[MT-SS1LE]

I need some clarification on how the interior dash lights, nav screen, and climate control lighting work. My car has always been driven during daylight hours and for added visibility, I always manually turn the headlights on. My interior lighting has always been on daylight brightness and never changed. I went for a drive over the weekend and noticed that the interior lighting dimmed considerably several times then went back to full brightness after a minute or two. I never touched the headlight switch, the headlights were "on" the whole time. So does the interior lighting automatically adjust independently of the headlights? Thanks in advance!

[bishopts]

Did they dim while you were in shadows cast by buildings and trees?

[MT-SS1LE]

Originally Posted by bishopts

Did they dim while you were in shadows cast by buildings and trees?

Possibly. I hadn't driven the car in over a month, and it was early in the morning so shadows were probably different. Just never observed the interior lighting change before. In all other vehicles I've owned, the interior lighting is tied to the headlights.

[bishopts]

Originally Posted by MT-SS1LE

Possibly. I hadn't driven the car in over a month, and it was early in the morning so shadows were probably different. Just never observed the interior lighting change before. In all other vehicles I've owned, the interior lighting is tied to the headlights.

Yea that's all I've seen with previous vehicles also. My lights are on auto all the time. But I've not really noticed a change in interior lights. I will try and look at that and see what it does.
The photo sensor on the dash pad is usually where the BCM gets its info on "is it daytime" maybe put something dark over it and drive around to see if it thinks its night.

[speedyink1]

The interior lights/Cluster brightness is controlled by the light sensor, not necessarily tied to the headlight position I've found

[MT-SS1LE]

Originally Posted by speedyink1

The interior lights/Cluster brightness is controlled by the light sensor, not necessarily tied to the headlight position I've found

Yeah, that's what I gather as well. Seems odd that you can't select daytime brightness all the time.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by MT-SS1LE

Yeah, that's what I gather as well. Seems odd that you can't select daytime brightness all the time.

Pretty sure you can. It’s the knob to the left of the steering wheel. You have to set it to full brightness. This will however turn your interior dome lights on as well (maybe there’s a setting in the infotainment that lets you fix that).

[bishopts]

Try turning the headlights on. Then adjust the backlighting, then turn the headlights off, and again adjust the backlighting.
Then turn the headlights on again and see if changes.

[MT-SS1LE]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

Pretty sure you can. It’s the knob to the left of the steering wheel. You have to set it to full brightness. This will however turn your interior dome lights on as well (maybe there’s a setting in the infotainment that lets you fix that).

I tried that, but even on max brightness it's no where near as bright as the "daylight" brightness setting that is automatically selected by the sensor.

[MT-SS1LE]

Originally Posted by bishopts

Try turning the headlights on. Then adjust the backlighting, then turn the headlights off, and again adjust the backlighting.
Then turn the headlights on again and see if changes.

I'll try that this weekend when I go for a drive and see what it does.

[bishopts]

I tried what i suggested. No go... my car is in the garage so to simulate the sun i just put my flashlight on the sunload sensor. It did trigger the daytime mode. There is definitely a difference between the two but i don't see a way to force the night mode to be as bright as the day mode. I did noticed you can't dim the backlighting when its in day mode.

My guess is the original transition you noticed was shadows on the sunload sensor which triggered it to night mode. If you really wanted to force the lights to day mode all the time you just need to figure out what signal is being sent from the sunload sensor to the bcm and replicate it with a resistor.

[MT-SS1LE]

Originally Posted by bishopts

I tried what i suggested. No go... my car is in the garage so to simulate the sun i just put my flashlight on the sunload sensor. It did trigger the daytime mode. There is definitely a difference between the two but i don't see a way to force the night mode to be as bright as the day mode. I did noticed you can't dim the backlighting when its in day mode.

My guess is the original transition you noticed was shadows on the sunload sensor which triggered it to night mode. If you really wanted to force the lights to day mode all the time you just need to figure out what signal is being sent from the sunload sensor to the bcm and replicate it with a resistor.

Thanks for testing it. It's not a big deal, I was mostly concerned that I had an electrical issue. Sounds like it's working as GM designed it. Imho, it's an odd implementation of the interior lighting with no way for the driver to control when it dims or a way to override it.

[bishopts]

I think the introduction of alway illuminated clusters was the dumbest thing in automotive. I dont know how many times I've seen people driving around in the dark with their lights off because of it.
If the dash lights are going to always be on the tail lights should be too.

[arpad_m]

The system is working as designed, daylight mode (activated by the sun load sensor) is much brighter than what you can achieve in night mode with the adjustment knob on the dash, and there is no easy way to force full brightness in the dark.

At least the sensor in the Camaro is very responsive, taking only a few seconds to detect changes in ambient brightness. We have an older GM SUV, the sensor in that thing takes several minutes (!!) to switch the illumination mode when conditions change.

Not being able to customize this completely Is one of those cost saving compromises automakers made on our behalf that most people don't care about, but annoys the heck our of a few enthusiasts.