Just noticed on my 2019 the center console transmission shift indicators dark when lights on. Any insights appreciated.

 

Yup. Since mid 2018. Posted often.

 

Ford designed it that way to finally teach people to finally stop looking down to switch from R to D since it's been RND for 100 years.

 

Ford saved $10 on your truck by eliminating the light. I noticed they put it back in the 2021s, so they can take it back out in 2024 I guess.

 

Not just dark with the lights on, its dark all the time. How long have you had the truck? I also think it is dumb that you have to press the shifter button to have the gear selection show up on the dash.

 

Not sure why people care about this. They didn't indicate what gear you where in. Rather useless.

 

I've wondered about that also. I can't figure out why you would ever want the gear indicator display to disappear, and the manual doesn't say anything about it, but it's easy to make it disappear by accident and then not know why it went away or how to get it back. Strange.

 

Check this thread out: Shifter Lighting

 

Not wanting the gear indicator displayed is understandable, we didn't have the selected gear displayed until recently, and for some it's just more clutter that distracts from driving.

Not mentioning a thing about how to enable/disable the display, however, is moronic.

 

I disable the gear indicator sometimes. Mostly on the highway. If I can't see the indicator I'm 100% certain I am in 6th overdrive (6-speed trans).
It may have still been locked out to 5th, depending on driving habits prior to the cruising speed. I may have been locked to 4th or 5 in-town.
If the sun hits the display just right it's difficult for me to see the orange indicator, or even at time the sun makes the indicator almost non existent.
So yeah, at times I shut off the display so I can glance and notice the display is off confirming I have enabled O.D.
If I could not turn off the display, I wouldn't care or figure it was bad that the option wasn't there. Since it exists, this is a way I like to utilize it.

As for the console, I have no reason to look 'down' to see which gear I am in. Lighting in the console is irrelevant to me.