Buick Lucerne Electrical/Lighting

I have the same complaint over not being able to see the speedometer in bright sunlight. Dealer says I have the new bolder IPC, but it does not solve the problem. I attached a small metal housing enclosing a 4 watt bulb from a 24 volt Malibu patio light set to the top of the steering column assembly. It plugs into the accessory outlet. It works great, but it looks terrible on a new $30K automobile. At least I can now see the speedometer in daylight--even with sun glasses on which is a major safety concern for me. Buick needs to come up with an improved instrument panel cluster lighting system to resolve this.

#24 of 116 turn signal chimes by kcwolfpack59

Sep 18, 2007 (9:05 pm)

This is strange. They make a buzzing sound instead of the chime. Will go back to the dealer, but I am curious, did anyone else have this problem?

#25 of 116 Day time running lights seem to operate oddly by jeskol

Nov 12, 2007 (8:30 pm)

#26 of 116 Day time running lights seem to operate oddly by jeskol

Nov 12, 2007 (1:37 pm)

When set to Automatic, the day time running lights fail to come on within a reasonable time. I've had it to the dealer and they say it's running to specs. I cannot believe that this is how Buick wants these things to function. I drive west every morning, and the sun is streaming into the car from the rear window, making it impossible to see anything on the dashboard, but until the sun is overhead, the headlights continue to stay on, and the dashboard lights are dim. I now travel with a flashlight to shine on the sensor so that the headlights will go off an the running lights will kick in.
I've noticed that the sensor reacts to a solid blue sky as if it were dark and leaves the headlights on, but an overcast (white cloudy) sky as if it were light and turns the day time running lights on. I am not unfamiliar with how these things should work, and never had this problem with previous cars, but I'm fed up with the dealer telling me this is the expected performance.

Anyone else having these issues?

Replies to this message:

#27 of 116 Re: Day time running lights seem to operate oddly [jeskol] by vic10

Nov 12, 2007 (4:43 pm)

Replying to: jeskol (Nov 12, 2007 1:37 pm)

Can't speak for the Lucerne, but my 300C operates the same way. I'm driving home with sunglasses on and the headlights come on. But since I have real gages, it's not much of an issue....

#28 of 116 Re: Day time running lights seem to operate oddly [jeskol] by jef4

Nov 12, 2007 (8:30 pm)

Replying to: jeskol (Nov 12, 2007 1:37 pm)

You are correct. The same thing has been happening to my Lucerne. One morning I almost called the Buick garage to tell them of the problem when the lights finally came on 20 minutes later.

#29 of 116 Re: Lucerne instrument lighting [wwelch] by rmello

Dec 26, 2007 (8:33 am)

Replying to: wwelch (Dec 02, 2006 9:06 am)

I have seen many online complaints about this problem. I have an 06 Lucerne, same issue.

#30 of 116 Instrument panel lighting by rmello

Mar 17, 2008 (8:39 am)

Buick has a fix for the darkness of the instrument cluster, I had it done on my 2006 Lucerne. They completely replace the instrument cluster with a cluster that has bigger and brighter numbers. The cluster still does not light up during daytime but, the bigger cluster is definately easier to see. It takes about 1 hr to make the change.

Hope this helps.

Roger

Replies to this message:

buckshot0421 (Sep 01, 2008 9:08 am)

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