I left the island on the 6:20 boat this morning for my last road trip across the Palouse and the Columbia River Basin. Today I headed to Lewiston ID. As I was climbing up toward the pass in the rain and fog there was a brief moment of brighter sunlight and the headlights turned off and the dash light level increased. It seemed too bright to me for the conditions and I tried to see if I could reduce the glare by rotating the dimmer (above the parking brake) but nothing happened.

Then the forest surrounded me again and the clouds thickened and the headlights came back on. The sun continued to rise and I continued to climb through the foggy forest when the headlights turned off again and about half a second later I got a message on the DIC that said “Display will go blank now. If you…” and the the display went blank. Also the map. Just totally dark except for a quarter sized digital speedometer in very dark blue. I had less than needle, ball and airspeed. I had nothing.

I was as shocked as I was that time when the bonfire blew up at the football game and the logs went flying through the air striking the cheerleaders on their heads and shoulders and sending them all to hospital. I was THAT surprised. The lesson we learned was “don’t dig a pit and fill it with gasoline and build the bonfire on top of it.”

I had no plan of action so I pulled into the next turnout and cut off the engine. Then I restarted and the display came up normally for about two seconds, then the same DIC message came up and I was able to read the whole thing, which was “Display will go blank now, if you want to use it, change the brightness with the dimmer.”

So the lesson I learned was that the dimmer has no effect while you turn it when the headlights are off, but if you turn it the wrong way, then the NEXT time the headlights go off it will go blank.

Hard to understand but good to know I think.

 

Yikes

 

IF you turn the dimmer all the way down, then at night, or in the dark, the display goes to MINIMAL.. Just speed and gear in the dash and the infotainment screen goes black.
Turn it up just a little and you get full display, fairly dim.
It DOES NOT affect the brightness of the display(s) in daylight.

So if you don't want it to go "out" turn it all the way down, then back up, just a little. ...
IT IS disconcerting the first time it happens during the day (here in the Pacific Northwest) due to dark clouds, fog, etc.

 

It happened on a state change, so probably it was from headlights off to headlights on, but one other thing I noticed was that the response was quite delayed. Turn the **** then wait half a second for the display to illuminate. Seemed like forever.