Defender 110 headlight and rear light problem

Hi, i have a 1994 110 defender, failed the mot on a few things! No brake lights whilst lights are switched on, but work if the lights arent on? my other problem is my headlights dont seem to work on full beam,if you push the switch down the blue light comes on, on the dash but they dont flash? if i switch the lights off and pull the stalk towards me they flash? mot man seemed to think they were on full beam when they should be on dipped? anyone any ideas at all?

when you switch side lights on are they lighting up both filiments at same time if you face land rover towords a wall you should be abel to see which is main beam and whitch is niped

The blue dash light comes on on mine to indicate that the headlights are on, and I don't have a separate main beam telltale.
It sounds as though you might have an earthing problem, as the brake light might be taking an electrickery shortcut through the side light circuit.
That could also be the reason that your headlights are not fully lighting up.
Try taking both of your headlamp bulbs out and then take it from there, repeating the exercise with the stop/tail lights, replacing them one at a time.
Then, if needed run an extra earth wire from a good ground and join it into the earth on one of the lamp fittings, which should give you p-lenty of time to find the original fault (broken wire maybe?) and sort it at your leisure.

Thank you for your help i will give it ago, I havent got much time only 2weeks as i want to get it back for the retest!

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Oldseadog said:

The blue dash light comes on on mine to indicate that the headlights are on, and I don't have a separate main beam telltale.
It sounds as though you might have an earthing problem, as the brake light might be taking an electrickery shortcut through the side light circuit.
That could also be the reason that your headlights are not fully lighting up.
Try taking both of your headlamp bulbs out and then take it from there, repeating the exercise with the stop/tail lights, replacing them one at a time.
Then, if needed run an extra earth wire from a good ground and join it into the earth on one of the lamp fittings, which should give you p-lenty of time to find the original fault (broken wire maybe?) and sort it at your leisure.

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I think I should point out to the OP that this is not how the system is supposed to work. The blue light should only come on when the main beam is on.
I'd make sure there is a really good earth supply for the headlights - try running a temp lead from the battery to the earth points in the wings. If the headlights still are not right after that I'd suspect crossed wires in the headlight connections.

8ha said:

when you switch side lights on are they lighting up both filiments at same time if you face land rover towords a wall you should be abel to see which is main beam and whitch is niped

Click to expand...

Yes when i switch the headlights on its lighting both eliments up defo

Had another go at these lights today still no joy! No power at the rear on one of the rear tailight wires orange and red wire, tried running temp earths to headlights and didnt make a difference, headlights are still on main beam when switched to dipped beam? removed main body earths and cleaned checked headlamp wires for cross wiring? still same, at a loss as to what it could be? the staulk switch maybe?

Yes, another common point of failure is the stalk switch mechanism on the steering column. It's made of plastic which tends to distort as the contacts get warm so after a while they don't touch any more. The fact that the headlights can still be illuminated by pulling the indicator stalk back and forth suggests that at least part of the problem is in the switching. I can't guarantee that this is also the cause of the problem with the tail lights but might have something to do with it.

do head light bulbs light up both main and diped when on main or diped I hade acase once where one head light filament han broken and was tuching other filament in bulb so one side had main beam and dip coming on together and other side had main only has your landy got relays for head lights mine is a1985 and hasent got don't know about later ones with rear lights could you run a link wire across from other side could you test the light switch with tester to prove if that is the fault if relays fitted are thery working have you tried taking out head lamp bulbs and checking bulb holders to prove no fault with bulbs could one relay if fitted have got its contacts shorted together is it possible that the head lamp feed wires have rubed or shorted together somewhere on thingink about it usualy relays if fitted if contacts are shorted together you would dot be abel to switch head lights off

No power to dipped beam wire, tested headlamp and switch all ok, There is power down to fuseboard, my friend thinks the wire is joined or damaged from bulkhead to near where washer bottle is? I have untaped the loom and canot see any damage or joining of the wires on that side

Have you metered the 'dead wire' to earth?
Have you removed each lamp in turn to see if there is a fault somewhere else which is causing the problem?

for a quick job run wire from head lamp switch to dipd conectionon head light after mot you can have more time to do it properly to be safe put fuse in circet behind switch