I stopped for gas yesterday afternoon, about 6pm, still light. When I start up to leave the lighted portions of the gages don't come on, nor does the lettering in the info window. A few miles down the road and they all come back on. Working fine. The gages never stopped working, just the lighted numerals and graphics.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!

 

Gauge lighting is backwards. During the day time, back lighting is brighter, while during dark, back lighting is dimmer.

When you start the car, ambient light sensor (small dome thing up on the dash at the center speaker grill), reads the amount o light, sends that voltage to the HVAC controller, then sent to the BCM, to figure out if the head lights should be on or not. So when you started the car, head lights came on, dash back lighting when to dim mode, and until the sensor got enough light to trigger the BCM to shut the driving lights back off, and fully back light the dash brighter instead.

In the future, if you want to turn the lights (and even the DRL) off when you start the car during the day (so gauge stays bright), isntead of waiting for the BCM to do such, turn the light controller on the stalk clockwise all the way at the auto position.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/k6oAA...RS/s-l1600.jpg


Also, depending on your ambient light sensor in the car, the older type did tend to go south on the quicker side, and GM came out with a updated unit that picks up the actual amounts of lighting a lot better/lasts a lot longer. So could just be that your sensor is starting to go out, and just need to be changed so the BCM is seeing the amount of light in play a lot quicker/more accurate instead.

 

Dano, thanks for that response. This is the reason I like to get on forums involving my hobbies.

 

No worries,and since I hate running the car during the day with the DRL's on (blend in to traffic a lot better), when I start the car in the garage or anywhere else during the day, when the lights first come on , force of habit to turn the stalk switch to turn them, and the DRL off to start with. Hell, you can even do it at night or dust, since it if dark enough out, car will just turn them back on via the ambient light sensor.

To add, when you do change out the ambiant light sensor, make sure that spreaker grill is on the warmer side, and still take it easy so you don't break it.The plastic lock tabs get brittle with age over time.

If you do kill it with braking off the lock prong tabs, here you go.

As for light sensor, take a good look at the one I posted, since the older type will have the outer plastic frosted instead.

Old type,


New updated type that is more accurate isntead,