Where is the dimmer cable switch located on the 2nd gen Prius?

I'll walk out and look at my '05 in just a second I would think the dimmer would be built into the wiring harness to the radio via whatever it is in Toyota I have to look at my adapter plug I mean it wouldn't be separate I wouldn't think but.? I'm almost positive it's not I don't know how you would be able to undo the dimmer from the radio without I don't know cutting the wire? Unless you have an aftermarket stereo that you took out of another Prius which it was installed in the previous car correctly and now maybe not?. Not sure what's going on but I can go out and look at my car and tell you pretty quick like I say I didn't know the dimmer was separated until you go to an aftermarket stereo of some sort which one of my cars has a JVC 6-in display backup camera Bluetooth radio CD player whatever the heck it is remote and everything all of it works perfectly including the backup camera.

 

The lower plastic dash cover (under the steering wheel) has one exposed phillips head screw at the bottom. Remove it. Then you need to remove the left dash vent. Remove the phillip head screw that becomes visible at the bottom of the area that was covered by the vent. Pop the bottom dash cover loose. You should be able to see the back of the dimmer switch. The wire should be hanging somewhere behind the dimmer switch. I just fixed this on a car yesterday. Same exact scenario. Someone performing previous job left it disconnected. I was asked to investigate the lighting issue while I had the car for installing new brake actuator. Had to take dash covers off anyway to install the new actuator resistor.

 

So so they unplugged the dimmer switch way over on the driver side of the dash while they're doing the stereo really That's pretty interesting stuff I can't even imagine how that could possibly go putting a stereo in any of my Prius has not involved touching the dimmer dial knob whatever That's over there on the other side of the dash where I'm not even going to be I hope. But that's interesting I'll have to keep this in mind when I grab a Gen 2 and the stereo light doesn't come on or what have you That's very interesting.

 

So was yours in fact unplugged your dimmer knob device by the steering wheel in the dash was just disconnected unplugged? Good to know

 

Seems pretty clear the easiest way to get this fixed is to go there and say this!

 

I guess maybe if they're trying to run a microphone right there under the visor way over on the far left but that seems well nothing surprises me these days The JVC I just removed from an '05 was installed this way The microphone ran under the dash the top dash cover that holds the display down and all that to get the microphone way over there in the corner. And then they had connected to a permanent power wire or something way over there and ran the wire all the way back to the stereo when all that should be right there at the stereo plugs.

 

This is literally a 3 minute fix.

 

Yeah I'm just trying to find out whether this was really unplugged in the original poster's car. I didn't even know this was a thing usually when you put a modern radio in a modern vehicle you don't even necessarily use the dimmer wire because the stereo has its own built-in dimmer button and its menu some of them allow you to use the dimmer wire from the car just initially to dim the display one step so it's not blinding you when you turn on the car but then in the menu of the stereo you can alter the brightness of the display for during use of the stereo and driving the car and then you would just disable PIN number 10 of the meta cable adapter and that would take away the voltage going to the dimmer when you turn the lights on not go over and unplug the dimmer cable from the dimmer for the whole car how are you going to turn your displays in the car down not the stereo? So I just find it interesting that people just unplug it and I was wondering if that was really what happened?

 

I don't think he's saying they used the dimmer wire, just that they had to disconnect it in order to remove that portion of the dash cover. That portion needs the dimmer, key and reset wires disconnected in order to fully remove it from the dash. Many times, the dimmer gets forgotten when re-connecting.