Freelander 1 Dashboard facelift conversion

A while ao I had a small electrical fire caused by the PTC heater system:

So I had the dash out and completely removed the PTC wiring, and labelled everything up for later doing a facelift conversion. The yellow tags are adymo label maker with the switch name typed twice and folded back on itself like the tag around the neck of a loaf of bread's poly bag.





Off camera, I wired in a new roof mount amplified aerial suitable for DAB.

New thermostat control panel on my desk:


I (finally) got hold of a tashtop cup holder:



The plugs are basically the same from facelift and pre facelift, except they are differnt colours for the same function, and the colours denote the location of ridges on the back of them that are used to prevent the wrong plug going into the wrong switch. I've tagged up the wires as you seen in a previous picture, and filed off those ridges so any plug fits any switch.

Therre is also less switch locations on the facelift dash than in the pre face lift dash, so I've had to reloacate a couple of switches, door locks and rear window went onto the centre console armrest beside the handbrake, in the locations where on a 5 door would be the rear window switches. The switches that went beside the handbrake needed their wiring cut and an extension piece soldered in. And the heater control cables were a bit of a faff to get on, probably the facelift oneas a smidge longer?

The hazard switch went onto the little removable panel above the left glove box:


Thereafter it was pretty straight forward, plug and play, the heated seats switches tails were a bit short, instead of pulling the wiring through the slot, plugging in the switch and putting the switch in the slot, they had to be plugged in from the back with the switch in situ, poper pain, were I doing another I'd probably solder in extensions.

Next up was a freelander facelift --> double din facia adapter:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371966166941

Although I only needed the plastic panel as my car already had an aftermarket stereo in it.

Add one cheap placeholder double din stereo:


And I'm quite pleased with the result:

Jayridium said:

Add one cheap placeholder double din stereo:
View attachment 205179

Click to expand...

Great work there Jay.
How do you find the stereo? I'm considering a replacement for my Becker HU and like the idea of a double din unit similar to the one you've used. Does the pre facelift have steering wheel controls? If so, have you got those connected and running?

Good stuff.

Jayridium said:

A while ao I had a small electrical fire caused by the PTC heater system:

Click to expand...

What is the burnt offering in your hand, is that the small fuse box on the side of the E box?? Did you ever find the root cause? Why did the fusable link not blow or was it just heat from poor contacts that ignited?

I have had a melted fuse in that box, not happy that the cable sizes and fuse discrimination is correct.

Thanks for the praise!

The head unit doesn't have the steering wheel controls, I have the controls on the steering wheel, but I don't think I have any wiring from them to the stereo. When I get a proper kenwood unit in there I'll get a freelander --> kenwood interface and try to make them work.

And yes, that burnt offering is the fusebox for the PTC. I never got to the bottom of what caused it, it does puzzle me how the 80A fuseable link didn't blow, or even the 3x 30A fuses didn't blow. Instead, they just melted all their plastics. Upon trying to fins out what causes a fuse to melt rather than blow, best I could find was people suggesting it was bad connections in the circuit causing resistance which in turn caused an increase in voltage which produced heat. This strikes me as lightly hinky, when I seen what a PITA it was going to be to pull the PTC element and completely rewire the circuit, I decided to decomission it.

I've removed the 80A feed from the battery clamp, and removed the PTC fusebox, but have left the switch and two relays in place, and I'm going to use them as control logic for controlling another heavy relay that will operate an electric water heater which will heat water going into the heater matrix.

For the pre heater, after corona virus lockdown ends, I'll got go a scrappy and grab something like this:


Or ideally one with 4 glow plugs: