My dash light dimmer has not been working and the dash lights, while theydid light,did not adjust brightness. No big deal except for a while I havebeen smelling a slight burning plastic smell.Hardly noticable and seemed to come and go. Today Itraced the smell to the dash dimmer switch. When I removed the switch the outer casing was partly melted and black. Could have been afiredanger if the fuse did not blow. If you have similar symptoms I would suggest immediate replacement of the dimmer switch.My model year has a small access cover below the switch so removal of the dashwas not necessary.

 

what the heck..thats the frist ive ever heard of such a thing. i wonder wat caused the overload.

 

Reostats do produce heat as they create resistance to reduce voltage. This may have been just an isolated thing on one part. I replaced it with a wrecker part off another Camry. Prior to installing I did test the replacement using the procedure from the on-line repair manual. You simply cannot use an OHM meter to test.