HELP!!! Replacing indicators with LEDs has somehow buggered all the lights...

Hi Guys,

Just got the landy back from MOT and it went through without any issues Great news there!

However, today i started replacing the old and battered side lights and indicators with nice new Wipac LED units.
I snipped the old units out, soldered the new ones in and all was going well... the drivers side indicator and sidelight work perfectly.
When i moved on to the passenger side, i did the exact same thing but theyre not lighting up. neither the indicator nor the side light.

So now i have drivers side front working and passenger side front not working...
At the back i have drivers side indicators NOT working while the passenger side is working.
Also the brake lights have stopped working...
All were working this morning...

I'm rubbish at electrics but as this was supposed to be direct replacement i figured it would be an easy one to do! Looks like i was wrong.


Any thoughts on what could be causing this issue? as far as i can tell i've not pulled anything out of the loom, the fuses are all fine and all the LEDs work... i've tested each unit separately and they all work!

Please help

Many LED units will only work when connected one way - check your work. If in doubt, take the working unit and swap it into another position. You can also easily test the individual units with a direct connection to the battery.
As for the brake lights - that's on a separate fuse, I wonder if you have blown a couple of fuses during your work? Worth a check.

I had exactly the same problem with the Wipac LED's.
I conected them up with the conectors as supplied,& various lights did'nt work,it seems the wires were the wrong way round on the LED's,just cut off the connectors & rewire them the oposite way and all worked as they should.
Best of luck.
Marc

Thanks for the replies, I've tried connecting them the other way round. Currently the only ones i've done are the 4 lights on the front... the rest are still the old bulbs. The 2 that arent working i've connected up both ways and still nothing. I've tried the fuses and they are all fine.
Would it be possible to damage the brake lights by doing something to the front side lights? I haven't touched the brake lights...

Hi, I have just changed all mine, found that some indicators would and wouldn't work until I replaced the relay.

Also I fitted the rear tail/brake light and followed the wire colours but found that they didn't work correctly, they would work independently but not together and it looked like the side lights were to bright, swopped one wire round, can't remember which colour but could check and they worked perfectly.

Ah interesting... i'll have a play!

I discovered in the end that a friend who has been helping me had unscrewed all the lights on the rear so they had lost their ground which is why they weren't working... replaced with the led unit and the rear is now working. I guess i just need to find the ground at the front and clean up the connection!

Don't forget that unless you are fitting ballast resistors, the flasher relay will need to be swopped for an LED compatible one.

Why would you want to make things more complex by fitting LED lamps? One of the things about Defenders is that they are simple.
Why complicate things by fitting lamps that can't easily be fixed if they fail? It takes a few seconds to change a bulb, obtainable anywhere from lndia to lnverness.
LED's are reliable but not immune from failure. What do you do if one fails half way across France?

lightning said:

Why would you want to make things more complex by fitting LED lamps? One of the things about Defenders is that they are simple.
Why complicate things by fitting lamps that can't easily be fixed if they fail? It takes a few seconds to change a bulb, obtainable anywhere from lndia to lnverness.
LED's are reliable but not immune from failure.

Click to expand...

Some LEDs need resistors to work well under some 12v systems and some will not work when fitted incorrectly ... very cheap Chinese LEDs will not work at all ...

I carry a few of my old lights in the cubby box in case of LED failure. An indicator and a stop-and-tail-light especially. Just in case I lose an LED unit through failure or accident and it takes a few days to get an order through from Bolt On Bits.

george man said:

Ah interesting... i'll have a play!

I discovered in the end that a friend who has been helping me had unscrewed all the lights on the rear so they had lost their ground which is why they weren't working... replaced with the led unit and the rear is now working. I guess i just need to find the ground at the front and clean up the connection!

Click to expand...

Did you get the Wipac relay too specific for Led relays?

But like l said, why would you want to fit LED lamps to a Defender?
As you have to change relays etc as well. What's wrong with ordinary bulbs. I have only had a couple fail in 30,000 miles. Spend the money on rubber mats to catch the water that leaks in when it rains.

Because they are more reliable, you may lose one led but not the other dozen in the bunch that makes one light assembly. Most led light packs are also potted, that is they don't let it water. The standard light, the seals fail, light assembly collects water, the metal work corrodes. The bulbs fail.

They are much brighter, and don't fill with water like the original units.

I'm with Lightning on this one. I've tried (and currently trying with a new truck) to keep everything "standard" because, as he says, it's much easier to replace stuff if it breaks while away from civilisation. Admittedly the LED lights are brighter, but does it really matter as long as they're visible? As for waterproof-ness, this might also be correct in that LEDs are less affected by H2O, but the downside is the cost and potential faff fitting them and replacing broken bits as-and-when. I can replace a hell of a lot of filament bulbs for the cost of a set of sexy LEDs....