GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

The dash lights go on as they should when starting the vehicle and actually stay on, but? They will switch back and forth between bright and normal, last I counted 10-15 times in a 30 mile stretch, during the daylight hours.Does this have anything to do with the automatic headlights, going on and off? Automatic headlights are a great feature, but everytime the dashlights brighten and dim it sort of startles me, taking my attention off of the road. If my dashlights are doing what they are supposed to, can I just switch them to be always bright, or always dim?

It does sound like the ALC system. A lot of people have complained of them being too sensitive to light changes often created by the A-pillar shadow.Many people either turn their headlights on all the time manually and some just completely disable the ALC sensor by popping it out and unclipping the wire.

You should be able to tell if it's the Auto Light Control by noticing whether the headlight icon comes on when they go dim. (The green lightbulb in the tach).Even if it is, it sounds like there's something wrong you should get checked out by the dealer. The ALC on my Vibe is really pretty good, though on certain heavily overcast evenings they will switch on and off. Still, not nearly at the rate you mention.

If I have my dashlights on the brightest setting they do not dim when the headlights automatically go on.

Yeah, automatic headlights. Either disconnect the sensor as said, or set the dash lights to brightest setting.

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »Yeah, automatic headlights. Either disconnect the sensor as said, or set the dash lights to brightest setting.I'm pretty sure he's not seeing normal behavior. Should get it checked out.

like has been said, if you have the dimmer switch set to be dim, when the auto headlights come on, there will be a green indicator light up and the backlight will go dim. When the auto headlights kick off, the dash lights will brighten and the green headlight indicator will go out. If you set the dimmer to bright, you probably won't notice when the auto headlights switch on and off. There is no way to make them always dim, unless you disable the auto headlights. I have my dimmer set to full bright, the horizontal white line, and do not notice when it switches. I haven't noticed how sensitive the module is, and I have a 2003, the 2005's have a newer module that may behave differently. If could be that you drive through some deep shadows, or have some item on the dash that intermittently covers the light sensor. It could be that your daytimne running light module is malfunctioning.

Heh..well..that's how my 2003 was at least...

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »the 2005's have a newer module that may behave differently.Yeah, I believe towards the beginning of the 2004 model year, they updated the ALC module to be less sensitive to light changes and also removed the 15 second delay before the lights would turn on at night.Otherwise, it may have been some odd lighting conditions. If you feel different, drop by your dealer and have them check it out. Could be a faulty module.

Seems normal to me...

For a 2003, that behavior is sadly "normal." I've had some serious issues with this little quirk in the past.What it boils down to is a very poorly placed ambient light sensor - it doesn't belong where Toyota has decided to put it. You're probably getting shadows from the 'A' pillar, tricking the DRL module to activate the ALC.One suggestion I can make is to unplug the sensor harness if you're wanting to be able to control your lights manually. My preferred method is a bit different than what was described above, mainly because I didn't want to scratch my dash trying to pry that sensor out. - Tilt the wheel all the way down- Grab the gauge trim and pull straight back to remove- Look up and to the left of the tach, you should see a wiring harness with three green wires and a white connector clipped to the top of the dash. - Disconnect the harness and put it out of the way (the top of the gauge cluster has a nice clippy thing that works perfect for storing the disconnected harness.) That way, you will have your DRL's still, but no automatic lights. You will need to manually control them.Or, you could do something similar to what I've done - haven't heard of any 2k05 Vibers doing this, but it does work on my '03... I snipped one wire going to the sensor and wired in a switch. That way, when the light sensor is acting up (i.e. very bright daylight causing shadows and making the lights switch on) I can disable the ALC. Or, I can just leave it on and the lights will be automatically controlled as the manufacturer intended (whether they should be on or not, that's a different story.) lol! I really like how I have mine wired up - I appreciate the automatic light control and want it to work, but sometimes it has to be disabled - this works well for that.I had to take all that stuff out when I had the dealer yank out the dash, so I need to reinstall it, so I can get a how-to going on the subject if anyone is interested. As of right now, the car is stock but I do have tape covering the sensor so the lights are on all the time, regardless... Mine cycle far too frequently, it's pretty annoying so I just chose to leave them on constantly for the time being. Since you do have the new DRL module, you could have some flakiness going on there. A bunch of the '03s were terrible about it, but I don't think I've heard too many 04-05 Vibers complaining about it. With the poor position of the sensor, it is inevitable that they'll be coming on when they don't need to be- new module or not- but if you're seeing that many on/off cycles, personally I would suspect something's up... Your 2005 seems to be acting like my 2003 with its original-style DRL module. See what the dealer says before you go tearing into the car, maybe they'll be helpful.

I paid a little more attention to it this morning. The dash lights dim when the headlights go on, brighten when the headlights turn off. I do not want to disable the automatic headlight function. I think that it's a cool feature. I'm due for 5K service next week and will ask them to check it out...

I'll double check but believe that I have the dash lights set to maximum.

Quote, originally posted by stevo2000 »I'll double check but believe that I have the dash lights set to maximum. Go one notch above max. It's a thick line, just below ON. That sets your dash to full brightness, and it will NOT dim if the lights go on. Consequently, many find that leaving it on that setting will be too bright for night time driving.

When I went to check, the wheel was turned all of the way to the top, above the off. I don't know why, took delivery in that position. I lined it up with the white bar and haven't noticed any changes since.