I have been having some strange lighting problems in my car lately.

About a month ago I noticed that when I pressed the brakes the in-radio illumination lighting would come on (just like when the parking lights are on)

I had planned on removing the radio anyways, because you cannot hear it (exhaust/intake sounds) and I never turn it on anyways. I removed the radio and replaced it with the 3 gauge's that mitsu had below my ac controls.

Next this morning I noticed that my dimmer switch is not working to dim the lights. I can turn it up and down all day and no change to the brightness of the cluster.

MY relevevant mods are here:

1 - full LED conversion (exterior = parking lights, reverse lights, brake lights, turn signals and farmer's led center high mount stop light)
2 - farmers LED conversion AC lights, keyring and cig lighter ring.
3 - autometer gauges in my a-post that get thier lighting power from the dimmer switch (I tapped off the green/white wire for power and used metal from the body for ground - these function properly - I DO NOT want them to fade with the dimmer) I have also replaced the autometer bulbs with LED.
4 - I have small LED pods under the dash for "footwell" lighting - these are wired to the cigarette lighter ring for power.

If anyone can give me things to check i would greatly appreciate it.

I also think that my cluster is "darkening" itself too much when I press the brakes probably compared to stock evo's. I know when I press the brakes the system uses current to light up my rear lights, but it shouldnt darken as much as I think it is. You can see a difference at 6 in the morning outside when you watch the cluster if you hit the brakes. I mean the stock lighting dims enough to see it in 6am sunrise kinda' light. At noon when its sunny out you cant see the difference because its too bright in the car. If I park in the garage where it is pitch black inside you can tell for sure. I tried to get others to do this but it is hard to gauge with other peoples reactions.

 

I fixed my dimmer problem (the problem where the dimmer would not dim my cluster no matter how I moved the dial) - it turns out the "radio" fuse was missing - I don't know how that got missing, but the fuse that was 10A in spot number 13 was missing all together. I shoved one in there and all a sudden the dimmer started working good. I have no clue how this happened. The cluster still seems to dim more than most cars I have seen when I hit my brakes - I know people say that it is because the system is drawing current to turn on the brake LED's but this is so little current that I don't expect it to dull any.