2003 Instrument cluster light going out...

[skim35]

Hi guys I have a 2003 Q45 luxury and when i turn on the headlights or turn it to auto position the instrument cluster lights all turn off? But when i turn off the headlights the instrument cluster lights turn back on....What am i missing? is this an electrical problem behind my dash?

[Q451990]

I'm going to guess the dimmer switch isn't set all the way off? The back lighting tube has been known to fail, but I'm going to guess that's not your issue, since it works when the headlights are off. I'd lean toward a dimmer switch issue...

[EdBwoy]

You know, your problem reminds me of an old 98 altima we had. As mentioned above it related to the dimmer switch.
Of course that car's instrument cluster wasn't the backlit kind that you have and neither did it have auto headlights.
However, the dimmer switch went bad and the cluster & all other dimmable lights on the dashboard would turn off when the headlight was on. When switched to the parking position, the lights in question stayed on as expected.

What I did temporarily was to jump some wires behind it to bypass its potentiometer. Eventually I think I installed one from either a junkyard Altima or Maxima and that fixed it.