[emilisprofas]

Hello,

I recently bought a 2017 G30 and noticed an issue with ambient lighting. It is very dim and works well only at night time. During day time it's almost invisible even on max brightness (pictures during day time and evening attached).

I tried checking ambient light settings and there was an option "dimmed for night driving" but it changes nothing.

So far I've tried:
- switching "Dimmed for night driving" option on/off during day time, night time: lights didn't get dimmed or become brighter in any way. The brightness slider works.
- resetting iDrive (holding volume button for 70 seconds)
- deleting personal data
- scanning for faults with OBD adapter (no present faults)

Time and date settings are correct. I also made sure the brightness sensor works by pointing a flashlight at the instrument cluster at night, the entire cluster became brighter (not sure if it uses the same sensor).

It seems as if the ambient lighting is dimmed permanently and that is why the option "dimmed for night driving" doesn't affect the brightness in any way.

Is there anything I could do to fix the issue?

Any help is appreciated

[AP]

Do you have tinted windows by any chance? If that could be fooling the car to thinking if it’s dark, hence night mode.

[emilisprofas]

Originally Posted by AP

Do you have tinted windows by any chance? If that could be fooling the car to thinking if it’s dark, hence night mode.

The car only has (S420) Sun protection glazing package which slightly tints back windows. Front windows and windshield are not tinted. But even if the windows were tinted, I think disabling the night dimming option should increase the brightness, but it does nothing.

[capese21]

Dim ambient during the day is normal it may not even by lit until the lights are switched on. To see no change for dimmed for night time is strange though.

[Joe-BMW33]

Sounds like a software issue as you have noted through process of elimination. Do you have Bimmercode? You may want to poke around with it to see if Ambient Lighting is or has become hard coded in some way. Flip a few switches in there and "code", even if you have to flip them back, it may jump start it.

[resbmw443]

I see notable changes in lighting when Dimmed for night driving is turned off. Have LCI though.

[BMW_E_F_G]

Originally Posted by emilisprofas

Hello,

I recently bought a 2017 G30 and noticed an issue with ambient lighting. It is very dim and works well only at night time. During day time it's almost invisible even on max brightness (pictures during day time and evening attached).

I tried checking ambient light settings and there was an option "dimmed for night driving" but it changes nothing.

So far I've tried:
- switching "Dimmed for night driving" option on/off during day time, night time: lights didn't get dimmed or become brighter in any way. The brightness slider works.
- resetting iDrive (holding volume button for 70 seconds)
- deleting personal data
- scanning for faults with OBD adapter (no present faults)

Time and date settings are correct. I also made sure the brightness sensor works by pointing a flashlight at the instrument cluster at night, the entire cluster became brighter (not sure if it uses the same sensor).

It seems as if the ambient lighting is dimmed permanently and that is why the option "dimmed for night driving" doesn't affect the brightness in any way.

Is there anything I could do to fix the issue?

Any help is appreciated

Hi bud,

That's so unfortunate for you... like I rode in this forum it might be coded a different way. I firstly thought about the light sensor but, you've already checked them so the only thing that is left is coding procedure. Different coded parameters will mostly not give you any trouble codes.

I did once code to a customer the ambient light to match the light switch. So when the headlights are on they will be forever dim, you can even adjust the brightness of it. There can be also a combination of light sensor + coding or coded to match the legal terms in a specific state (country)

I will go ahead and check this out today for you.

You will probably need ProTool from bimmergeeks since it will be much much much easier for you to fix this issue via VO-coding (automatically coding car to it's original settings) in stead of manually ticking the right boxes. E-sys 3.36.2 will do also just the right thing VO-Coding.

Greets,
Taylyan