My 4R is BLINDING me!

Driving at night is horribly distracting because of the too-bright center display that, as far as I can tell, has no night-time auto dimming feature. (Or does it?) It drives me insane and frankly, is dangerous. Is there any way to dim down the display?

Worst case, how do I quickly manually dim or turn off the display for night time driving?

I have a '23 TRD ORP.

(sorry, I've searched)

 

I'm pretty sure. There's an adjustment knob above your left knee(if sitting in your driver's seat). And the radio is in the settings(on radio).

 

I thought that was for the gauges only. I've never tried that at night...but I will now.

 

Middle one, beside the mirror adjustment.

 

I have a 21 Pro and I too find the dashboard lights to be too bright at night and I have them dimmed down to the lowest setting. The dash lights reflect off of the driver's and passenger's side windows at night and while driving on a dark street with no street lights. I have had to lower the windows to see where I am turning. Only an issue at night on streets with no outside lights to neutralize the interior glare. I lower the windows when needed!

 

You should have an auto dimming feature.
Best way to see is to remove the plug on the center dash and see if it's a dummy or has a light sensor. If it has no light sensor but has a 4 pin wire connector , it is wired and you need to just buy a 4pin light sensor and install it. Plug and play. But of there is no wire connector, you are out of luck.

This is the auto ambient dimming feature, different from switching the screen off or reducing the screen brightness manually or dimming the entire interior lights via a dial on the dash.

 

On my 18’, you can turn the radio display completely off in the setup menu. I rarely use the radio.

 

there's an option to adjust the display brightness on the unit itself. It took me over a year to notice it, but its there

 

This sounds like what I "hope" I already have. Does anyone know what 4Runner models already have this sensor? Paying for the ORP ($$$) I would have hoped I had almost all the bells and whistles. I guess we'll see. I'll check for the sensor. Thanks a lot.

 

I don't think I can survive a year!

 

The op is talking about his center screen not the gauge display

On your Home Screen with your car in park on the bottom right tap on it to lower and adjust the brightness

 

Your eyes are dilating, because you’re in love with your 4R. I wear yellow laser glasses at night.

 

yeah this, I just forgot where I saw the touchscreen 'button'

 

Your dimmer on the left of the steering wheel is locked into the brightest setting.
This prevents your center display to go into night mode when the lights are turned on.
Spin it downwards out of the locked mode. You will feel it click.

Has nothing to do with settings in the center display.

 

Three things to look into that worked for me -
1) the verticle dial mentioned above does two things. when turned all the way up, it will sortof click with a tactile feel, into the max phase, which forces your screen into daylight mode no matter the headlight setting etc. Turn this down off the top max notch.
2) turning your headlights on or at least your parking lights
3) when I was playing with the archaic home screen, I found one particular layout that for some reason, helps tremendously with getting rid of bright shiz. I think it is the three panel mode. I will go look now actually.

 

three panel layout
xm top left,
clock bottom left, and weather on the right.

I unplugged the dcm fuse so it just says weather not available all the time, which is just fabulous.

I may have tweaked other settings in carista at some point, idk.

Hope this helps.

 

See attached

 

You can also turn it off completely, possibly in that same screen

 

One of the main reasons for the bright display is to reduce light blindness. It helps a person to reduce the affect of oncoming headlights.

Think of it as if you've been sitting in a dark room (or a bar) and you walk out to the bright sun light. The bright display reduces that light blindness.

 

hah and then you can't see things that aren't illuminated around you.

 

Right.
Like that pile of shit that Karen's dog left on the sidewalk.

I'm slow but I learned.

Sure glad this forum doesn't have smellovision.

 

I popped out the plug in the dash and it is indeed just a plug, not a sensor. If I buy a sensor does it solve ALL my issues? Why does Toyota omit this? And anyone have a part number?

Yes, the dimmer was locked to bright. But there is another problem still. If I un-click the dimmer from it's all-bright setting the instruments and the center screen go way too dark to use in the daytime. Even if I scroll up at its brightest setting.

NOTE: I have AUTO headlights and I leave my headlights on in the daytime. If I turn my headlights off, the instruments get brighter and the center display goes to daytime mode. But I don't want to play with my headlight switch. I want to leave the headlights on and forget it.

Aaaargh. Should this be any more difficult?

 

Is there a 4pin connector below the dummy plug? If yes, then all you need is an ambient light sensor. OEM is expensive, Amazon and eBay has third party that has worked for people.
OEM part number for 2020+ is 89121-0E060. But verify, it's different from the 14-19 models.
If there is no wires/connector below the dummy plug, you car is not wired for auto dimming feature.
Some trim levels are pre wired and some are not. Just the way Toyota does things.

 

Mine has the wires. So looks like I’m going to buy a sensor and cross my fingers! I’ll report my results.

Thanks everybody!

 

OP- the center screen (“radio”) brightness can be adjusted. You just need to find it in the settings menu. It’s there. It’s independent of the dimming of the dashboard gauge cluster the “sensor” you're. talking about will affect the gauge cluster lights.

if I remember correctly, you need to set it with the headlights ON and OFF (but I could be mistaken).

Long story short… You are able to achieve what you want to without buying the sensor.

 

I did find this contrast/brightness adjustment that is for the center display only. The changes it makes are very subtle and I fear not enough to affect nighttime glare/brightness I am seeing. I tried it with headlights on/off but that didn't seem to matter. I maxed out the adjustments and will view again tonight.

 

OP in 3.. 2..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8

 

Make sure you really do your research into the correct P/N sensor! it's a super easy install, you can see how I did it on my 2020 4Runner here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc7pbfbNMtg

The sensor P/N differs by year (for some dumb reason) so mine wasn't $5 like others it was like $100 or something.

I leave in the dark and come home in the light everyday for work so having auto dimming was really worth it for me.

 

When I'm on a trail at night, I turn off my main headlights and roll with my secondary spotlights. And then use the Settings button to blank the screen, which displays a dark blue/black galactic cat wallpaper. No lights at all on my dashboard that way, but I can still listen to tunes.

 

I thought I should wrap up this thread. After having tried ALL the suggestions above the only cure for my issues was installing the automatic light sensor in the middle of the dash. I was a bit miffed at having to spend around $60 for a Chinese knock-off of the OEM part, but it worked. Yay!

Thanks for your input everyone!