Freelander 2 (LR2) Adding auto headlights & wipers?

sergeantsodom · 2025-07-27T22:39:51+0100

Hi folks,

Is it possible to add auto wipers and lights to a freely 2 that doesnt have then as stock?

I have just bought a 2013 fr2 GS which to my surprise didnt come with auto lights or wipers, after coming from my past 4 vehicles having this, its something I didnt think id miss this much u till you dont have it.

Can you buy the stalk and sensing parts and just add them in, or is it a PITA job or having to source wiring looms and taking the dash apart etc?

I'd imagine If it was an extra back in the day, LR would've made it easier on themselves by just making them plug and play, but the cynical part of me says 'probably not'

Ta

John

GrumpyGel · 2025-07-28T05:00:43+0100

I wouldn't bother with the auto wipers cos they are rubbish.

What's worse, you don't have an intermittent setting so you are constantly faffing around - double trouble.

Auto lights are good, just leave them on auto and forget about ever having to do anything with the lights. *1 *2

*3

Notes:
*1 : Unless the Mrs uses it and by some miraculous power, the main beam is always switched on when she leaves it.

*2 : Unless you have a bulb out, then its best to turn them off even in dusk.

*3 : I don't know if you can enable them, but if you can configure the wiper system to change from auto to intermittent, I'd love to know how.

Freddie17 · 2025-07-28T06:40:27+0100

GrumpyGel said:
I wouldn't bother with the auto wipers cos they are rubbish.

What's worse, you don't have an intermittent setting so you are constantly faffing around - double trouble.

Auto lights are good, just leave them on auto and forget about ever having to do anything with the lights. *1 *2

*3

Notes:
*1 : Unless the Mrs uses it and by some miraculous power, the main beam is always switched on when she leaves it.

*2 : Unless you have a bulb out, then its best to turn them off even in dusk.

*3 : I don't know if you can enable them, but if you can configure the wiper system to change from auto to intermittent, I'd love to know how.

*1 is magic, and seems to be installed in every F2

Auto lights are great, but, as every car, they still struggle to sense fog during the day, and so many people forget to override and switch their lights on. (That’s not LR specific of course).

Still don’t think you can retrofit these though.

GrumpyGel · 2025-07-28T09:32:04+0100

Freddie17 said:
*1 is magic, and seems to be installed in every F2

Auto lights are great, but, as every car, they still struggle to sense fog during the day, and so many people forget to override and switch their lights on. (That’s not LR specific of course).

Still don’t think you can retrofit these though.

For the wipers there is no physical bit that is different, the switch has a position between off and on slow and there is a variable lever - so I would imagine there is a config that can set that position to either intermittent or auto. Whether it is changeable once set, you'd hope so.

The lights I imagine are different as presumably on a car without auto, there is no position on the light switch for it - just off, side and dipped/main. It would be brilliant if simply replacing the switch (presume they are the same dimensions etc) would enable auto simply by the can message being sent.

If you were someone clever, like @Alibro , you might be able to sniff the can messages on an auto lights enabled car to see what is sent when auto is selected and then replicate that on a non auto enabled car and see if it works!

Freddie17 · 2025-07-28T10:19:13+0100

GrumpyGel said:
For the wipers there is no physical bit that is different, the switch has a position between off and on slow and there is a variable lever - so I would imagine there is a config that can set that position to either intermittent or auto. Whether it is changeable once set, you'd hope so.

The lights I imagine are different as presumably on a car without auto, there is no position on the light switch for it - just off, side and dipped/main. It would be brilliant if simply replacing the switch (presume they are the same dimensions etc) would enable auto simply by the can message being sent.

If you were someone clever, like @Alibro , you might be able to sniff the can messages on an auto lights enabled car to see what is sent when auto is selected and then replicate that on a non auto enabled car and see if it works!

Fink there is a ‘rain sensor’ in the windscreen…?

GrumpyGel · 2025-07-28T10:53:24+0100

Freddie17 said:
Fink there is a ‘rain sensor’ in the windscreen…?

Yeh, or course!

If you're switching from intermittent to auto, you'd need that.

The OP can have mine if he can tell me how to configure it to be intermittent

Mind you, mine's bloody useless! Spent to much of its yoof smoking ganja I think. Fried its brain.

lynall · 2025-07-28T11:46:25+0100

On the D3 with the GAP tool you can switch off auto lights and auto wipers, both things that annoy me.
So I would assume it is the same with the fl?

Freddie17 · 2025-07-28T12:12:37+0100

lynall said:
On the D3 with the GAP tool you can switch off auto lights and auto wipers, both things that annoy me.
So I would assume it is the same with the fl?

Possibly - I’ll look next time I plug LR SDD laptop in to it.

If it works and I can configure, I’m happy to come over @GrumpyGel and do yours, but you’ll have to cover expenses

sergeantsodom · 2025-07-28T12:25:27+0100

GrumpyGel said:
I wouldn't bother with the auto wipers cos they are rubbish.

What's worse, you don't have an intermittent setting so you are constantly faffing around - double trouble.

Auto lights are good, just leave them on auto and forget about ever having to do anything with the lights. *1 *2

*3

Notes:
*1 : Unless the Mrs uses it and by some miraculous power, the main beam is always switched on when she leaves it.

*2 : Unless you have a bulb out, then its best to turn them off even in dusk.

*3 : I don't know if you can enable them, but if you can configure the wiper system to change from auto to intermittent, I'd love to know how.

Thanks as always fella, do we know if the auto lights are literally just a change of stalk and adding the sensor?

I read up somewhere you can add an intermittent function with the wipers, but I just dont know enough about this car yet to know how that would work, I see stalks with 'intermittent' on them but unsure if this actually means intermittent

Alibro · 2025-07-28T14:52:02+0100

My wife's Ford Kuga has an oddity with the lights. With the car running and the lights on if I push the start/stop button the engine keeps running until I turn off the lights then the engine turns off too. It's been like that since we bought it 4 or 5 years ago.
Caused a great deal of confusion and a phone call to the previous owner when we first got it home.

Freelander 2 (LR2) Adding auto headlights & wipers?

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