to have four illuminating lights on the front of your vehicle. Headlights and fog lights, or headlights and auxiliary lights. Headlights include the DRL’s by definition. These four lights can be on at any time during the day in any combination to improve vehicle detection but at night the main headlight is required. There is a whole dialog on auxiliary lights in place of fog light that is exhausting.

 

Geez guys, like everything, there are two answers:
1. No.
2. Anything is possible with money and knowledge.

Fucking pick one.

 

I can assure you that the DOT approved lower lights on our vehicles - are not "blinding oncoming drivers" - whether they're "fog" lights or "driving" lights probably comes down to semantics. But we know what everyone calls them. The only "law" regarding them in my state (actually my entire country probably) is that they cannot remain on when the high beams are on. My truck shuts them off automatically when i turn on my high beams.