How do i set the facure to stay on illuminated keeps turning off and going blank but radio still works

It sounds to me like something is drawing battery power after the ignition switch is turned off. You can determine this by disconnecting the positive battery cable from the battery. Now connect a regular DC test light from the positive terminal of the battery to the cable that you have just removed. If the test light illuminates, you know that something is staying on. Now, with the test light still connected, remove each fuse in the vehicles fuse panel, one at a time, until the light goes off. (there may be more than one fuse panel, check the owners manual) When it does go off, you have just identified the circuit that is staying active. Keep in mind that some vehicles have circuits that stay active for a short time after the ignition has been turned off. E.g. radio memory, dash clock, headlights or dome lights that go off after a certain time. These can cause the test light to illuminate also.

Have you considered it to be the light bulb itself?

Sounds like the computer is confused or fried. You might try removing the battery cable for about a minute and then putting it back on. You will probably have to reset the radio codes after doing that. If that doesn't work the unit may have to be replaced.

The unit automatically adjust to ambient room brightness within user-selectable limits. The minimum might be too low.

Page 20 shows how to adjust the minimum brightness.

http://worldwide.bose.com/productsupport/en_us/assets/pdf/guides/wave/wr_series2/en/owg_en_wr_series2.pdf

Pushing in the knob normally turns on the lamp for a clock reading. It sounds like a spike charge flushed through a capacitor and burned it out

Take the batteries out. There should be a small door covering a few button cells. These keep power to what retains your settings. If they are dead, as soon as you unplug the unit, it will go blank.

it stays blank until you input the 4 digit code then it fires up

Hold down CD Mode button and press On/Off button to set display to always on.

i had the same problem once. my solution was i hooked up the radio wrong i wired the red wire and the yellow wire to the wrong wires. i just flipped the wires around and it worked.

Wire braid out to the faceplate has got a parcially broken wire on it. Sony referes to it as a flexible circuit board. Part can be purchased from sony directly, an on a one to 10 scale to replace about a five.But it does involve taking your radio apart. So if you are handy at electronics. you can look it over. If you have doubts let a professional do it.