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

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.
Wagon Loon

Wagon Loon

Well-Known Member
Posts
532
Location
Aberdeen
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
PXL_20230913_184519579.MP.jpg
 
I checked the brake switch, it's ok. Pulled the binnacle and gave it all a good clean
16948706554842280860813372721594.jpg


And will clean the indicator lights printed circuit connectors with a fiberglass pen
16948708310201098778870251178837.jpg

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
1694871185207529276715241572649.jpg

16948712698008599016464345577111.jpg

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 said:
That's a really good idea, if the 90 looms are the same, some fresh wire would really help.
Click to expand...
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
 
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.
PXL_20230917_141050380.jpg

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
PXL_20230917_132531173.jpg
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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!
 
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.
Click to expand...
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
16952104635216622144783539738662.jpg

It has all the wiring diagrams and I've stripped a trailer cable for the coloured whites to replace brittle ones, as you suggested.
16952107982905069210681934102129.jpg
 
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
16952915841938019935524038606520.jpg
 
mystery said:
why would you bodge when the correct size and coloured cables are easily available
Click to expand...
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.
 
1695466810225.png

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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Original Defender 90 Hard Top 300 Tdi
Replies
4
Views
2K
The Mad Hat Man
The Mad Hat Man
19_Hue_95
Cynthia - 300tdi Project
Replies
8
Views
2K
19_Hue_95
19_Hue_95
M
Check engine On/Engine temp reading ZERO TDI 300
Replies
4
Views
838
blackhadder
B
G
Selling my defender 90 300 tdi, what is it worth?!!
2
Replies
22
Views
4K
geojohn
G
A
Newbie in Lothian
Replies
5
Views
576
lorri789
lorri789
Back
Top