Cluster Brightness

[e30mpower]

Originally Posted by TECN1K

I messaged e30mpower, found a thread where he had the same issue - cluster brightness is still very, very dim with no adjustment (on the high cluster information display) at night/headlights ON. Headlights off - Full, normal brightness.

A while back, I replaced the headlight switch - and it fixed the problem.. for about a week.

It's back again, and after my 3rd headlight switch - still have the problem. One common trait we both shared here was we watched the cluster glitch out. Once in a while, when started, the info display would display german. "gurt anlegen" then english "fasten seat belt"

When the headlight switch is unplugged - full brightness all around.


I'm leaning towards a faulty LCM - is it worth trying a used one? I'm concerned with mismatched vin/mileage affecting my Tamper Dot.

Any advice?

It's NOT the LCM, with all due respect to everyone who has offered their input on this thread. From what I can tell, TECN1K and I both went from non-HIDs to HIDs with corona rings. I'm not going to pretend to understand the LCM's software, but I do know that it will detect over-or-under current situations and adapt accordingly.

I'm trying to think like the car. The ppl who designed and wrote the software for the LCM never intended aftermarket HID or corona ring upgrades, the LCM is seeing excess current being drawn and is adjusting interior ambient light levels to compensate. This makes sense in my head.

That's why I quit caring a couple of years ago, after spending nearly a grand trying to get it diagnosed. The best anyone could come up with was "It just wasn't designed for it."