My First Complaint About The Z
 

This complaint probalby won't hit home with many of you, at least I think. I drive home from work at night through a canyon road (Silverado Canyon Road). It's 2 lanes and there are no street lights. I use the high beams for that half of my commute because I've seen dead animals all the way up to a deer. I can go an alternate route but it's a few more miles and longer.

Has anyone noticed how damn bright the high beam indicator lamp on the dash/tach is? It's borderline unsafe. I'd say it's brighter than the shift light only more annoying becase of course it's on as long as the highs are. The crappy thing is it doesn't dim with the dimmer switch either. I wonder if there is a TSB for it lol. I'm going to ask the dealer. I'm sure there is probably a way to dim it with a resistor or something but what a hassle.

You should be able to lessen the brightness of the displays with the controls on the right hand side of the tachs I think.

Negative. That's the first thing I tried when I saw how blinding it was and the dimmer has no effect on that light....

Duct tape.

:bowrofl: fixes everything

I noticed this the other night. It's so bright it casts shadows in the car.

It's nowhere near as bright as the Hondas.

you should drive with your vanity and map lights turned on to lessen the contrast. :D

Well my wife up until recently had an '03 CRV, and after I sold my M3 I was borrowing my neices '97 Accord (she's away at college) until I got my car and they were not even close to as bright. I could probably flip my tach around and pull someone over with that blue light...

Haha... nah, I meant the 2004+ Hondas with LED gauge clusters. Man those things will make your face glow at night. In my gf's '06 Civic, the green indicator for HVAC is extremely bright at night it overpowers the backlighting.

It doesn't help that the cool feature of the cluster moving with the steering column aims it right at yours eyes either...:icon14:

Still pretty ghetto, but instead of duct tape... a nice, "tasteful" square of electric tape might night be SO noticeable :shrug:

Depends on how much/often it bugs you and how much you want to spend on a workaround (I'm suggesting the absolute cheapest/laziest route here of course). At least it's easy to undo!

Tint your gauge cluster ;)

Yea I hear ya -its very bright - a little too bright but I can live with it.

A series of pulleys and mirrors so you could pull someone over with it would be cool...

Well I got a long highway drive late at night in my future (x-mas) so I'll return to this thread with my input on this. I can respect a person being bothered by "the little things" and intrigued that this is the first complaint you have :tup:

OK to be honest I can deal with it but even in your periferal vision it's amazingly (in a bad way) bright. To the point that I'm going to make someone dealer/Nissan aware at least of my feedback and I'm a pretty tolerant person. Any other quirks the car has I'm ok with and I otherwise love the car so far.

Hoodust, even cheaper why don't I just put my left thumb over the light and use my knees to steer on shifts lol. Save the tape altogether! I'd be curious to know just for the hell of it if it bugs you too. Come back and post like you said.

Lol! It's always a good idea to drive down the highway with your thumb on the gauge.

Yeah sitting in a dark garage with the brights on I can't tell (the highbeams themselves reflect off the cupboards and walls too much) but I'll let you know how much it irks me when I'm in the middle of nowhere and it's pitch black.

:iagree:

The high beam indicator is bright to the point that I won't use the high beams unless I really want to. I've had the same problem on a few Honda bikes I've owned. On my current bike I solved the problem but removing the dash plate and putting some cotton pulled from the end of a Q-tip between the bulb and the lens. This would be a much more complicated process on the Z - I doubt I'll tackle it unless I have some other reason to get inside the dash.

I don't know how hard it is to remove the gauge cluster in the 370. In most cars it is fairly simple, remove a couple of screws and pull out.

Anyways, if you can get to the bulb or LED, apply a dab of black high heat resistant paint on the top. This will dim the brightness and will not look "jury rigged". If it's an LED then you can use nail polish, I used this trick in my old 300ZX.

Mine seems fine :icon14:

true that

That would be the last thing to complain about the 370... :stirthepot:

While we're at it, how about how there's a clearly defined line between lit up by headlights, and not lit by headlights.

If you're driving in some hilly areas with some quickness, you can't see if there's an aminal standing halfway up the hill. Only solution is to use the brights, which blind the driver as bad as the oncoming traffic or said aminal.

I also don't like how things aren't lit outside of what's in front of you. Deer + being from Michigan (originally) = wanting to see about 20ft either side, and it's also nice to see where you're turning.

Yep, my VTX1300C has a bright indicator on the tank, that's bright enough to cause glare on the helmet visor.

I've thought about disconnecting it. When my brights are on, I'll know it.

Might do the same with the Z.

is this petty? These cars have to pass standards across the world due to it being sold internationally, can it really be that bad.
I work in IT and people bitch and moan cause there is no Outlook icon on the desktop, they have to go into programs to initiate it. People have become so lazy and complain about the littlest things. I myself have not seen the high beam light so can't comment.

Depending on how sensitive you are to light, it could go from petty to dangerous very quickly.

With that said, I'd take a look at the high beam light first before commenting if it's petty or not.

HAHAHA you comment and then say
I did say this may not apply to everyone and since you haven't even used your high beams...
I live in S. CA where 90% of the roads are lit. When I had a Supra I had an HID low beam upgrade and I could never understand why guys in TX, AZ Ect would spend double the money to get the high beams too until I got this job/commute. They have a lot of unlit highway there.

Wait until you drive on a dark road with no other light pollution and turn it on. Then come back. I hardly see the apples to apples comaprison in these two situations. The lack of a desk top short cut and a distraction while driving or not using the high beams when you need them to see down the road because the indicator is too bright.

Also I don't have light sensitivity or wear glasses, I just don't want to end up with a deer riding shotgun.

If you don't like IT, you can always push a broom.

lolz, the first time i used the high beam.. i noticed something glow, i was like damn.. my high beams are soo bright, it lit up inside :P..

but yea, that thing is too bright, but i barely use it, so it doesn't bother me much.

Drove an hour in pitch dark tonight, on a parkway with no streetlights. The blue light, at least in MY car, is no brighter than any other car I've ever owned. :ugh2:

I've driven with my high beams on quite a few times, and I haven't noticed the light at all. I don't even know where the indicator light is.

:icon17: :bowrofl:

:ugh2: Wouldn't want you to bitch and moan about anything....

LOL

Can we please agree not to comment about the light not bothering us unless we know where it is and have seen it light up? I will if you will! :rofl2:

:inoutroflpuke:

Yes it is that bad, especially if you live in a rural area where you use high beams often and there are few outside lights. And WTF are you talking about, you say you haven't seen the light and can't comment, yet here you are commenting. :gtfo2:

G_FO, I've had my car for almost a year and this was a complaint after only a few weeks of ownership.

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...ts-so-far.html

I dont even notice my shift light. You are too focused on other things IMO if you are worried about this.

Because I'm sure you use the high beams regularly in a heavily wooded rural area such as the Bronx :ugh2: It's brighter than the shift light and on all the time that you are using the brights. The shift light is only on 500rmp before where you have it set, which should be red line. So, unless you don't know how to shift and drive at 7000 rpm for extended periods I don't get the comparison.

Anyway it's matter of usage and perspective. I use it 5 days a week so it's on the annoying side for me.

Hey bud, got some highway time in on the Z and yeah, that son'b!tch is pretty ridiculous. Probably to "remind" you not to blind everyone you pass, but still. It wasn't even that dark in the area I had the brights on but it lights up the whole friggin' tach from the reflection off the lens.

However on the flip side, this is the first car I've had with HID's and I really didn't need the high-beams even in the darkest areas. Maybe if you're alone on a stretch of road.. goin fast and worried about hitting wildlife it's more of a concern. As for me I was doing just fine in the desert on a Z with no name.

But if u use em I'm sure it irks you. It's tantamount to a hatch that takes 2 tries to open.

Can we get a bright-indicator-only-dimmer-mod diy??

Thanks for the feed back. I can see by some posts it's a matter of perspective. On my last car (E46 M3) it was a subtle indicator. Going from that to the Z, it seems really bright as I've said. Yes, the HID's work good too but you are right. I'm trying to light up the sides of the road and further down to avoid animals. By the way I saw 3 deer hanging out on the hill off the private road leading to my work today, nice Christmas surprise. I just don't want one of those flea bags through my windshield lol!

A dimmer mod would be awesome.