Electrics on my landy has gone mad :(

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas...

My 300tdi defender 90 has been playing up with electrics since friday but this weekends its gone real bad. If i use indicators, flash, head lights, heaters or wipers the wipers come on and wont go off again. Driving down the motorway on sunday the horn went off and wouldnt go off again so i've disconnected it and the wipers were going for the 3 hours there and all the way back but i couldnt take fuse out because the rain was on and off. When i have the lights on if i touch anything else at all to do with switches the lights dim quite abit. If the radios on then when i use any switches the radio goes off and i blew another fuse yesterday the 2nd one in for the interior light, clock, radio, flash. The fuel guage has been playing up too since it all started so i can only use the mileage on speedo to figure out how much fuel i've got.

Im just looking at replacing the indicator and wiper stalks but has anyone any more suggestions? Its driving me mad and im not doing the wipers or screen any good by them constantly going with dry weather :/

Makes me look like i cant drive as well!

I've taken a few pics of wiring around the stalks to see if anyone can spot anything obvious i might be able to sort but i'm absolutely useless with electrics. Ive replaced the fuse and the radio and flash is working now but along with the wipers... the horns still disconnected.

I'm going to have a look at finding an auto electrician its just last time i had electrical problems with it, it cost me over £1000 through guessing games with them and trying different things so need someone whos got an idea about it.

I've taken a few pics to see if anyone has any ideas.... Thank you

I'm not a pro on this, but sounds like it could be an earth issue, think they are quite common. Someone will probably elaborate...

It just started on Friday I hadn't messed with anything before it started playing up and nothings changed on it.... Its been moody ive messed with it since but only looking then put it back together it looked too complicated :/

Find and clean all the main earth points for the battery and the components that are freaking out. Trace everything back and look for worn wiring and clean the terminals/connectors.

I used to have an electric fan that the previous owner had wired off the fuel solenoid, something shorted out and every time i turned the fan on the engine cut out.

Yes, it's sounding very earthy to me. If the electricity can't get back to earth through its normal route it can creep back through other components. So you get the phenomenon where you switch on accessory A and accessory B comes on dimly. Switch the radio on and the horn blows, that sort of thing. I'm not familiar with this particular model, but start with the big ones, like where the black wire from the battery goes to, and the earth straps from the engine and gearbox to the chassis. Take 'em apart and clean the mating faces back to bright metal and put them back together. There'll probably be some earth terminals behind the fascia inside the dashboard too, which may be corroded. Because cars work on fairly low voltage, a bit of corrosion or verdigris on terminals can make a big difference.

Sarah,

As has already been said, it looks like an earth fault, so I'd be inclined to check the bonding before handing your baby over to an expensive auto electrician because he will only do what you could do yourself ... and charge you £x/hr for the 'service'.

I hope that it is something simple and easily sorted

earths

300tdi, main batt to gearbox, gearbox to chassis
one under drivers seatbox, either attached to the transfer box or to chassis.
last one (and probably the culprit in this case) under bonnet to the right of the servo.

Thank you very much ill have a look and see what happens. Yea and they usually keep hold of it a week at a time and get grumpy with it thank you

Hi everyone, it pretty obvious that this is a grounding issue from all the replies but could some please explain this to me as i am noob to vehicle electrics.

How does power get into another circuit or by pass switches when a connection to the chassis is lost and why does a "bad earth" as everyone on here calls it blow fuses?
Wouldn't these be symptoms of a chaffed wiring loom with a combined intermittent short?

Also what is bonding?

James

OK to keep it as simple as possible ...

Electricity needs to go out from the battery, through the switches through the lights/fan/or whatever and then go back to the battery.

The switches give the electricity the shortest route to wherever it is going and then the whatever sends it back to the battery when it has finished with it.

The return to the battery is known as 'the Earth part of the circuit'. Just like at home when you plug something in to the mains, it is the 240Volt live and 0Volt neutral that do all the work between them.

The differnce is that the mains neutral goes back to earth at the transformers and generators, and fuses are installed to protect the equipment - not you!

With the 12V system, the negative pole on the battery acts in the same way as the mains neutral, only the battery negative is bonded or connected to the steel and metal frameworks on your Landy.

Without the earth, the positive electricity from the battery will, jusy like water, find the path of least resistance to get back to the battery ... usually that is through another component which is bonded to the negative earth, and hence goes back to the battery.

If the chosen circuit does not have the power capacity for the negaitve electricity to go back to the battery, it will blow a fuse to protect the circuit which has been kidnapped!

I hope that all makes sense.

Thank for your reply but now i am even more confused

if the power needs to get back to the battery but cant and finds its way into say the horn circuit of Sarah's land rover how can this electricy make the horn sound?
How does this power jump onto the positive side of the horn circuit go through the horn back to earth and complete the circuit to make the horn sound?

If if this power goes through the earth side of the horn then it wouldn't get passed the switch to go back to the battery?

And I still cant understand why a fuse can blow by power going back up a towards the battery woulndt it come to the switches before the fuse and the circuit woulndt be completed, if the switch was turned on how would the fuse rating be exceed?

It all sounds very complicated, no wonder auto electricians charge so much and live in big houses

James

Hello again did this car get fixed?
I found out that land rovers are using directed current not altanator current that is used in house wiring, i think this is what confused me

James

That's what confusilates the electrickery anorl