This past week I finally gave in to the 21st century and replaced the original head unit in my W202 (a Becker?) with an Alpine 9881 CD receiver, which will also play MP3s and WMAs. The unit is great, but . . .

. . . the 6 buttons on the unit (for source, band, and track movement) are too bright at night! A sizzling blue, like outdoor Christmas lights!

The manual only mentions how to dim or increase the contrast on the LCD display, including setting it so it dims when your headlights are on. I've done that. But is there any way to dim these bright blue searchlights? It's very distracting. I'll call Alpine's tech support, of course, and check with the installers. But has anyone had a similar problem, and did you find a way to fix it?

Failing a tech fix, could I stick a strip of dark window tint, trimmed to the right size and shape, over the button pad without ruining anything? Or should I just exchange the unit for something else?

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-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino