How to make dash lights brighter...

Greets.

2002 Camry LE. The dash lights--all of em including the heater, radio,
vents, fuel guage, speedo, etc.--are just kinda barely visible when
cranked to the max. Is there a way to brighten all these up?

Something simple like a rheostat someplace or would I have to replace
all those bulbs with something brighter?

Thanks,

tom

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 17:46:26 -0700, Big Kahuna wrote:

> Greets.
>
> 2002 Camry LE. The dash lights--all of em including the heater, radio,
> vents, fuel guage, speedo, etc.--are just kinda barely visible when
> cranked to the max. Is there a way to brighten all these up?
>
> Something simple like a rheostat someplace or would I have to replace
> all those bulbs with something brighter?
>
> Thanks,
>
> tom

This is a 2002? IIRC, they are pretty bright.

Did you buy the car new? Have you noticed a degradation in the brilliance
over time?

If so, I would look for a loose plug; just loose enough to allow
'carbonizing' but not enough to disconnect.

Either that or, as you suspect, the rheostat is carbonizing.

Alternately (this isn't one of those flourescent/vacuum displays, is it?)
you could swap out the 168 bulbs in the cluster for 192's. But from your
description it appears to be global, so I'd be looking for bad contact
somewhere; connector, rheostat or switch.