From time to time my dash lights have been turning off on on me, but a well-placed engineer's tap to the headlight switch or surrounding area turns them back on. Yesterday, I took apart my dash to replace the back lights with some cheap LEDs (VERY nice results. Dash lights look better than ever.)

While I had the cluster apart, I took the time to spray the dimmer mechanism down with contact cleaner and compressed air and clean everything. This doesn't seem to have solved the problem, as the lights went out several times on my test drive. Does anyone have a more permanent fix? (Would like to avoid buying a new switch, if Toyota even still makes them.)

Follow my diy:
http://web.archive.org/web/201205072316 ... ?id=102169

Vic

YES! Thank you! I was thinking that I might be able to fix the problem by bypassing the dimmer (since with LEDs I don't need it anyways), but from your writeup it looks like the problem is in the switch itself. This will save me a ton of time and headache!

hey tora, how bad was the switch to led?
ive been thinking about it when i switch out my dash, but not sure on my electrical skills.

It was perhaps the easiest mod I've ever done, aside from putting in an LED dome light. Steering wheel off, 5 screws to get the dash black plastic bezel out, pop the wiring harnesses, 4 more screws and the cluster is out. If you get the correct LED bulbs (I used these for $10: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00755 ... 01_s00_i00 and have six left over if they ever burn out.) all you have to do is twist out the four marked bulb holders, pull out the old bulbs, and put them back in. Initially mine didn't work, but after I took it back out and cleaned the connecting surfaces they lit right up!

Waaaaay easier than removing and installing the whole dashboard.