Baffled by Electrics - Please help.

Firstly - apologies if this is a basic problem. First time Landy owner and enthusiastic but rubbish DIY mechanic. Any suggestions/tips will be warmly received.

The old girl ('95 Defender tdi) now has a problem with side lights, left rear light and no. plate light (unit itself looks good inside).
Side light dashboard warning light doesn't illuminate, but all other lights (including stop and fog lights and rear right) do.

Fuses, bulbs, points and connections are fine.

Am I missing anything glaringly obvious? Any tips/hints much apprecaited.

One other thing - don't think it's connected (please say if you think otherwise) but mentioning it as last thing I did before this went wrong...

An old Police vehicle. Holes in roof for Rozza lights = leaks and rusted both roof lights - pretty messy inside so, simply disconnected both from plastic junction box found above windscreen.

Ex-Filth Landies often have a dodgy restoration of the wiring when the Rozzer flashing illuminations wiring changes were taken out.

You may find wires just twisted (like rozzers) together and taped. This sort of "fix" lasts long enough to pass the saleroom check.

I suggest first you expose all the wiring at the front lights units and find out if there are snipped cables and wires twisted together. If there are, do the joints properly - solder them and use a little bit of heat-sleeve or self-welding tape.

After that the killer for lights problems is bad EARTHS especially at the rear. If need be, take a new black cable from the earth of the lamp unit to a good clean earth point on the body.

CharlesY

Thanks Charlsey.

You were right, piglets had fiddled with circuits and on closer inspection had jammed in bigger fuse in order to cope with extra lights etc. They'd even left half a donut in the front left light unit!