110 Defender dim headlight and sidelight

Hi All,

got to have a look at a wiring problem over the weekend for the MOT on my old Defender. One headlamp and sidelight (drivers side) are much dimmer than the other side - so much so that it got picked up on at the MOT. I am a complete novice at car wiring and electrics, so just wondered if you guys had any tips on where to start when fault finding - bad earth connection, maybe? Thanks. John

Bad earth, it will be behind the light in the engine bay.

+1 for a bad earth. Find the earth, disconnecting, clean up the area to shiny metal, reconnect, test, then cover with Vaseline.

JohnPort said:

Hi All,

got to have a look at a wiring problem over the weekend for the MOT on my old Defender. One headlamp and sidelight (drivers side) are much dimmer than the other side - so much so that it got picked up on at the MOT. I am a complete novice at car wiring and electrics, so just wondered if you guys had any tips on where to start when fault finding - bad earth connection, maybe? Thanks. John

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It’s on the inner wing normally. If I were you, I would run a new wire between the two earths, one each side, and head back the battery, or main earth point (bulkhead or gearbox bolts).

A complete PITA with the wings on, expect grazed knuckles, good luck

What year is it? Mine at the moment is suffering from hot fuses, ive made a 17 amp fly lead for the earth, straight from battery down near side wing, it picks up the earth stud on this side with a soldered ring connector (will bolt to the earth stud) then carries on to the off side and the same. My guess is though I have a problem at the fuse box but this seems like a good place to start to eliminate a loading problem due to bad earths.