About 3 weeks ago I got a 2005 Forester with 149,000 miles on it.  It runs great but I have a problem with the dashboard light; at night it doesn't light up.  I looked through the manual with no help.  I'm still trying to figure out all the switches.  does anyone out there have any ideas.

Do other lights light up (such as the radio, heater/AC controls, any switches like fog lights, rear defrost, etc.)?  

 

Bulbs can burn out that provide light to the back side of the dash and various buttons/controls, but there are a number of different bulbs there which would leave one or two dark spots on your dash.  If all of them are out it seems unlikely that they all decided to burn out at the same time and it is some other problem (fuse, wiring).

My 2002 Forester has a rheostat-type control, that dims the panel-lights.

There's a 'ring' on the left-side control-stalk. Turn it, and the panel-lights can be dimmed, and turned completely off (I think).

     Forester2002s,  It tried that control and it worked.  Thank you for your help.