I have a 2000 Grand Vitara with around 74000 miles on it. First of all, forgive...I posted on this issue awhile back but I am still not any closer to a resolution to a peculiar problem I am having with the LEDS in the A/C and heater buttons and , to some degree in my car stereo, than I was then.
First of all, the way I understand those buttons are to work is that they are bright in the daylight and they dim at night to prevent what someone on here told me is "haze". I've had others tell me differently but I personally think that this is the way it's setup from the facotry.
I never really noticed these lights before a few months ago, until I started having problems. Now I park my car in a garage which is either dark at night or shady during the day, so when I start my car the LED's initially are bright, but then I hear a clicking sound and then they go dim.
Then, when it was running good and if I backed out of the garage and into the daylight, the LEDS would go to bright and stay on bright until something, either the computer or light sensors detected that it was it thought was night.
Well eventually, when driving around in the daytime, the LEDS started flicking in and out from bright to dim, and there seemed no apparent pattern to this, that is until I noticed that they would switch when any type of shade at all, even from a tree or something would pass over the light sensor on the top of the dash. There are two of these. Since this would happen so quickly, they would then switch back to bright quickly
I've had it into the local Honda dealer, the place where I bought the car (there is no Suzuki dealer in my city) and they've upgraded the software a few times and since then there's not even any switching back and forth with the LEDS anymore. After that initial brightness when I turn on the car, they stay dim all the time now, even in the daylight.
At first this problem was just becoming a little annoyance that went into my "need to be fixed" category, because I'm a person who likes all of my equipment to work perfectly, but now it's actually a little bit of a pain to see what lights of what buttons are on because the LEDS are so dim during the day.
I do feel that the Honda dealer has done it's best to fix this but I do think they are limited about how much they know about Suzuki's. We are going to try one more thing and then I'm going to give this Import repair shop a shot at it. That is, they are going to replace the light sensors on top of the dash.
To me that just makes sense because it sounds to me like the system isn't able to detect when it's really light and when it's dark and a quick pass by piece of shade during the day should not be able to throw that thing out of sync that easily.
I've heard from others that it may have something to do with the Body Control Module but we really haven't explored that yet. Besides if I needed a new one, from what I understand it's very expensive. I just talked to a Suzuki service department from another city today and he did not think it had anything to do with the BCM.
Based on the model year you mention, your vehicle does not have a BCM and I'm now curious as to what "software" the Honda dealer upgraded, and even more as to how they did it.
Somehow I don't see your Honda dealer having the fairly expensive "non Honda" tools that would be required to perform the task - the Tech1 is no longer produced and the newer Tech2 is about $3000 plus the cost of whatever modules are needed.
@XL7Unlimited - the LEDs will only respond to ambient light IF your vehicle has the "auto light" option - they are designed to run at full brightness when the lights are off, and to dim when the lights come on to reduce the possibility of dazzling the driver.
They do not respond directly to ambient light, but rather to the vehicle lights, which, if the auto light option is present, will respond to ambient light, if the engine is on - so the LEDs respond indirectly to ambent light, provided certain conditions are met.
Try this - sit in the vehicle with it parked in the sun and start the engine - look at the LEDs and then whilst watching them, switch the lights on - the LED should dim noticeably. You can also do this in the evening - if you do not have the auto light option, the change in brightness will be quite striking - if you do have the auto light option, it's less easy to see because you do not have the same degree of control over the lights.
Just an update....Right after I posted this, I had it in the same garage and they put in some kind of new running light module. I don't know how they came to the conclusion that this was going to help, but they have been grasping at straws every time I'm in there.
Well maybe because of what the service guy said one time after a software upgrade about "giving it some time" to let the software work in, maybe it took awhile to cycle everything but when driving out of the garage, there was no change at all compared to when I took it in.
The next day though, when backing my car out of the shady garage and into the daylight, once the light hit the sensors, the bright LED's came on but then things flicked and clicked back and forth for a few seconds, then it went to dim and stayed there, just like it as been doing!
Later that day, after reading your post, I was playing around with the light switch on the steering column. To be honest, when you mentioned something about the Auto Light option, I really wasn't even sure I had that or what that was. But I assume now that, that's a setting that's on by default on the vehicle, where you don't have to touch anything for the lights to come on and on the light switch on the steering column it's set to off.
Well while still in the shade of the garage and the ignition on, I went through the other two options on the switch just to make sure I knew what they did. They are lights on and lights on with brights, then I turned off the ignition just to see what would happen and the alarm dinged, so I flicked the switch back to off and went inside, not really thinking I had done anything.
Later that day, I was driving around in the daytime when I noticed that the LED's were nice and bright, and even if I came across a brief shadow or two from something, they stayed at bright. I thought, "we did it. the problem is licked"! I continued to drive around awhile, then I went to the grocery store.
When I came out, it was about 5:30 PM and even though the sun was still out, the way I had my car facing , there was some shade in the front of the inside of the car and along the top of the dash, but I still considered that "daylight" and fully expected the LED's to come back on bright when I stared the car...wrong!
When the car started up, the LED's were back to being dim. But then I thought, ok maybe once I get into some light, or the sensors on the dash pick up some light, it will go back to bright. That did not happen. Just a hunch though, but I bet you that if I would have started the car without the shade in the car or on the dash sensors, it would have started up and stayed bright.
At this point, it's just one more bizarre incident that still has not been solved in this puzzle. Although I think the garage I've been going to may have just about given up on finding any answers, I did talk to them about possibly replacing the light sensors on the dash, though I don't know if they are going to come through on that!
My gut instinct is that it still needs a proper software upgrade because this thing is just too intermittent and for that, I will go to this new import place I mentioned before. The guy there appears to know what he's doing and at least will keep trying things.
I realise now that there is something I have not been able to get across to you - so let me apologise in advance - it's not my intention to offend, but I think I need to be blunt about this.
There is NO computer & NO software involved in this, and anyone who suggests there is, is just 'BS'ing you.
Behind the a/c controls is a small circuit board with the control switches, two bulbs, half a dozen LEDs, a handful of resistors and a couple of transistors.
When the ignition is switched on power goes to the circuit board and which ever LED is selected lights up - when the lights turn on - the two bulbs on the circuit board light up (to backlight the assembly) and one of the transistors switches an additional resistor into the circuit to dim the LED.
There are two separate, but identical circuits on the board - one controls the LED for the a/c on/off button and the other controls the five LEDs for the "air distribution" (windscreen defog, windscreen & floor, floor, face & floor, face) buttons.
I had a similar problem on my 2001 Tracker with the clock / radio display. Sometimes when I woiuld check the time, I couldn't see it and would look close and there it was, dim, but there it was, then I would look back and it would be o.k. again. It took a little while to figure out that the auto lights were coming on in the daytime and dimming the clock display. A little playing around and I found out that just the shadow of the A pillar on a sunny day would cause the lights to come on. My fix was to pop out and disconnect the light sensor on the dash; now the lights don't come on automatically, but even I can figure out when I need my headlights!!
Funny thing though, the lights on or off have no affect that I can tell on the light on the A/C panel. The background lights come on with the lights, but their intensity is controlled by the dash light rheostat. Good luck.
Funny thing though, the lights on or off have no affect that I can tell on the light on the A/C panel. The background lights come on with the lights, but their intensity is controlled by the dash light rheostat. Good luck.
Are you speaking about the background lights on the A/C panel or the LED indicators on the A/C buttons?
My GV does not have the dash light rheostat, so I can't vary the back lighting, but the button LEDs definitely vary in brightness as the lights are switched on/off.
On the Tracker, there is a dimmer (rheostat) for the dash lights which also dims the background lights on the analog A/C panel, but does not dim the little light on the A/C switch itself. Its just a little slit of a light on the A/C button itself, so dimming wouldn't matter. I'm beginning to think the Vitara is different or maybe digital?
On the Tracker, there is a dimmer (rheostat) for the dash lights which also dims the background lights on the analog A/C panel, but does not dim the little light on the A/C switch itself. Its just a little slit of a light on the A/C button itself, so dimming wouldn't matter. I'm beginning to think the Vitara is different or maybe digital?
I believe the dashlight dimmer is an option on the GV, but it's not installed on mine.
On the a/c control panel, there are (at least on the GV) six buttons - each with it's own LED - and these are the topic of this discussion.
If you park the vehicle in broad daylight (just to eliminate the effects of auto lights) and start the engine, at least one button will light up, and if the a/c is on, that button will also light.
If you now rotate the light switch to bring the lights on, the buttons should dim and when you switch the lights off they should return to full brilliance.
You should also - if the vehicle has the auto light option (again, not installed on mine) - be able to dim/brighten the button LEDs by covering/uncovering the dash sensor.
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Permanently Dim AC Button Lights!
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