E46 climate display

Clarkey

Clarkey

Clarkey

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
18,306
I've noticed recently that the display on the climate panel doesn't dim when you put the lights on. Google is telling me lots of people have the same problem but I'm not seeing a solution. Lots of BMW experts on here so does anyone know what's going on with it?
 
It's his sisters, Clarkey is still driving around in a 96 Colt 1.6 IIRC.

Not heard of this issue myself but it certainly isn't normal as mine dims with the dimmer switch. Is it enough of a problem to warrant fixing though?
 
The display brightness on the lcd dims when you turn the lights on? Why would it dim when turning the lights on? I haven't noticed that on mine but mine does dim when you adjust the knurl wheel dedicated to dimming the lights & lcd in one go.
 
Khaaan! said:
The display brightness on the lcd dims when you turn the lights on? Why would it dim when turning the lights on? I haven't noticed that on mine but mine does dim when you adjust the knurl wheel dedicated to dimming the lights & lcd in one go.
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I wrongly assumed that's what he was referring to.

If he is talking about the headlights switch then I am with you, why would it dim? Mine doesn't either!
 
On the E39 the climate control display does dim ever so slightly when you put the lights on - but you need to look pretty closely to notice.
 
[Corsa]Fox;17900110 said:
Very closely, I went out and tested mine and didnt notice it :D
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Just now? I read that they have a daylight sensor so it won't dim in the light but as the ambient light fades it will automatically dim. This would explain why it wouldn't dim much in the day, but at night it should be like half the brightness.
 
Will report back this evening. I'm guessing as I've never noticed it glaring away at odds to the rest of the dash it probably works fine and yours doesnt.
 
Unless you have insanely sensitive eyes the brightness is not annoying at all, at the low brightness level it looks like you've got a dodgy interior lighting system or a bulb gone somewhere...

The display in the middle of the rev counter and speedo dims automatically anyway while driving around different with light levels outside - There's a photodiode next to the lights knob:

IMAG0001.jpg


Anyways, the display only dims if you have the knurl wheel on the lowest setting, which is so low it looks like I mentioned above, that something is bust... The fact that on high the display doesn't change brightness at all tells you it's the standard setting I suppose.

Edit* I have a video, uploading...

(yes, my front sidelight bulbs are out, not a high priority thing to change in this weather...)
 
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I think what we are saying is, when the lights are off the CC display is bright. When the lights are on, it should dim slightly, as per most cars.
 
Lucero said:
I think what we are saying is, when the lights are off the CC display is bright. When the lights are on, it should dim slightly, as per most cars.
Click to expand...

This doesn't happen, it has not happened on this car or my last car. It only happens when you drop the brightness of the display using the knurl wheel and then turn the lights on (as expected since the default brightness for the display is the high setting which is normal so the display dims because the knurl wheel is lower than the default settings, expectedly!).
 
Really? Almost every car I think I've owned has had this. Like ones with digital clocks. They dim when the lights are turned on and brighten again when they are off.
 
Maybe they were dodgy, or had weak batteries :p It makes no logical sense for the display to randomly dim, to me it would be like there is not enough power going round, or something...!

Put the brightness dial on max, all the way up and turn the lights on, does it still dim?
 
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