yes they should always be on, however you can dim them almost all the way off using the dimmer that is inside the tachometer

i don;t think that it is knew it does it in my 98.5 too

the same sun sensor used for the climate control system. When I go into my parking garage with my headlights off, the cluster lights up.

Cheers,
Mark
99.5 1.8TQMS

-

or so at max brightness. I only turn the instrument lights up for night driving. I don't know which lights are LED verus incandescent, but the odd are high that the background lights are bulbs and not LEDs.