How do I shut off Mood lighting strip? Like it hate it?

Manual seems to say that the footwell light and instrument panel ornament lights are "can be changed by a dealer" options. I'd spotted the options in the manual, but hadn't registered until now that they weren't easily accessible. Sigh.

 

There are apps available that allow you to change those dealer only options. Carista I think is one. Never used such myself, so don't know what is required.

 

Can you give me a manual page # where it says the interior lighting can be changed by a dealer?

 

Pg 538 of the owner's manual (Footwell lights). It also says that the Instrument Panel Ornamental Light (the blue strip?) can be changed by the dealer.

Carista has not been updated for Gen 5, so only items common to Gen 4 and Gen5 are changeable through its OBD device and software. The Footwell light setting is listed, by the IPOL is not listed since it didn't exist in Gen 4.

 

what can the dealer change it to? just darken or change the color of the light?

 

The blue light strip is not on the instrument panel, but on the 'dash board'. I see no reference to the ability to manipulate the blue (or red in Prime) light strip anywhere in the owner's manual. I spoke to my dealership and they know of no ability to change it.

 

There's no consistent distinction made between "instrument panel" and "dashboard" in the manual. The "instrument panel ornament lights" are the light strip across the whole dash.

The setting is shown here in the US owner's manual:

 

Boggles me why Toyota would place some settings accessible in the GUI but not this one! Picked up the car today and found the correct disabling method within the latest TIS software (already had a mini-VCI way back from my first 2004 Prius purchase that still works fine) Didn't take a picture initially, but will look up the exact settings later on. Basically under the customization function, there is a category on the right column that has settings for interior lights, including:

"Interior Illumination Light 2" and Interior Illumination Light 3"
Disabling both of those will do the trick. I didn't notice initially what "Interior Illumination Light 1" does.. tired
At first I thought it didn't do anything, and then later realized that it cut the lighting off in sections, one does the far right light near the passenger and the other does the remaining lighted section.

So yes, dealer should definitely be able to do this (and free of charge) Just have to find a competent dealer/person that knows what they are doing with TIS software. I'll update this post later on with more details to be useful for others going to their dealers to change this.

 

I wonder if the setting (to off) gets lost whenever 12 volt battery is disconnected.

^ Why do you say that; doesn’t that go against their DNA?

 

It doesn't bother me. I hardly notice it really.

 

At least based on prior experiences, settings that mentioned that dealer would be able to change on request from the customer would not be things they would charge for. YMMV though.

I did also notice that the pulsing of the light strip when the lead car drives away still works even if the light has been turned off with Techstream software.

 

It is just one of the many cheesy Gen 5 features.

 

Figured I'd post the screenshot showing where this particular disable lives (light 2 and light 3)

Judging by the description of light 1 it sounds like that may be the footwell light?

I also took a chance to decrease the turn signal blinker sound to the low setting (it was set to medium). That one lives in the 'Warning' category.

Despite all the customize categories shown, only some have actual settings that apply, some just show us as blank.

 

Does any one have any photos or videos of successfully changing the color or disabling the "Dashboard" Lighting? I know this sounds strange but I am Autistic and I CAN actually see the light strips flickering. In fact I am so sensitive to it that I can tell it is flickering about thirty to forty times a second. The red color sometimes causes mild headaches after a while and eye strain/fatigue.

 

Gray or another color of your choice for silicone caulk? It could be translucent or opaque and may change or block the color.

 

Well that is an idea but let's keep the ideas open. I think I can unplug the strips. I do like the notification feature. If only it can just stay off the rest of the time or just not flicker. But I know that is how LED's do "dimming".

 

I put a piece of duct tape over my computer’s blue power LED to reduce its intensity because it is super bright and blinks in sleep mode.

 

I recall being stopped in traffic, and could see in the side view mirror, the running light of the following car, noticeably flickering/pulsing. If I turned and looked directly at it, no apparent flicker. Looking again through the mirror, still flickering.

something else about such lights (presumably LED): they just don’t seem to command attention, like the old-school tungsten filament bulbs.

 

There are higher quality SMD's (LED light chip thingy) that do not flicker as much. Like the ones is LifX or Philips Hue smart bulbs. I am guessing they are pretty expensive and possibly cannot be strung together in a strip. The Red flicker seems to be the worse (the Prius has). Orange/Yellow, Violet & Magenta are even worse. Due to a combination of Autism and extreme nearsightedness I can use both light sources. I guess it is some kind of prismatic like effect. If I look at the light source directly I mostly see only one color. Then the further I turn away from the light source the more the main color splits into two. I am guessing the light has to travel more through the eyeglass lenses. I do not seem to notice this effect as much when I wearing my contact lenses though. So I am trying to remember Prime/Phev has Red light
Prius has White light and Prius AWD has Blue light?

 

There are four total options:
1. HEV LE - silver plastic trim, no light
2. HEV XLE/LTD - silver plastic trim, blue light
3. PHEV SE - copper plastic trim, no light
4. PHEV XSE/XSE+ - copper plastic trim, red light


But to the core of your question, I believe they can be turned off, but only with a scantool that can access the customization settings. A dealer can definitely do it. Anyone with the correct adaptor and an $80/2day Professional Diagnostic subscription to Toyota Information System(TIS) can do it. I'm not sure if Carista/Carly can do it.

In the Customization tree it's:

Customization>Illumination>Instrument panel ornament lights (On/Off)
- this setting should turn the light strip on or off

Customization>Illumination>Illumination notification (On/Off)
- this setting turns the notification blinking on or off



I do have spare set of blue/silver trim pieces from my LTD if you want to try a different color. My LTD is painted red, so I swapped the interior to that of a PHEV, with the red trim/lights and red stitched seats and steering wheel. I got rid of the old seat covers, but I still have the dash trim pieces with the lights. You probably aren't interested in a blue light with all the red trim in your interior, but the option's there if you want.