Alright guys, before you ride me for not searching, I did, and found a few references, but none of them seemed to fit my situation.

I figured, like some of you, that the way to tell what gear you're in in the dark is to look at the dash console. This does work, however, the other morning my center console lit up all nice and pretty. I did nothing different. I've tried futzing with my dimmer switch, turning my lights on and off, fog lamps, everything 'light' related.

Nothing.

So I know my bulb is not burnt out, but the bad news is, I have some other unknown issue related to (likely) wiring. Any other alternatives?

The posts I've seen with relation to opening the center console seem to missing pictures. Can anyone repost? I'm not going to spend $50 for something I can do myself

So I can't tell what you say the problem is.

Are you saying the console light is working but won't dim?

Are you saying that it didn't light up and now it does?

Are you saying it used to light and dim but now it doesn't dim?

Please be specific. What are your symptoms?

To be clear, I fiddled with all controls related to lights to see if that would affect the console, but it did not. This is when the console was off. When the console was on, I just sort of enjoyed it I'm not even sure if it is supposed to dim? All I know is that it spent a long time 'off', it went on for one day, then it went back to off. After it had gone back off, that is when I tried to turn it on by using the dimmer, fog lamps, light stick on the steering column. Nothing worked, it was totally random.

My daughter originally brought it to my attention when I was teaching her to drive, and I scratched my head not knowing if it ever worked.

It is likely that the filament in the light bulb had broken and therefore the light didn't work. Then, as you drove it, the vibration of the car randomly bounced the filament pieces until they accidentally made contact (and maybe even tangled on the ends). This will cause the light to light again.

However, when this happens, the filament is invariably shorter (in length) and therefore lower resistance. This lower resistance will cause it to draw more current and it will burn out easier than it originally would. So your light is probably not going to work until the bulb is replaced.

Mine did the same thing. It would light some times and some times it wouldn't. I got tired of it and took it to a dealer and had him replace it. Cost about $50.00. It is a bad bulb A 2000 SSEi. 80,000 miles.

FYI, its a $2 bulb in there, maybe 10 minutes of work

What kind of bulb