sidelight trouble

MR BFG · Apr 28, 2013

Hi all,

My 1986 90 has been coming along now for a few months and up until now I haven't been in all too much of a rush.
I'm only 17 and have only just passed my test so insurance was a big issue, after finding some cheaper quotes (still £1700) i'm in a bit more of a rush to get it Mot'd.

I have been replacing bits here and there that i know would need doing for the MOT. When I first got the Land Rover all of the lights worked apart from the brake lights, so I bought new tail/brake, rear indicators and reverse lights and wired them in now all of the lights on the offside of the vehicle work, but now the only lights to work on the nearside are the main beam and the brake light but no tail.
To me this sounds like a dodgey earth issue, but i need a little bit of expert help. Can anybody give me an idea where to start? Are the lights all earthed into one main battery earth or are they chassis earthed?

Thanks in advance
Lloyd

kes86 · Apr 28, 2013

My defender is a 94 and the side lights have separate fuses for each side. Not sure about the earlier ones. It may be worth rigging up a temporary earth to the lights to see if they work. My earth for the rear lights was on the offside under the rear x member. But my wiring has been messed with and is not standard.

Gphilla · Apr 28, 2013

mines a 89 and each side runs a seperate fuse, i had similar issues so replaced the glass fuses for the blade ones and pretty much solved everything and only cost a tenner and took an hour

matchmetisse · Apr 28, 2013

Out of intrest mate who was the 1700 quote with my son is getting 4k quotes!

MR BFG · Apr 28, 2013

matchmetisse said:
Out of intrest mate who was the 1700 quote with my son is getting 4k quotes!

I was getting £4k when I was trying to get quotes on Mum and Dads policies. Tried my 19 year old girlfriend as the main driver with 1 years no claims and with her accident claim on there too. the quotes were from Only Young Drivers, give them a ring, when my girlfriend did the quote they gave her ended up being about £150 less than the internet quote for her new swift.

MR BFG · Apr 28, 2013

Gphilla said:
mines a 89 and each side runs a seperate fuse, i had similar issues so replaced the glass fuses for the blade ones and pretty much solved everything and only cost a tenner and took an hour

I've replaced the glass fuses and mine are seperate for right and left, I don't think the issue is with the fuse box as when i was trying to remove the fuse I accidentally shorted the screwdriver across the 2 poles it sparked and blew the fuse

Need to stop biting my nails.

My earth for the rear lights was on the offside under the rear x member. But my wiring has been messed with and is not standard.

Yea my wiring has been messed with as well, went to replace the front sidelight the other day and found some questionable wiring with scotch locks

Thank for the replies

gse1986 · Apr 29, 2013

MR BFG said:
I was getting £4k when I was trying to get quotes on Mum and Dads policies. Tried my 19 year old girlfriend as the main driver with 1 years no claims and with her accident claim on there too. the quotes were from Only Young Drivers, give them a ring, when my girlfriend did the quote they gave her ended up being about £150 less than the internet quote for her new swift.

there'll be two issues with that:

1) you can only use your no claims bonus in one place.
2) your girlfriend will be "fronting" you, which is illegal

MR BFG · Apr 29, 2013

gse1986 said:
there'll be two issues with that:

1) you can only use your no claims bonus in one place.
2) your girlfriend will be "fronting" you, which is illegal

She will still be driving it quite often. I know it's not the point, but how ,many 17 year olds trying to drive have a few thousand lying around to be used for insurance?

gse1986 · Apr 29, 2013

MR BFG said:
She will still be driving it quite often. I know it's not the point, but how ,many 17 year olds trying to drive have a few thousand lying around to be used for insurance?

considerably more than would fancy the legal proceedings you'd face.

I know it's not great news, but the insurance companies are really hot on this sort of stuff (probably because it's meaning there missing out on even more money ).

If you insure a car that you don't own (assuming the car is in your name and your girlfriend will be down as the main driver, they'll ask lots of questions.

The no claims bit would cause both policies to be in question, if the insurance company don't ask for proof of no claims

The other thing to look at, is adding parents, girlfriend etc as named drivers when you are the main driver. For me having my mum as a named driver still reduces my premium by a bit, and there's no minimum amount a named driver has to drive the car

Trilly909 · Apr 29, 2013

Hi, I'm 17 too just had this problem, none of my left sidelights worked so I took everything apart and found the wire from the switch had burnt out. So i replaced it and its all good. And for insurance try aviva van insurance! I'm the main driver and its £1500 a year

matchmetisse · Apr 29, 2013

Blimey thats good!

Trilly909 · Apr 29, 2013

matchmetisse said:
Blimey thats good!

Yeah and it's fully comp.. Just make sure you put it as a van, it drops the price ridiculously

MR BFG · Apr 30, 2013

Trilly909 said:
Hi, I'm 17 too just had this problem, none of my left sidelights worked so I took everything apart and found the wire from the switch had burnt out. So i replaced it and its all good. And for insurance try aviva van insurance! I'm the main driver and its £1500 a year

Wow, that is cheap I will give it a go. And thanks for the sidelight info too, I will check it all out tomorrow.

sidelight trouble

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