Rear glow panel high pitched buzzing with lights on...fix?

When the Z's lights are off, there is no noise. When I turn the Z's lights on, the glow panel does not work, but makes a very annoying high pitched squeal. I don't want the squeal to be there, and I don't want the light to work either

I while back I tried disconnecting the connection to the panel and there was still a noise (perhaps I disconnected the wrong one?). How do I go about this?get I am assuming I need to get inside the unit?

 

What are you talking about?

What glow panel? the 300zx panel?

 

If it is a genuine glow panel, you will simply be able to unplug the inverter (the thing making the high pitched squeal) from where it connects into the car at the rear light control box (located in the right rear quarter panel area).

Non factory units will have the inverter hard wired (ie soldered) in to the car circuit some how. Follow the inverter wiring to see where it joins the car.

 

Yes, the rear one, between the tailights, that says "300ZX" that should glow when working properly...

 

Wizard is desperately trying to get hold of one of these, to replace the one smashed recently.
PM him, he may be able to swap a stock one with you.:zlove::zlove::zlove:

Solve the problem for both of you.:zlove:

 

If not I'll take it off your hands Free money!

 

Inverter will make a high pitched whine if there is no load (ie the glow panel not working).
As mentioned above, you need to isolate power to the actual inverter.

 

And just to add a little bit more info, when mine died and started making the buzzing sound I removed it all from the car and then tried running it externally.

What I found was the EL tape had burnt through and there was visible arcing around the terminals of the tape (high frequency arcing, looked pretty cool) and thats what part of the buzzing sound was from, the inverter was also humming. Unplugging the EL tape from the inverter (and therefore stopping the arcing) silenced the inverter while powered.

 

Had another look at the area and found all wires that come to and from the inverter. I don't know how I didn't notice four wires all up the first time - I only noticed two. Anyway, I cut and removed the wires and there is no noise now. So now, no noise and no glow panel.

Thanks for everybodies help...

 

So was it a genuine green nissan/altia panel?

 

Good question. Not sure. When I bought the car, I was told it was. But, when disabling it, I didn't actually remove the panel to find out. Although, the wires going to the inveter didn't look like a factory connection, and the wires going to the panel kind of went "through a gap" next to the other globe fittings, and not through a grommet or similar. I am thinking based on this it may be aftermarket. How do the wires go through the panel work from the factory? What does the factory inverter look like?

 

whats altia col ???

 

From what I gather (at the least) they provided the indiglo bits for the zed (eg rear centre panel, door sills, rear quarter windows), and used to be a sub-division of Nissan, but are now independantly owned. Think of them as a cosmetic version of what hsv is to holden.

 

big col, how can you tell if its a genuine nissan glow panel??? i just bought a green one from a fellow member....

 

here's how to tell...

1/ The factory (altia / nissan) panel was green only
2/ When you look at the panel up close, the 300zx writing is almost a very deep maroon colour
3/ The inverter has a wiring harness that is essentially plug & play so that you don't need to hack in to the car's wiring circuit.

This question has come up a bit lately so I'll pull my panel out at the weekend and take a few pics / write a mini "How to tell if you have a genuine indiglow panel" writeup.

 

awesome, how rare are the original panels?

 

quite rare, and wiz found out the hard way they are really expensive (approx $1300 new)

 

cheers col,i was curious as ive seen that name mentioned before

 

Altia / Nissan Indiglo FAQ

Ok as promised, here's a bit of a quick indiglo FAQ!

The Indiglo parts on the 300zx were made by a Nissan sub-division company called Altia. In the late 1990's Altia separated from Nissan in the late 90's.

The 3 indiglo parts made for the 300zx are:
1/ Rear Centre Panel
2/ Door Sills (otherwise known as Kick Panels)
3/ Rear Quarter Window Sill

1/ Rear centre panel:
Here is a normal rear centre panel:


Here is an indiglo rear centre panel:


You can tell a panel is an indiglo one by:
a) the indiglo rear centre panel is maroon on the inside of the 300zx logo (see above)

b) the indiglo panel only came in green (this is not to say that all green panels are genuine Altia / Nissan panels)

c) The whole of the 300zx logo illuminates. This is a genuine panel:

This is not (because it is red, and because only the outline is illuminated):


d) The genuine panels came with a wiring loom that connect in to the black box that controls the rear lights (located inside the right rear quarter panel boot trim):


Just as a FYI, here is a picture of the inside of a genuine panel:


Genuine illuminated rear centre panels are the least rare of the illuminated products, but are still rare. As of early 2008 they are listed at AUD$1300, but cannot be purchased new any more.

The standard rear centre panel can be converted to illuminate. There are tech articles in the tech section on how to do this. It is a messy fiddly job, but the end result can definately be worth it.


2/ Door Sills

Genuine illuminated door sills are less common than the rear centre panels. The standard sills are plastic, while the indiglo ones are aluminium, but retain a very similar shape:








There are now some good aftermarket sills available. These can differentiated by their use of steel rather than aluminium.


3/ Rear Quarter Window Sill

The rarest of all the Altia indiglo parts is the rear quarter window sill:

 

yess i have a genuine rear center panel then...... its rare enough for me lol