Defender indicators blowing fuses and wipers with a mind of their own.

Hi,
I'm almost ready to give up and call an auto electrician to help me with an issue I've had for a couple of weeks now.
My '93' 200Tdi has started acting up ever since I did a day out laning on the Yorkshire moors. I did a couple of fords, but none that reached the sills.
I don't think i sustained any noticeable damage.
By the end of the day the hazard warning lights went on the blink a bit and then the indicators. After an hour of the first noticeable problems started every time that I indicated the fuse would blow.

I swapped out the hazard switch believing this to be the issue, no joy.
The alternating pause wiper function works rarely now if at all and I have noticed while driving without indicating or using the wipers the indicator relay clicks with no pattern frequency. Also when nudging the wiper stalk the indicator relay clicks also.
Now I come up with a solution, try it(like earthing the -ve on the battery to the body to the engine, and from the body directly to the chassis, checked the -ve terminal connection to the chassis), only to test the indicator parked with either the engine on or off and it indicates like it should.
But I go for a drive and it blows a fuse almost immediately.
And now the wiper go on randomly without touching the stalk.
Also I wash her thoroughly yesterday and every time I start her up the wipers start also.
I'm a beginner at this so I take the approach of taking of dash/steering covers etc and look for any noticeable loose wires etc.
I found 1 wire that had come free going to a relay in the bonnet and have re-crimped and mended that.
There is a single wire that runs next to the coil that comes out of the chassis below the drivers feet, and that wire had been sheared before I bought her. Anyway, that wire I have no idea what it's purpose is and it is currently still disconnected to anything.
I think I've spent days on her now, checked all indicator bulb holsters, hazard switch(they don't go on at all now), any ideas would be helpful, or recommended auto electrician near Didsbury, Manchester.

Thanks in advance

Perhaps your problem is in the wiring round your steering column under the shroud

My guess is chaffed wiring as it is common
The loom front to rear in chassis
Rear body seams behind lights also

You need to look and a multi meter to test for short if rubbing through not obvious.

freelance said:

Perhaps your problem is in the wiring round your steering column under the shroud

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I did pull the shroud off, the only thing I could see was that the headlight flasher connection had come unplugged. what else should I be looking for?

fanatic said:

My guess is chaffed wiring as it is common
The loom front to rear in chassis
Rear body seams behind lights also

You need to look and a multi meter to test for short if rubbing through not obvious.

Click to expand...

Do you mean where the loom comes out of the Chassis?
I'd say you hit the nail on the head with the chaffing, as I've already identified 2 chaffing issues.

If your landy anything like my one the electrics at the rear will be a right mess and your problem could be to do with the tow bar electrics rather than in the cab

Cheers all, it ended up being water in the wiper relay, just enough to dry out when the Landy was parked and it would slosh around to re-wet and subsequently short everything when I was on the move.
Great feeling to get this sorted in time for another trip down the country!

Fixed by remote control and the hazards too.......

cowasaki said:

Fixed by remote control and the hazards too.......

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Very impressive work sir!
I have another for you if you fancy it?

Skolmate said:

Very impressive work sir!
I have another for you if you fancy it?

Click to expand...

Ok. What have you broken now?

cowasaki said:

Ok. What have you broken now?

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My rear wiper hasn't worked since I got my Landy, and from the looks of the wiper blade it hasn't worked for a while. I need to establish if the motor is faulty or a wire somewhere inbetween. Where do I start?

Skolmate said:

My rear wiper hasn't worked since I got my Landy, and from the looks of the wiper blade it hasn't worked for a while. I need to establish if the motor is faulty or a wire somewhere inbetween. Where do I start?

Click to expand...

Remember the kit I told you to put together in the PMs well here goes....

Check the fuses
Remove the panel with the rear wash wipe switch and make a note of which wires go to which connection.
Remove the cover off the safari door and make a note of which wires go to which connection.

There should be 4 wires at the switch end....

Green - Permanent live >> Check that this is live by connecting the black probe of the multimeter to the handbrake lever bracket and the red probe to the green wire with the dial set to Volts (DC). It should read about 13V ish

Check the same at the wiper end i.e. that the green wire still gives this same voltage.

There should be 3 more wires coming out of the switch:

One is light green with a black tracer and is the wash live wire. It should go live when you press the button.

The other two control the wiper and should be red with a light green tracer and Brown with a light green tracer. You need to check the continuity of these by CAREFULLY removing the wires at both ends and clipping the alligator clip of the long piece of wire to one end of the wire so that you extend the rear to the front and can now check the continuity of each wire i.e. multimeter set to resistance and check that it goes to nearly 0 (or continuity and it should beep)

There is only one part of the wiring to check now and that is the ground connection. Use the multimeter to check that the motor is grounded correctly.


If all these checks work then you likely have a faulty motor.

cowasaki said:

Remember the kit I told you to put together in the PMs well here goes....

Check the fuses
Remove the panel with the rear wash wipe switch and make a note of which wires go to which connection.
Remove the cover off the safari door and make a note of which wires go to which connection.

There should be 4 wires at the switch end....

Green - Permanent live >> Check that this is live by connecting the black probe of the multimeter to the handbrake lever bracket and the red probe to the green wire with the dial set to Volts (DC). It should read about 13V ish

Check the same at the wiper end i.e. that the green wire still gives this same voltage.

There should be 3 more wires coming out of the switch:

One is light green with a black tracer and is the wash live wire. It should go live when you press the button.

The other two control the wiper and should be red with a light green tracer and Brown with a light green tracer. You need to check the continuity of these by CAREFULLY removing the wires at both ends and clipping the alligator clip of the long piece of wire to one end of the wire so that you extend the rear to the front and can now check the continuity of each wire i.e. multimeter set to resistance and check that it goes to nearly 0 (or continuity and it should beep)

There is only one part of the wiring to check now and that is the ground connection. Use the multimeter to check that the motor is grounded correctly.


If all these checks work then you likely have a faulty motor.

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Nice 1 Cowasaki, I'll have a go as soon as I'm back up north.

Cheers again!

I have every electronic toy I could ever want at my disposal including a PCB manufacturing machine, colour digital storage scope, serious multimeters etc etc etc as I owned an electronics company BUT the absolutely best piece of electrical test equipment you can get is also the cheapest and simplest......

Its a bulb tester >>




Seriously, buy one as soon as you can. They have no batteries so you can leave one in the landy and it'll always be ready. They are instant and visual. Hook the clip to a decent ground source and just touch anything with the point to see if it is live.

It's much easier than a multimeter. Yes it doesn't do everything and you'll need a multimeter as well but at about £3-5 it's a nice cheap tool that's very useful.

I just wish everything else on the landy was as simple as the electrics

I tried uploading a photo. But the motor had water inside the coil compartment. This has lead to a lot of rust corrosion. Don't know it its save able bit will dry it and see.

Skolmate said:

I tried uploading a photo. But the motor had water inside the coil compartment. This has lead to a lot of rust corrosion. Don't know it its save able bit will dry it and see.

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It's probably knackered then......