Ok...

The only thing I wish that you could do with this car, is turn the dash lights on by turning the headlights on manual.. Cause seriously it sucks.. I know in other cars you can put the marker lights on and such and that will turn the dash lights on as well.. Not this is.. Now way!!...

The reason I say this suck is because I have tinted windows so sometimes its hard to see the clusters needle (more or so the fuel gauge).. So I roll my window down and sure enough I get light.. But when its raining its not very feesable to do this..

I know its my fault lol.. I got the windows tinted dark etc.. But I mean don't you think GM could have had it so you could turn the dash lights on whenever you wanted.. The only time to see them when its acutally get dark outside.. Whats the deal?? I can't see why they don't just come on when the lights come on.. With the switch or autolights..

This bother anyone else?

 

Yes, actually today it was very annoying! Very foggy weather and just dark enough to make it hard to read the gauges, but too bright to turn them on. I am thinking of a fix my self, the light sensor is right in front of the drivers seat on top of the dash. If you shade the sensor, you could fool it into thinking it is darker than it is. Thus turning the dash lights on sooner. I was thinking of trying a small, light piece of window tint or a grill from a tweeter? Just going to experiment.

 

This annoys me today as much as it did the first day I bought my car. Try my wife's suggestion. Get a rubber mouse pad, black, and cut to your preferred design and place over the light sensor, because GM is not likely to fix this for us.

 

After seeing the actual lights that light up the instrument cluster , I can see why GM opted to do the dash lights way . FOr reasons I only chalk up to space savings the cobalts do not have replaceable lights in the instrument cluster . The are only 2 tiny led "looking" incandesent lights soldered to the circuit board in the speedo , 2 in the tach and 1 in the fuel . Thats all that lights the cluster up . Given that fact , it would be costly for GM to repair instrument cluster lights under warranty should one of those bulbs burn out . Having the cluster sent out to have new lights soldered in would be quite costly because the guage face would have to be removed which means the needles would have to come , which means the cluster would have to be re-calibrated . Hence , the dash lights were opted not to be on until dark to save the life of the bulbs .

I dont for sure know thats why , but its the only logical reason . Why GM didnt use and still doesnt use LED's is completely beyond me . Led dash lights are almost common now in alot of low end cars .

 

LEDs seriously last forever so I don't think that is the reason.
I hate the fact that they only come on with the light sensor.

I also noticed the dash lights are really dim as well.

 

just cover the sensor on the dash and stop crying




___

 

He said "2 tiny led "looking" incandesent lights". Incandesent is not LED.

 

Where is the sensor?

Thanks
-Rich

 

I didn't notice it until one day I was driving home on the highway. It was slightly dark out but not bright enough for my lights to come on. So...I turned them on manually. I looked down and didn't see the dash lights on so I started flipping my light switch all over the damned place thinking maybe it's because they were set to auto. Off...on...off....on....repeat. Finally I gave up and just turned the switch to on and continued my drive home. To my surprise when I got out at home my headlights were on and that's when I realised I'd just flicked my lights at a bunch of oncoming cars not to mention probably scared the hell out of the driver behind me as my brake lights would have been flicking on and off....talk about feeling like a complete idiot .

I'm used to it now that I figured it out but I still wish I could turn them on manally rather than having to wait for the automatic lighting system to kick in. It's a feature I can live with.

Have you tried playing with the dim light knob to make sure it's cranked all the way to full? I've hit my leg off it a couple times when getting out of my car and had to reset it once I got back in because my dash lights were dim as anything.

Permafried-

 

its that clear round glass looking thing in the dash right in front of the steering wheel.

u cant miss it! just put some black electric tape over it!!!

 

Yea it sucks but here is another fix for all of ya if you haven't tried it yet. If you turn your fog lights on then turn your headlights off your dash lights will still be on. Although your fogs will be on. I haven't tinted my window yet but will be doing so in the near future so who knows.

 

Thats what that little bulb is... O-I-C.

Thanks,
-Rich

 

this has bugged me too, but i just deal with it.

 

Very old thread! There is an IPC reprogram from GM that fixes this.

 

lol wow what a revive

 

I complained to my dealer. They changed a setting in my computer and now they come on when car is running. They are on all the time as long as the car is running.

Don't know what they did but it worked.