I drove approx. 850 km this weekend, of which a large part in the dark. On a pitch dark road, the light of the i-drive screen annoys me. Of course I turn the screen 'off', but the backlight stays on and is too bright for me. I have a 520d LCI. Can the brightness be adjusted? Or can the screen be truly turned off?

 

The screen brightness can indeed be dimmed from the mail iDrive menu. Go to iMenu /Display Settings/Brightness

 

Yes, but it can also be turned off completely
You can also program this feature to the steering wheel buttons.

Play with the iDrive to learn it and, please, read the manual!

 

Hmm.... I have programmed my steering wheel button to turn off the display and it does, but there's still a large amount of light leakage from the backlight. It doesn't seem possible to turn the backlight off completely, unless someone else can advise?

Turning down the brightness of the screen in the settings does help. I agree that the light leakage is annoying, but believe I'll have to live with it!

Andrew

UK - 530d e61, Deep Sea Blue, Nat. Brown leather, panoramic sunroof, etc.

 

I've noticed that the backlight is either too bright at night, or too dark during the day. Also, on dull days when the lights come on, the backlight goes to "night" mode too, and is therefore too dark for daytime use.

It seems that the lights stay on almost all the time now (more often since having a recent service). So the backlight almost never the level that I want.

 

I turn the brightness down at night but also switch to a darker screen. The main menu is OK as are the IPod and radio display screens.
When I'm using Nav at night, I always put the map on the auxillary window to make it less glaring.

 

I can confirm that switching off the display in i-drive does not turn off the backlight in my car (LCI). It only makes all the pixels black, the backlight is still activated very clearly.
I think the option of switching off the screen makes no sense in this way.

However, the central display never annoys me, even on dark roads. So I leave it on all the time.

 

I suppose it's a matter of personal preference. I'll get used to it in time, no doubt!

Andrew

 

It does indeed take a while to find the setting that is exactly right, but it's great once you've found it. I am also really curious about one point that none of you has mentioned / experienced (?) - my iDrive screen has day and night modes but I also notice that it seems to have an auto dimming function. I drive around most of the time with my lights on, thanks to the crappy weather here, but notice a distinct reduction in brightness when I drive into a tunnel and a noticeable incease in brightness when I exit tunnels back into sunlight. I remember noticing it as a huge improvement over the wide screen on my E39, which was too often too bright.

 

I've experienced the same problem and wish 'off' meant completely off. If I were to go on an extended trip at night, I would consider making a template to completely block the i-drive screen.