I have my display set to night mode because the black is much easier and nicer to look at (whoever came up with the idea of powder blue should be fired) during the day the display is dim unless I turn ON my lights then the display brightens up! The ambient sensor dims it as it should at dusk\night and the brightness slider only adjusts brightness at night. So far I have found no way to make the display stay at full brightness in night mode withought turning the headlights (or running lights) on during the day... Am I missing something? Is there an edit I can make in Forscan?

 

By selecting night mode it will dim with the lights off. I changed mine to the GT theme. The dark blue is far easier on my eyes.

 

 

So question on this, as I have been going back and forth with my dealership about my radios auto-dim issue. When you set the day/night mode setting to “auto”, another selector called “auto-dim” is displayed below the mode setting. When “auto-dim” is enabled, how does the radio screen determine what brightness setting to go to?

I ask this for clarification for what I think I already know about how the truck works. The “auto-dim” setting grabs the dimmer setting from the instrument cluster so the sync screen mirrors the same brightness. Is this correct?

In my 17 lariat this is what I see on how the system functions. Occasionally on start up when it’s dark out, auto-headlights enabled, the radio goes to “dark” mode as it should being in “auto” mode, but the screen brightness stays blindingly bright from “day” mode even though it’s set to “auto-dim”. About 60% of the time on startups it functions correctly, the rest it blinds me and I have to move the dimmer setting by the headlight control up and down to get it to re-sync.

I showed the service manager at the dealership this yesterday, and I got the truck back with the explanation that the radio screen independently decides what brightness setting to use based on ambient light conditions when in “auto-dim”. They explained that the sync system and the instrument cluster are two separate systems that grab the ambient light conditions from the same sensor. Why then would the headlight dimmer switch change the radio brightness? I get the feeling they don’t understand their own systems...

In Jan 2019 I brought the truck in for the first time for this auto-dim issue. At that time they gave me a better explanation that there’s “excessive traffic on the network controller BUS on startup, causing the APIM to miss dimmer setting.” This made sense, however it’s clearly a problem with the system that they don’t have a solution for. Can anyone confirm?

 

I’m think you are saying that it doesn’t behave consistently when conditions remain constant. Is that right? If so, that isn’t normal.

However, if there are variables, you’ll need to consider them. Going off memory.....if I remote start the truck, it is always at the brighter day setting (when dark out) until I hit the start button. Other than that, my truck’s brightness is pretty consistent. You might try playing with the auto mode. Do it during the day and use something to cover the light sensor until you get it acting exactly how you want it.

Again, going on memory while sitting on my couch....the first auto setting has to do with the headlight switch. It goes to night mode when the headlights are turned on and day setting when the headlights are turned off. The other setting is so it will dim or brighten based on ambient lighting conditions no matter if the headlights are on or off.

I think your lights being in the auto headlight mode makes the truck only use the ambient light sensor to determine how bright to set your interior lights. It may, therefore, have something to do with how sensitive your ambient light sensor is..

Is that helpful? I don’t know the ins and outs of this system because mine works just how I like it. The only issue I had was that my instrument lights were too bright at night, even dimmed all the way down. I ended up tinting the clear screen over the instrument cluster.

 

You are absolutely correct in that the settings remain the same, but the center stack acts inconsistently.

So I’ve played with it a bit, and found a few things out. If the headlight selector is in the off position, the radio screen remains in day mode and high brightness regardless of ambient light conditions. If the headlight selector is in any other position (park/on/auto), the radio screen and instrument cluster use the ambient light sensor to determine if it should be in day or night mode (hence auto mode setting). Without blocking the light sensor to mimic a dark ambient light condition, the instrument cluster and radio screen remain in “day” mode even if the headlights are manually turned on.

BTW, the auto day/night mode works correctly every time. It’s the “auto dim” setting on startup only that’s the problem when it goes into night mode. If I block the light sensor once everything’s up and running, it all functions and dims as it should.

I have found that the center screen fails to mimic the brightness of the instrument cluster more frequently when using remote start at night, but it also does it in normal push button starts. Frequently the radio screen boots up very bright, but eventually syncs with the instrument cluster. That delay I’m not worried about, since it’s usually corrected before I start driving and within a few seconds on the home screen. Also, I’ve found if I put the truck in reverse the screen also goes bright when the backup cameras is on.

What drives me crazy is when the radio screen never auto-dims to sync to the instrument cluster dimmer setting. That’s the inconsistent behavior I’m trying to get the dealership to acknowledge...

 

I see. That doesn’t sound normal to me.
Mine seem pretty well synced, because I don’t recall noticing them not being synced.

The hard part will be getting the dealership to do anything about it. It probably doesn’t come up often enough for them to know how to change it. I wonder if there is a shared knowledge base they can access to see if anyone else found how to fix it?

Thinking out loud, I wonder if rebooting the radio or removing the truck battery for a while might fix it....kind of like rebooting a computer. Sometimes unplugging power does wonders.

 

Thanks for the reply! This last visit to Ford had them finally doing something for this issue for the first time. They did a battery reset, or at least the paperwork says so. When it was returned, all the settings were reverted back to factory and everything was cleared. With the quarantine from this virus I haven’t had a chance to drive it since I picked it up. I’ll check back this week.

I’ve seen this thread on another forum https://www.f150forum.com/f118/remot...bright-440992/
It seems to be a software glitch in the Sync 3, v3.0. I’d agree with that since this issue didn’t start until December of 2018. It didn’t always act like this.

Thanks for the help!