Is there a way to increase the nighttime illumination on the steering wheel controls? The illumination rheostat on the dash seems to only control the intensity of the LCD speedo display. My steering controls are back lit very dimly, to the point where I can hardly see them at night.

I searched the board and did not find another complaints about this. Did I miss something?

 

I don't know if this can be adjusted but I hope someone does and shares it with us all.

 

Well after a little more digging around I found the answer on PriusChat. Looks like this is just a Prius Quirk and not much can be done to fix it. Most every other car if seen with steering wheel controls can dim or brighten the lights with the instrument panel rheostat - I wonder what T was thinking? Oh well, it's only a small annoyance.

 

The apparent logic behind not having dimming steering wheel lights is so that they are not a nusicance or distracting while driving. I typically drive with my dash lights all the way up, at least in the city where you are driving in the artificial light of street lamps and storefronts. Now, if the steering wheel illumination were as bright at the dash ilumination at night, that would be distracting.

On the other hand, the steering wheel buttons are all very tactile in nature. learn where the bumps dimples and lines are and you will be able to manipulat the steering wheel controls day or night without looking down, which is highly preffered over ilumination at night anyway.

 

I'm working on a way to brighten 'em up, without tearing
into the steering wheel itself. Basically a small boost
converter to raise that particular wire to somewhere around
24V -- not quite sure yet. And it should be able to be
dimmable off the same "rheostat" [which is actually a
duty-cycle switcher].
.
_H*

 

Correct on the reason for the dimly lit controls. It's so not to distract you at night.

However, close your eyes and sit with your hands on the steering wheel and you'll discover the Toyota 'braille code'. It's pretty ingenious really. So now you touch the steering wheel while watching the traffic and you know that you are on the volume control or on the station changer, etc.

 

I really thing the steering wheel illumination was an oversight. The MFD is MUCH more distracting than the steering wheel and it's brightness can be changed at night.