Just got my 01 and I notice that when you turn the headlights on at night, the instrument panel DIMS! Which makes no sense...So I manually have to press the "+" button to brighten it up everytime I drive at night. Not a big deal but very annoying.
The manual says you can set it at the brightness you want and it will remember it... am I missing something here?

 

I believe it dims because it needs to be brighter during the day to offset all the light from the sun. It doesn't need to shine as bright at night because 1) there is less light all around so it doesn't need to be as bright and 2) your eyes have adjusted to the darker conditions, and are taking in more light as it is. Just my 2 cents. And sorry if it's hard to understand, I had a tough time trying to explain. But it is normal AFAIK

 

To address your original question--after turning on your headlights and setting your brightness, your instrument panel will remember the setting and will keep that brightness the next time you turn on your lights.

Not sure what's wrong with yours if it doesn't remember it.

 

Could it be the extra draw of power from the headlights just naturally dims the instrument panel (seems odd)? However, you are correct your last setting should be remembered.

This may be a rumor, haven't actually tested it - but I was told if you dim your instrument panel your headlights become SLIGHTLY brighter. (someone correct me if I'm wrong! and I'll just edit it out before I look dumb )

 

I believe that it is supposed to dim when you turn on the headlights. As the above poster said, it doesn't need to be as bright since it doesn't need to compete with the sun. Also it is like driving with the interior light on, it is harder to see out, that's why it dims.

 

with your headlights on, if you keep pressing brighter the dash will eventually get as bright as with the lights out. But if you turn the Headlights off and back on, it will go back to the previous setting, before the no HL brightness. I am probably telling all of you something you already knew.

 

This is designed behavior. You want the panel to be dimmer at night than in the day. So the car reacts by using the headlights as a day/night switch.

As you note, you can override this by one long press of the "+" button.

 

That's the way it's supposed to work. All cars with backlit instruments (ie, that use some level of lighting even during the day) will dim at night. What else would you expect? They are not like old-school analog gauges that are unlit during the day and illuminated at night.

 

welcome

 

I agree with ^ ^.

Turn your headlights on.

Hold the + button for several seconds until it goes to full daytime brightness setting and saves that as your nighttime preference in the memory.

Turn off your lights and turn them back on...The gauge cluster should stay lit the same brightness.

(I just did it on my 07 to test it out)

Good luck!!