Dash lights seem way too bright

I've got the dimmer turned down all the way and the dash lighting is so bright that it interferes with forward vision, especially on a dark country road. I guess I could put some window tint material over the gauges. Any other ideas?

It is difficult to tell from here. Does the dimmer have any effect on the brightness of the dash lights? I wonder if there is a problem with the dimmer? Are they too bright if the head lamps and city(parking) lamps on and too bright?

Do any other lights appear too bright? Do you have a meter to check the voltage?

Joe_Meehan said:

It is difficult to tell from here. Does the dimmer have any effect on the brightness of the dash lights? I wonder if there is a problem with the dimmer? Are they too bright if the head lamps and city(parking) lamps on and too bright?

Do any other lights appear too bright? Do you have a meter to check the voltage?

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The panel dimmer goes from bright to really bright. This seems to be a trend of modern vehicles. Our Honda Ridgeline is the same way.

While I haven't checked the voltages, though I will, the other lighting seems normal and there aren't any other signs of like the smell of an over charged battery.

Agreed, the dimmest setting is WAY brighter than the dimmest setting on any other car I've used or owned.

All the new white-LED panels seem to be like this. Why/when did they (VW) do away with the Blue-some-Red panel lighting? My wife's '05 Beetle has this, and it looks WAY classier than my JSW's! I call cheapening!

My assumption is it's an LED limitation. Could be the sourced LEDs are brighter than engineers anticipated. Since LEDs have a trigger current limit, their light output can only be decreased to a certain point.

Complain to your dealer about this. Those of use with eye glasses and contacts find a bright dash to be a greater distraction due to reflection and halos. If dealer is of no help, then do what I've done with head units having the same problem: add a tint film to the underside of the gauge cluster. Got this idea after reading some used permanent marker (which creates uneven light absorbtion. Obviously removing and disassembling the cluster will be a PITA.

I am used to having my panel lights set very dim and was very disappointed in this limitation on my JSW. I have become used to it but would very much appreciate the ability to dim further.

I would guess someone who tints windscreens could tint the gauges. I don't think I would do that, but as long as you can see the dash and it does not interfere with your driving safety, I certainly don't want to stop anyone else from making their own mind up about it.

Yes, driving in the black pitch of night, the lights are still, to me, too bright even when at the dimmest point. My old 1970 Plymouth Duster used to go from very bright to full off. Driving at night in the UP of Michigan with that car was so easy. I would have the display cracked barely on and it was perfect.

Putting tinting material over would lower it overall. What needs to be done is to go inside the unit and find the appropriate parts and rescale them. The danger here is that the display does auto brightening when needed.

I'm in the same boat, and the dash lighting is set to the dimmest level and so is the radio. I'm used to being able to adjust the gauge lighting to a level just above off for night highway driving.

Saab used to have a switch that shut all but the most essential dash lights at night. Got it from their jet design. I used it often on my Saabs.
Maybe that's what you want - a switch that turns them off when you choose.

could that be a modified head lamp switch to kill all dash lights?

740GLE said:

could that be a modified head lamp switch to kill all dash lights?

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No, it was a separate button on the dash. I loved it!!

Appreciate all the responses. I'm going to look into GLE's suggestion about the switch itself. I might be able to install an additional resistance inline to the dash lights and lower the whole range... Will post results if I come up with anything useful.
Cheers

'14 JSW TDI MT6 owner here, with Premium 8 radio. After reading this discussion I spent some time with the radio settings, and found out I COULD dim the radio display quite a bit. The dash is still a bit too bright, but for me, the radio was the worst offender. I don't recall the exact sequence, so tomorrow I'll access it, and write up the steps. What I don't know how to determine, is which revision of the radio I have, any advice there?

I guess VW (or their supplier) heard us.

From the FM radio screen: Setup/Display/Brightness Level/

Sorry, but I don't understand why you think it's too bright......and my eyes are light sensitive. Maybe I sit up higher and don't notice it???

Donald

since i got my car i have hated the dash light while night driving. the cluster in my work truck('14 silverado) dims a lot more than the VW. I have learned to just not look at the radio or cluster at all on long trips, to keep my eyes atune to the lower light outside.

Mike in Anchorage said:

Saab used to have a switch that shut all but the most essential dash lights
at night. Got it from their jet design. I used it often on my Saabs.
Maybe that's what you want - a switch that turns them off when you
choose.

Click to expand...

Ha ha the Saab (out of business) Jet switch.. Well I fly jets, and there is no
turn off light switch. There is actually a super bright light switch if flying
near lighting, it overrides all the dimmer switches and makes cockpit go full
bright... However in Jets the trend is to quite dark cockpits, meaning no light
is on unless needed.....

I find living is suburban area I can drive with lights off (headlights) and see
just as well... the street lights are so bright it really does not matter.