I have a question about the temperature controls below the radio. Next to the leftmost red/blue knob is another knob with:
A/C ======= Bright
What does bright do? I can't find it in the manual. I took it to a dealer, and the best they could come up with is that it has to do with the control lights when driving in the dark.
In our present warm weather, if I press A/C, and number of knobs will light up. One is numbered 1-4. If I turn it to 3, A/C will go off. What's that about?
Under the odometer is a temperature display. What is the source of the measurement? Outside somewhere?
"Next to the leftmost knob is another knob with A/C ..." You couldn't just say the *middle* knob labelled "A/C"? According to the manual, this middle knob marked "A/C" does *not* have the dash brightness override control that you claim it has.
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Section 4, "Climate Control", is on page 151 in this online copy. Pages 4-14 and 4-15 (online pages 164 & 165) for the "A/C" dial shows the on/off (top of rocker switch), fan speed (rotary switch), and recirculate mode (bottom of rocker switch). The lamp at the bottom of the rocker switch is lit if recirculation mode is enabled. There nothing there labelled "Bright" on the A/C control (middle dial).
The flow control (right[most] dial) has the various outlet or vent positions for the rotary switch. The top rocker switch controls the [windshield] defroster with a lamp to show when the defroster is on. When you enable the defroster, the A/C kicks in a bit to dry the air so you don't end up icing the inside of your windshield with moisture in the ductwork or when the air source is humid. The bottom rocker switch controls the rear defogger with a lamp to show when that device is on.
LEFT knob Middle knob Right knob
------------ ------------ ------------ temperature fan speed air flow Auto mode A/C on-off defroster Bright mode recirculate defogger
So far, neither of those middle (A/C) or rightmost (flow) knobs has a "Bright" label on it. The temperature control (left[most] dial) is has the "Bright" switch. The LEFT knob controls the threshold temperature at which you want to maintain for cabin temperature. The top rocker switch says "Auto" with a lamp to indicate automatic control of temperature (rotary setting) along with controlling the fan speed, air flow mode, air inlet selection, and compressor operation (see page 4-11, or online page 161).
Then, right there on the very next page (4-12, online page 163), it tells you about what the Bright control does. "Setting the light switch" refers to the position of the column lever (page 3-17, online page 133). If the lights are on during the day, the illuminated dashboard could be too bright and a darker lit one might provide better contrast for you to read the dash during the day. Another way to find this is to search for "off/bright switch" in the online copy of the manual.
RTFM
Didn't have the headlights or running lamps on at the time, right? Or it was so brightly lit in the shop that you or they probably didn't even notice the dash was lit up and then changed when toggling the Bright switch.
That would be the MIDDLE knob for speed-on/off-recirculate control, the one marked "A/C".
A bad rotary switch under that dial. Might need to be repaired (well, replaced). Or you didn't position the rotary switch at the "3" speed position and are someplace in between settings.
It has some text on the left side and the temperature reading on the right. What does the text say that value represents?
RTFM again. Page 3-9 (online page 126).
Amazing how it seems the vast majority of drivers never bother to read the car manuals. My aunt has had her 2005 Subie (bought new) for around 7-8 years and has yet to read its manual. I think once she noted that she had to scan through it to figure out how to adjust the dash illumination brightness. She had been driving at night with a dark dash for many months and only read the manual after getting a ticket because she didn't know how fast she was driving. That's her sum total effort at reading the manual. She hasn't a clue what happens when she rapidly and repeatedly presses the Lock/Arm button on the key fob. She will never know how to use or even where is the shift interlock release. She will spend hours playing games at her computer or watching the TV but won't spend one evening getting acquainted with her 2nd largest purchase that cost tens of thousands of dollars.
I think your rant is in large part correct, but having just spent the last week trying to find information in the manual for my new Outback, I have some sympathy for folks who have tried their manuals and come up empty.
The following terms, for example, are not in the index:
Hood Gas cap Hatch Liftgate Spare tire
I forget how I finally found the info about the hood release.
The instructions about the gas cap door are listed as "filler lid and cap" under "fuel" (no separate listing for "filler").
The hatch or liftgate is called here the "rear gate" and the pointer to it is under a section called "rear" that also includes taillights and differential oil. In other words, a hodgepodge of items with "rear" in their name-- not an intuitive way of organizing an index. No cross- listing under "gate."
The spare tire is under "temporary spare tire," with no listings under either "spare" or "tire." I get that they want to emphasize that this tire should only be used temporarily, but that should be in the body copy, not in the index.
Then there's that mysterious torx screwdriver under the rear deck. Somehow I stumbled upon the part of the manual that explains its use to release a stuck electronic parking break. But there is no link to that section from the main discussion of the EPB. So you learn about the EPB but they give no hint that there's something you can do (and they've even provided the tool!) if the thing goes wonky. Nor does the emergency section explain where you're supposed to get a handle for the shaft-only torx. I got an idea that turned out to be correct; the shaft of the provided screwdriver one level down near the spare tire can be removed from the handle/ torque converter, and the torx shaft used in its place. It would have killed them to mention that in the manual?
And why is "Starting and Operating" chapter 7? I think that information is a little more important than how to adjust the temperature (chapter 4), dial in your favorite radio station (chapter 5), or use the vanity mirror (chapter 6).
I've written end-user materials (including, on occasion, documentation) for Silicon Valley companies for decades. I'm not very impressed with this Outback manual. I'm seriously thinking of sending a letter to the folks in Indiana with some suggestions for improvement.
Post does not make a lot of sense. Can't imagine stuff in my '03 Forester is any different from yours. Red/blue controls temp. The redder is hotter and the bluer is colder. The next knob with 4 number settings above off controls blower fan speed. Button below turns on AC and when pushed a little light comes on with it. Turn it off and you just blow in hot (from heater) or cold air (outside air). The temperature display is outside temperature.
I first found the info on the "Bright" control by finding info on the temperature controls and that was by scanning through the table of contents and perusing the manual. I didn't do searches to find the answers. I only mentioned on what string to search after first having found that text by scanning through the pages. I doubt you'll find "door handle" in an owner's manual, either. If the person is qualified to drive a car, they should already know how to decifer the door panel to figure out how to release the door latch.
I doubt everything could be listed in the manual. They still need to keep the manual small enough to fit into the glove box (a feature that has been ever more become smaller and smaller).
I don't expect everything to be in an owner's manual. Some joker sued Sears because the lawn mower he bought from them did not explicitly state that it could not be used as a hedge trimmer. So he taped down the safety shutoff bar, hoisted up the still running lawn mower, and proceeded to run it across the top of his hedges. Then he turned it sideways to trim the sides of his hedges. That was when he chose to change his grip so his fingers curled around the bell housing to hold the running mower. The blade chopped off one of his fingers and he sued Sears. You'd think the courts would immediately recognize his willingness to declare himself a severe mental retard and mandate his custody to a psychiatric care center to be released when he exhibited enough intelligence to permit him unattended occupation back at his residence. No mower maker or seller should have to tell the consumer what a product should not be used for. Lawn mowers also make lousy blenders to make smoothies but I suspect some idiot thinks it doable.
You read the manual to get what information *is* made available to you. The Table of Contents and the Index can't reference every word. "The", "a", "is", "vehicle", and other common terms will also be absent from the TOC and index. In this, however, a search on "bright" would reveal the description for that function buried in a temperature control knob (but not the reason Subaru decided to put it there).
Sorry, but if you can't find the hood latch release I'd have to ponder if you should even be under there. There is still a lot of commonality between makes and models so that an typical driver can operate the vehicle without ever knowing much of its details. Brake, accelerator, ignition key, speedometer, turn signal, and a few other controls are similar enough in different cars that just about anyone that has ever driven before will know to drive another vehicle. I can't say that I have ever seen someone that knew how to drive a car not be able to sufficiently figure out how to drive another car. They all seem to manage to figure out how to drive the car off the dealer's lot after paying many thousands for the hunk.
The included manual is the first place to start. It is not the only source of information on your vehicle; however, often the more technical is the additional information assumes a more technical reader, too.
Um, let's review. Your reply to me was 2,272 characters long. My reply to your was 3,072 characters long. So my reply was all of 800 characters or 35% longer than yours. My reply without trimming was a total of 5,344 characters long. Oooh, yes, it must be my fault you don't like when others can write slightly longer posts than yours, or that they didn't trim -- just like YOU did in your feeble attempt at a slam which merely states you are lazy. You don't even know what unit to use for how many times you scrolled down since there are no "pages" in posts and only you know how small is your viewer window.
For this reply of mine, I snipped your 5,845 characters of quoted text. That beats my 5,344 characters of quoted text. So far, you're the winner in lack of trimming. I light a birthday candle for you.
Stop being so hard on yourself. I'm sure in time you'll figure out how to use that Mac that daddy dumped on you when he upgraded.
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