Defender Headlight woes

Hi All,

I have a Defender m/y 2000

The headlights have been playing up leaving me stranded on the way back from work on several occassions, which found me being quite inventive with the wiring to get me home!

when the lights first went out, I initially found I had no power upto the master switch, all fuses etrc were o.k,so I ran another wire from the 30amp (large fuse under drivers seat) as a feed to the master switch.All was well for a month or 2, then I lost the lights coming home again,so I nabbed the feed from the main beam on the stalk and put it onto the dip to get me home.
last week I ordered a new master switch and horn/main beam stick a well, fitted them all yesterday and same problem,all ok apart from no dipped main ???
I reckon to have checked all fuses,swapped relays around,checked all earths,(i can find)opened and cleaned several plugs, all to no avail.

Can anyone advise me of the next step as I am running out of ideas !!
any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Ta

First up, its polite to introduce yourself when you join a forum!

Second, :welcome: to the mad house.

Third, after the get me home bodges you did, have you put the wiring back in its original position? If you havent ,and have then tried to make it work from a new stalk etc your going to have all sorts of problems.

You say uve checked all the wiring, earths and fuses. Get a haynes manual or a copy of rave(there is a link in general landrover chat i think) and have a look through that.

It may seem complicated but it is just a power source ->wiring->bulb.

Systematically start at the battery and work upto the switch(stalk) and down to the bulb. There will be an earth leak or a loose connection etc.

Hi Ginga Beard

Thanks for your reply - I have had a look at rave link thanks but it seems I need a defender electrical trouble shooting manual - I have had a search for it but no luck................is this something thats available as a free download or is it something I need to buy ?

Thanks again.

Im not great at introductions - but I live in France - use my defender for work ( it works hard!) - although I like my defenders - after a week in them im ready for some peace and quiet

I cant find one to download either actually. i have the haynes electrical manual, ill go out to the landy tomorrow and see if it can shed any light but i think its just generic electrical systems.

I take it you are using a multimeter to check for the exact voltage?

BIG_GINGA_BEARD said:

First up, its polite to introduce yourself when you join a forum!

Second, :welcome: to the mad house.

Third, after the get me home bodges you did, have you put the wiring back in its original position? If you havent ,and have then tried to make it work from a new stalk etc your going to have all sorts of problems.

You say uve checked all the wiring, earths and fuses. Get a haynes manual or a copy of rave(there is a link in general landrover chat i think) and have a look through that.

It may seem complicated but it is just a power source ->wiring->bulb.

Systematically start at the battery and work upto the switch(stalk) and down to the bulb. There will be an earth leak or a loose connection etc.

Click to expand...

Big ginga beard you are a true gent!!

I would start the other way tho, starting from the bulb end and working back, not just cos am awkward but it's easier too trace back. If you ant got a multimeter then get one and even a cheapy will do.

Hi Ginga,

Thanks for the offer of help as the previous poster said" top bloke"

I have found a link online which was useful.
http://www.landroverweb.com/Pdf-files/Defender MY2002 Wiring Diagram.pdf

A brief summary of a whole day buggering about.
There is no feed to the dip stalk, the feed should be a large blue wire that appears to come from the master switch via a relay to the dip stalk.
if I put a live to the dip stalk (blue connection) i have dip and main,but the wiring starts to get hot(this is I assume it is because it doesnt pass via a relay ???) - so I chacked and there is feed from the master switch to the relay but the return from the relay to the dip seems to be the culprit(the relay seems fine,I have swopped it out with others),just before I got to the stage of running another wire from the relay to the dip switch it started working again ?!?! so as it was getting dark and I need the motor tomorrow I put it back together,when it packs up again I will start with a new wire between relay and dip ?

I really dont know if that make any sense at all,perhaps it might help someone shed some light on it ?
But unless someone tells me different that wire will be next

Cheers

Has the truck had high powered headlamp bulbs fitted?
If so, check the rivets that feed the stalk to give the hi/lo switching of dip and main beam.
The higher load of high wattage lamp bulbs (eg 100w) burns the plastic around where the rivets join the cabling and switch contacts on the stalk base. This leads to failure of the switch.
I have seen this on two Defenders where high power bulbs had been fitted.

Timpo said:

Has the truck had high powered headlamp bulbs fitted?
If so, check the rivets that feed the stalk to give the hi/lo switching of dip and main beam.
The higher load of high wattage lamp bulbs (eg 100w) burns the plastic around where the rivets join the cabling and switch contacts on the stalk base. This leads to failure of the switch.
I have seen this on two Defenders where high power bulbs had been fitted.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info but - before I started I replaced the dip stalk and master switch - to rule them out.

I had an issue with a blade type fuse once, the fuse was OK (not blown) but I eventually found after hours of fannying about one of the spade connectors that the fuse pushes into in the fuse box had pushed out of the back of the fuse box, stopping any power getting through.........

Paul