Infotainment dimming

It took me quite some time to figure this out. So thought of sharing:

By default (and dealer confirmed this) almost all Mazdas come with full bright setting. What it means is the instrument cluster is at brightest setting. Also it means even in Infotainment screen if you have set display to AUTO brightness at night it will still be bright.

To overcome this:
If doing when dark outside:
1. Make sure headlights are in AUTO mode.
2. Look at the trip meter reset pin, located right side top in the instrument cluster. Then LIGHTLY hold it, do not depress it and turn it counter clockwise. You will see instrument cluster lights dimming along with the infotainment system.

If doing during the day and there is sufficient light outside:
3. Make sure headlights are on full high beam.
4. Do #2 as above.

Once all done, you are done. Now the infotainment system will auto dim when dark outside. Caveat: it will become bright if headlights are switched off.

I'm sorry that you spent a lot of time to figure this out. Page 4-14 of the 2016 owners manual tells you how to adjust dashboard illumination. The manual really should be your first place to look for information about your car.

robertmazda said:

I'm sorry that you spent a lot of time to figure this out. Page 4-14 of the 2016 owners manual tells you how to adjust dashboard illumination. The manual really should be your first place to look for information about your car.

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That's where I got it, but the link to the Infotainment system's auto mode was not clear.

You can set all of this via the Settings section of the infotainment under "Display" tab. Change it from Auto to Day or Night, set your brightness & contrast options. Repeat the same for the other setting, and then put it back to auto.

Yeah this can all be achieved in the infotainment settings. I actually hate that they're tied together. I want my speedo and tach to be full brightness all the time. I think it looks a lot more crisp with the white light on full brightness.

But since they are tied together, I hated that once my headlights came on, my infotainment system switched over to night mode. Making it too dim imo. So at night, with headlights on, I went into settings and turn the brightness all the way up. And it's not bad at all because the night mode not only dims the screen, but switches everything to a black background. Only thing now is I wish I could keep my instrument clusters on full brightness without messing with the infotainment screen.

When I first got the CX5, I simply turned the little trip reset pin all the way to the right to enable full brightness, even at night with touchscreen.

I don't even dim mine in white-out snowstorms.

If you want your speedo/tach full-brightness all the time, twist the thing you use to cycle between TripA/TripB mileage all the way clockwise. This will lock it into bright mode.