Brake lights always on after jet clean, electrical issue on my 90 300 TDI pickup.

Wagon Loon · Sep 16, 2023

So after just getting Peggy a Defender 90, 1997 300 TDI pock up. After a thorough jet clean under and over, the brake lights magically came on in front of me.
She's needing a big catch up for maintenance, although the last owner has spent a small fortune over the last four years at a Landy specialist garage

tottot · Sep 16, 2023

Brake light switch all watered up?

Wagon Loon · Sep 16, 2023

I checked the brake switch, it's ok. Pulled the binnacle and gave it all a good clean

And will clean the indicator lights printed circuit connectors with a fiberglass pen

After Tracing through and reading a post from 2014, have been checking the rear loom, and found a short which would have been intermittent in the O/S/R.
It's been caused by the loom chaffing against the plastic shield, and when testing got hot real quick too

. Been keeping the + disconnected, and was quick to do that.
Took the extended arch and flap off for better access, but here is the short area

So it's time to get everything separated and fix the issue.
One of the symptoms is there is a live putting power into the brake light circuit, this also powered the ignition when you put your foot on brake with no key in, all ignition lights come on too!

Wagon Loon · Sep 16, 2023

With the crusty insulation off, can see it's the purple always powered wire for goodies like a caravan fridge, that's putting power back through the damaged wires

Hicap phill · Sep 16, 2023

Wagon Loon said:
With the crusty insulation off, can see it's the purple always powered wire for goodies like a caravan fridge, that's putting power back through the damaged wiresView attachment 297943

That looks a good find.
As it’s a 90 you could always pull a bit more loom out the chassis for extra length to make repairs easier

Toyota Twonk · Sep 16, 2023

Wireless lights....

Propman · Sep 16, 2023

Toyota Twonk said:
Wireless lights....

Wagon Loon · Sep 16, 2023

Hicap phill said:
That looks a good find.
As it’s a 90 you could always pull a bit more loom out the chassis for extra length to make repairs easier

That's a really good idea, if the 90 looms are the same, some fresh wire would really help.

Hicap phill · Sep 16, 2023

Wagon Loon said:
That's a really good idea, if the 90 looms are the same, some fresh wire would really help.

Some of the looms are used on both 90 & 110. They leave the excess inside the chassis behind the rubber grommet in the rear.
Remove grommet & give it a small tug to see if there is any. If it’s a longer loom you should have an extra 10” spare

Wagon Loon · Sep 16, 2023

Might as well use it

Wagon Loon · Sep 17, 2023

Pulling excess wire from the chassis leg revealed erlier work done from having the chassis rear replaced.
There was extra length, and many extra joins in wires. I suppose this is to be expected, and having been electrical taped years ago, removing and eliminating as many joins as possible is a priority.

It looks a bit of a mess just now but I'm working through and pulled all of them back from the tub to repair the loom

Dr Strangeglove · Sep 18, 2023

I had a similar situation when I replaced my rear crossmember. Found the loom had already been cut for a previous crossmember change. The rear section of the loom was certainly looking tired and I came to the conclusion that keeping it was likely to cause future wiring issues. The wire's had that stiffness that 30 year old wire's have and I wondered when the next nuisance fault would start in the rear wiring.

I am under no illusion with the state of my truck so decided to replace the rear section (which I think was eight wires) with a section of heavy duty 13 core trailer cable. Whilst the colours are not standard land rover, they are an international recognised colour scheme and as such easy to identify. They are also a thicker cross section than the original as I specifically chose the heavy duty option. The cable also includes an earth which I used to the battery and allowed me to fit an earth terminal at each side for the rear lights rather than just relying on earning to the tub.

As my chassis is getting on in years and may need the odd bit of welding in the future, I decided to keep the wiring outside the chassis. As the cable already has an outer sleave it's already pretty tough, but I decided to add an additional cover to it. I was going to use some of the split plastic conduit but actually found a piece of reinforced hose pipe that was a perfect fit. I split it down the middle, as conduit would have, and then taped it at about 10cm intervals. It may not be for the purist, but it's tough and convenient. It's cable tied to the top of the chassis (and othe convenient places) with heavy duty ties so should remain in place.

Wagon Loon · Sep 18, 2023

The great thing about our simple trucks is the no nonsense wiring. Gigi my 1974 S3 has only 54 wires in total! I've ordered a workshop manual for Peggy the 90 Pick-up.
I did not name them, but previous owners did, all my vehicles have had names, so I honour this if I buy a car that already has one.
Do most proper British built Land Rover owners name their car, wonder I ?
The heavy duty trailor cable is a very practical way to go, they have a tough covering which will not chaff off easily like the thin tape wound stuff evidently does.
I've got the corrugated plastic tube, cutting a slot and will be using that to cover the repaired/ replaced wires; also ordered a professional quality 13 pin military style pre wired towing socket to install with 2 meters of wire for much the reason you suggested.
The previous owner Ross had issues with the battery going flat, so intermittent shorts/ leakage has been a Peggy thing for a while. He fitted the biggest best 110 AH battery I have ever seen in a car. It's awesome and as big as the three enormous leisure batteries in my off-grid garavan Velma, yea even the caravan has a name lol. Velma because she's always got hooked up to Scoob, who's prediscessor was Scooby Doo the Subaru!
I've rewired all my trailers and Velma, (one of the very last British Sprite caravans built before they were bought out by Swift who keep using the Sprite name.) To 13 pin sockets, instead of 7N + 7S.
It's a bit wet oot today so with the help of my small JRT we'll put the refurbished binnicle and other cleaned dash components back. I took almost three basins of farmyard looking muk out of the steering wheel. It's astonishing how much crud they can absorb

, then resealed it a bit with scuff protection for shoes and neutral coloured shoe wax. It was off to remove the binnicle anyway, and that was cleaned and restored with aerospace 303 protectant which has good UV blockers in. So far it's not gone brittle as they do from UV. Maybe Peggy slept in a barn in her previous life!

Wagon Loon · Sep 20, 2023

Dr Strangeglove said:
I had a similar situation when I replaced my rear crossmember. Found the loom had already been cut for a previous crossmember change. The rear section of the loom was certainly looking tired and I came to the conclusion that keeping it was likely to cause future wiring issues. The wire's had that stiffness that 30 year old wire's have and I wondered when the next nuisance fault would start in the rear wiring.

I am under no illusion with the state of my truck so decided to replace the rear section (which I think was eight wires) with a section of heavy duty 13 core trailer cable. Whilst the colours are not standard land rover, they are an international recognised colour scheme and as such easy to identify. They are also a thicker cross section than the original as I specifically chose the heavy duty option. The cable also includes an earth which I used to the battery and allowed me to fit an earth terminal at each side for the rear lights rather than just relying on earning to the tub.

As my chassis is getting on in years and may need the odd bit of welding in the future, I decided to keep the wiring outside the chassis. As the cable already has an outer sleave it's already pretty tough, but I decided to add an additional cover to it. I was going to use some of the split plastic conduit but actually found a piece of reinforced hose pipe that was a perfect fit. I split it down the middle, as conduit would have, and then taped it at about 10cm intervals. It may not be for the purist, but it's tough and convenient. It's cable tied to the top of the chassis (and othe convenient places) with heavy duty ties so should remain in place.

Yep, as you say they get old and could be prone to issues later if just patched up.
I took delivery of a very comprehensive workshop manual for my truck, I'm 1997 and it only covers 96-98

It has all the wiring diagrams and I've stripped a trailer cable for the coloured whites to replace brittle ones, as you suggested.

Wagon Loon · Sep 20, 2023

Also with some custom paints I have for my DeBilbiss Dagr airbrush, I can make the original wire colour, like purple and green for brake lights.

Wagon Loon · Sep 21, 2023

I want to use the thicker white cable from tow wire for new black Earth, so ran it all through black heat shrink to make a new Earth black

mystery · Sep 22, 2023

why would you bodge when the correct size and coloured cables are easily available

Wagon Loon · Sep 22, 2023

mystery said:
why would you bodge when the correct size and coloured cables are easily available

Could you provide a link please, to the easily available correct size and colour cables.

I would like green/purple, red/orange, red/black, thicker purple, white/green, red/yellow, thicker black, green/red, and a couple of others I'll need to look up.
About 1 meter of each colour would be ideal.

Thank you in advance, hopefully they will not be price inhibitive.

mystery · Sep 23, 2023

quick search try https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/stranded-single-core-plain-copper-cable.html and https://www.carbuilder.com/uk/black-165-amp-thin-wall-cable-by-the-metre

Wagon Loon · Sep 23, 2023

Thanks, but that's the cable I'm already using. so for green/purple coded wire I've been putting a purple line along to keep it factory.
Any suggestions are always welcome though, I can always do it better, but it's a land Rover, so close enough will have to do.

Brake lights always on after jet clean, electrical issue on my 90 300 TDI pickup.

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