Maybe it's only my '05 4-Runner but of all the interior lights the one I miss the most, and could use the most, is a marker to locate the dashboard dimmer thumb wheel switch. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to find the dimmer thumb wheel in pitch blackness. Is this simply a problem with my truck/has Toyota been made aware of it and maybe if so has a ready-made fix.
Thanks for any and all advice.
Nobody here works for Toyota's design team, so there's no way of knowing if they are aware of the complaint.
I do not recall ever seeing a light or lighting for the instrument panel dimmer knob/wheel, probably because most people set it once and leave it. You could install a small red or blue LED near the dimmer to help you find it in the dark.
I have the same problem with that dial on my '05 Prius. It's a vertical wheel with its edge protruding through a slot in the dash roughly above the left knee -- but how far above? It's near nothing else. Groping for it is a distraction. It never should have passed the initial design review.
The dial is tied into the headlight circuitry so the dash lights and the LCD display dim to the chosen setting when the lights are on. But that's an inappropriate setting in rainy daylight when NY law requires the headlights be on. Rainy days are common along NY's Lake Ontario shore where the Annual Foul Weather Fesitval runs from August 2 through August 1.
Make that three of us with my '05 Tacoma.
I can find the controls in a dark aircraft, but the dash illumination dimmer always eludes me on my truck.
One of these days car designers are going to think globally, not locally, when it comes to such details. Cars with solar sensors (for example) should also use them to adjust dashboard lighting.
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