I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else, but over in SquallLHeart's interesting thread: LED swap! color change green to blue (in progress), we've been wondering why his Two has lights behind all its steering wheel controls and my Three doesn't. I've surmised that the Three and Four have the Touch Tracer display instead, which eliminates the need to be able to see the steering wheel buttons in the dark; can other Three/Four owners confirm that they don't have these lights?
I have all lights working on my steering wheel. Did you try to adjust brightness of your backlit with a help of a handwheel located on the left handside? And touch tracing dispaly has a bit diffrent function IMHO. Touch tracing display helps to keep your eyes on the road instead of the dashboard and steering wheel.
I agree with Mik1. Check your brightness level. Also, are you using DRL? None of the controls light up when using DRL. The first two days I owned the car I thought Toyota was super cheap not making any of the controls light up and then I realized I didn't have my headlights all the way on.
OK, it's now completely dark outside and I turned off all the lights in my driveway. Here's what I found: With either the parking lights or headlights turned on, the steering wheel lights are on, but so dim that I can only just see them in complete darkness. The dashboard lights can be adjusted using the dimmer control, but this has no effect on the steering wheel lights. The steering wheel lights are dimmer than the dashboard lights set to their lowest brightness, so dim that I can't even photograph them. How does that compare with what you guys are seeing?
Here is what I found in my PC4: 1. Scrolling the dimmer is actually has no affect on the steering wheel controls brightness, it only change the brightness of the dashboard controls 2. It is difficult to explan how brighter the dashboard lights compared to my steering wheel, but what I noticed that when the dimmer scroller is all the way down, the backlit of the steering controls looks as bright as a dashboard, but when I scroll the dimmer all the way up, the dashboard brightness is couple times better compaired to the steering wheel.
OK, that sounds pretty well like what I'm seeing, although the dash lights look to me a bit brighter than the wheel lights even at the lowest setting. I guess I should go to a dealer at night and check the lights on another c.
the lights on the steering wheel are not controlled by the dimmer circuit.. that's definitely true.. as sometimes i wish i could turn mine down because it's so bright and shiny... it can be distracting sometimes.. but yea.. the stock leds in the controls are pretty dim in there for the most part.. i was slightly concerned when you said you didn't see them light up at all... but now the mystery is solved.. they do work.. just yea.. it's dim..
That's a good point Squall, I guess that might be a reason behind it. If the lights on steering wheel are not dimable, I would prefer to have what I have instead of always be pissed and distracted with too bright and shiny controls....
so is there any way to increase the brightness of the steering wheel controls? mine are really dim too... almost as if they're not even on!!
You'd have to replace the LEDs with brighter ones. See the link to SquallLHeart's project in the first post in this thread.
bah.... i don't have the technical know-how to do that, nor would i want to pay for it... but i do love that blue!!!! not a fan of the green at all.. yuck!
it's not too hard to do... (at least for me.. lol..)... but uhh... as long as you're handy with a soldering iron.. and know how to use a screwdriver... that's pretty much all you need.
I have a 2008 model and want to find out how to change the LEDs in the steering wheel - how can I take the buttons apart to change the LED in there - or maybe the whole cover in one peace ? Any of you done it on a 2008 model ?
The process would be similar. After removing them from the car, it's all little screws that hold the pieces together.
