I've posted this question before shortly after getting my truck, and there were no takers. Now that many others have these, and ForScan has become more prolific, perhaps someone has the answer.

Scenario: drop better half at the door of the grocery store so she can run in and pick up a few things, you park and wait for her to come back out.

You shut the truck off. The headlights are on for their delay period and the Sync dashboard screen remains in Night mode with a dark background.

Then the headlights shut off, and right after that the Sync screen switches to Day mode which includes a bright white and blue background. Not only is this quite dazzling to those in the vehicle, but anyone outside the vehicle can clearly see you sitting there, illuminated by the screen.

The screen will change to bright mode whether the radio is on or off, and will remain in this mode until you do one of the following: open and close your door, switch your parking lights or headlights back on, or go into a couple layers of settings in Sync and manually put the screen in Night mode or turn it off completely. None of these options are great, but I tend to switch the parking lights on because it is the easiest option.

Obviously Ford knows the screen needs a day and night mode since they have that programmed in. But WHY would they make it work this way only? It appears Day/Night mode is tied directly to lights on/off operation. In the past, both the original 6.5" Sync w/ Navi on the 2011 trucks, and the MyFord Touch would stay dimmed even with the lights off. It would be so easy to fix: tie operation to the light sensor on the dash, install a light sensor into the unit itself, or program the system to stay dimmed if the last "state" with the engine running was dimmed, until the next restart.

Any ForScan fixes? Or other thoughts? Anyone else bugged by this?

 

You're right to float this question to the FORScan crowd but the crowd is still pretty small. Livnitup is the most knowledgeable and you might get a quicker response via PM. The feature as you describe sounds pretty tricky though and I don't have enough experience to know how to integrate that much information into a Sync screen dim or timeout feature.

 

My thinking is that they assume that when the lights go out, you are getting out of the vehicle and may need more light to exit, thus the "brightening" of the screen?

I can't say it would bother me, but I would probably prefer it stay in night mode.

 

See, that's the thing. I'm not getting out. I simply shut the engine off while I wait. If you do open the door, then the system shuts down completely like it should. So the truck knows you're not getting out, because the doors did not open.

My point is that Ford had this right in the previous generation trucks, but not in this one. The white screen is particularly egregious.

Imagine a cop driving a Taurus or Explorer that pulled to the side of the road to run radar on speeders at night. After a few moments his Sync screen turns dazzling white?

The Sync3 behavior is identical in the F-150, that much I know.

Epic, thanks for the contact info. I really need to buy a Windows laptop and the OBDII adapter.

 

I thought that I seen a setting under display settings for the dimming of screen but not a 100% positive

 

I found mine would randomly switch back and forth when it was overcast and near dusk or dawn.
It drove me nuts too, i set it to stay in night mode all the time and i like it that way, even during the day. I can see it perfectly fine, and no more random blinding white light in the face

 

The random switch was your headlights automatically turning on and off. That is the trigger. Sometimes Autolamp will turn the lights on, then change its mind and turn them back off, then back on again.

I did think about permanent night mode. I guess that is still a possibility.

 

There is a 'correction' setting but the problem isn't the brightness level, its that the screen should not revert back to Day setting when it is night!

Thanks though. Appreciating all the suggestions.

 

Odd thing is, i never run my head lights in auto, i turned off the rain sensing wipers as well, i like to be in control. Maybe i am dreaming but it seemed to help change the sensitivity when i closed the moonroof shade, am i crazy thinking there is a sensor inside somewhere? I had it happen on more than one occasion, even at night as i passed under a lit overpass etc. Irregaurdless I am happy with night mode, my eyes tend to be more sensitive to light than most.

 

Hmm, never tired manual control. But I don't think there is a sensor other than the light sensor.

 

I experienced the same as all the above and like Kubota I just manually selected night mode all the time and now I'm happy. I prefer the night screen during the day anyway, the dark background mixes well with the dash and to me looks nicer than the bright screen.

 

I hate this too. Park and turn the lights off (I always give it a minute or two for turbo cool down) and the screen gets bright as hell! So I leave my parking lights on. But a few occasions where I remain in the truck after shutting it off and the light is blinding.

I've never used the auto headlights in any vehicle. I think it is silly although maybe useful for the idiots that drive around in rain or fog without their lights on (if it's dark enough to turn the lights on?). I guess if I had the auto high beams I might use it. The flip side is all the people that are parked, whether along the road, in their driveway, pulled up to the convenience store, etc. and are blinding the hell out of people because they have their headlights on. That's why there are parking lights (hence the name).



Yup, happens on cloudy or rainy days. Or going from brighter light to shade/dark under trees in the woods.


I'll have to try that!

 

If you have the LEDs then set it to marker lights only, 2nd click, the truck looks amazing in this mode wile parked, head lights are off but the cool C and Z LEDs stay on, unfortunately the front ones go to dim mode when in park, but it will fix the bright screen problem and make your truck look good doing it while making you invisible inside as well