head lamp woes!

Hi chaps,

I've got a 2013 defender, the head lamps have been replaced for LED ones.

Since having replaced them I've had problems with them not coming on first thing in a morning, the side lamps come on, but not the lights, i can flash and indicate. if i hold the flash down the headlamps come on and stay on eventually.

I have replaced the main switch for the side/head lamps, it didnt display any melting. The problems seem to clear up and then have persisted a week or two later.

The lights have also turned themselves off whilst driving home which has given me the odd scare!

My question is, is the relay my next port of call? I cant figure out which relay is which so any help with that would be ace!

Should I be running a new earth to the lamps and if so how, Just drill the chassis and run a new wire to it?

Any advice would be welcome!

Thanks
Rob

You are not having a lot of luck with either of your fenders are you...??
Just for fun have you been around and cleaned and tightened all the earths?

Cheers

It does sound like a classic earth fault.

yeah thats what i thought, perhaps i should run a wire from the battery and direct to the unit....

If you are fiddling around with the wiring you may as-well just install a Boomslang headlight loom : https://www.paddockspares.com/boomslang-performance-headlight-loom.html
It takes all the load of the switch on the steering column and also results in much brighter lights.
One of the best upgrades I have done to my 110.

Ta

neilly said:

You are not having a lot of luck with either of your fenders are you...??
Just for fun have you been around and cleaned and tightened all the earths?

Cheers

Click to expand...

I am very close to rolling them both out into the street and setting fire to them both.... I dont mind so much when the old one/toy breaks thats part of the deal i have with it. but the newer one annoys me when it breaks... but hey its a land rover i knew what i was doing!

I'll go round and take a look at the earths, any usual suspects???

MungoPark said:

If you are fiddling around with the wiring you may as-well just install a Boomslang headlight loom : https://www.paddockspares.com/boomslang-performance-headlight-loom.html
It takes all the load of the switch on the steering column and also results in much brighter lights.
One of the best upgrades I have done to my 110.

Ta

Click to expand...

yup after some rootling around today i opted to buy one in order to rule out the wiring!

hopefully it'll be here this week. did you run a wire back to the battery for the earth or just to the chassis???

Ran one good earth and one live line straight to the batt. Alternatively you could go to the live terminal on the starter solenoid to keep the battery box cleaner. (Also reduces the risk of your father-in law unplugging it while trying to bump start the Landy and you having no lights .... )

Swap them out for some road legal lamps.

"Swap them out for some road legal lamps."

How do you know they are not road legal ones?

Hello!

I dont suppose any of your chaps know which relay is the dim/dip relay in the picture attached. I've numbered the relays.

Thanks
Rob

There isn't one in a 2013 Defender AFAIK. They were fitted to some 2007-11 models but not the later ones.

The headlamp relay is in the box under the driver's seat, but can't remember which one it is.

Ok cool, thanks for that. I've got a new loom to go in for the headlights but didnt want to do that without bypassing the dim dip. I'll get it done and see what happens!

robal said:

Hello!

I dont suppose any of your chaps know which relay is the dim/dip relay in the picture attached. I've numbered the relays.

Thanks
Rob

Click to expand...

It's probably one of them there, and if my memory hasn't gone, it should have 7 pins on the base

Shouldn't be necessary on LED headlamps as the current should be lower hence less voltage drop. Just check the resistance to Earth is low enough, and likewise test the continuity between the existing headlamp relay and the bulb socket.

where is the earth on lamps. in my series its just back to the chassis. obviously things have moved on a little bit!!!!