Hi,Could anyone help with wiring the rear lights?PLEASEEEEEEEE!!!

Hi all,New member here asking for some help!
Could some kind soul possible help me towards getting my defender 110 rear lights re-wired!
All sorts of things were happening after my recent landy purchase (1990 200tdi 110 csw)when you brakes the fog light came on,no reverse light,front sides come on when you break etc...
So taking a look at the drivers side rear cable loom it was full of old scotch locks and odd cables so decided to strip them all off and start again with proper soldered connections....So the tale begins...hours later and i just cannot seem to find a combination of colours connecte dtogether that allows all to work correctly....eith one thing works but something else doesnt etc...
So i i have the wiring diagram and have followed it but still no luck...i wonder if any one has or could take a picture of their rear loom so i can see what cables should be together??
And to make things a little more complicated for some reason (and would be grateful if someone could shed light on this) i have FOUR stop and tail lamps on my vehicle...and the cappings are actually cut to take 4 but i haven't seen this before?
And yes i have checked and cleaned all earthing points.
Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions sent my way!

Start at where the loom comes into the rear of your landy, separate it from the connectors and mark the cables. Black is earth, Green/red is left indicators, green/white right indicators, green/purple is the stop, red/blue is left tail, red/orange is right tail, Red/yellow is the fog. It's hard to see the stripe colours. White masking tape is good for marking, as you can write on it with a pen. A test lamp would be really useful here to test. Clean up all the connectors with emery paper, reconnect all the earths (black) together and work your way through reconnecting everything one wire at a time, testing as you go. If the fault seems to be with the loom itself, you can buy or make a new one, and connect it to the multi plugs under the bonnet. There isn't much wiring in a Landy, but they are almost always botched at some stage.

It should be straightforward really.
Try a test light at the multiplug in the engine bay, you don't sound dumb so maybe the loom in the chassis is fecked and causing issues?

I'd be interested to see a photo of the cappings. Maybe a home made conversion?

Hi and thank you all for your prompt replies...sorry for delay in mine!
I'm currently on night duty but will take and add photos tomorrow.
Regarding wiring,I like to think I'm competent and can follow wiring diagrams (just!) So as mentioned maybe there is an issue elsewhere along the loom.should/can there be more than one wire connected in the rear loom for stop/tail etc?one of the issues I have is that I can get stop lights and I can get tail lights individually but I can't get both!

Here you go Zeaphod....any ideas anyone?custom job or some kind of special vehicle past life?


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Looks like someone has added the top half of a series corner capping to give the dual lights. If I were you, I'd disconnect the lower set before going further with any fault diagnosis. As far as the fault goes, if you can get both stop and tail individually, you're almost there.

so had another look today...i can get stop lights connected.....then i can tail lights connected.....but then i seem to have a problem in that if both tail and stop lights are connected then i have tail lights that are illuminated as stop lights!and are on all the time if sidelights are on (if this makes sense?) yet there seems to be no other wiring options available...if i do anything other than connect like for like eg...G/P to G/P then either one or the other wont work?!
Driving me mad!!!!

OK, i'm going to reach on this one but I might suggest that one of your dual-filament-bulb sockets has a short in it or someone's jammed the wrong bulb in the socket and shorted the two across.

As far as what's coming back from the front stop is 1 wire, taillights/license plate light is 1 wire.

Test them separately with a test lamp - wires disconnected from everything else. if that works, then your problem is downstream - in the cross harness between the sides or in one of the dual-filament sockets.

+1 for the above - wrong bulb somewhere is a possibility, especially as the previous owner obviously liked to tinker!

Thanks guys will strip each socket over next few days and see what I find.Just to confirm...stop/tail for these is a 380 bulb right?And these should be the only lamps with dual filament bulbs in correct?.

Regarding one wire for stop and one wire for tail/number plate......does that mean one wire of each to EACH lamp (making 4 wires in total) or 1 wire to each lamp (making just the 2 in total)

That's one wire in the main loom coming to the rear of the vehicle for the stop. May be two for the sides - red/blue and red/orange. The are joined at the fuse panel anyway. From the loom, the stop and tail feeds are split left and right. Your stop/tail lights should have three wires: earth, stop and tail. So, the stop feed (green/purple stripe) comes as a single wire in the loom, is joined at a connecter (drivers side rear corner in the jumble) to two green/purples that feed either side stop lamps. Clear? (as mud) The tail lights are fed similarly from a connector in the same corner. The connectors are a source of many faults. I would take them apart, clean them all up and reassemble, paying particular attention to the earths.

Thanks zapped..you have confirmed what I was doing was correct then and I was indeed following the wiring diagram correctly!so.....that means there must be an issue somewhere else causing the stop lights to come on as tail lights...mmmmm.......

Yes, so inspect the loom where it enters and exits the chassis
They can chaff at the rear especially.
Can't see owt? Check the circuits again at the under bonnet multiplug.
Test and eliminate test and eliminate.
The mistake you appear to be making is assuming the rear lights are OK, test the wiring in the rear corner with the lights disconnected.

Ok thanks again all...looks like I have a weekend of testing,stripping (cables!),testing and er...testing! Oh what a intro to landy ownership!and do you know....Im loving every moment of it!

If I'm reading your posts correctly, to test where the short between your tail and side lights: disconnect at where the loom comes into the back of the body. turn the side lights on. check for voltage on the brake (green purple) wire. If you have voltage, the short is back towards the front of the vehicle. As said above, unplug where the loom joins under the bonnet and retest on the wiring side towards the vehicle.

Think I may have found someone's tinkering!




And testing the wires as suggested I have a live at the green/purple (stop) when I have tail lights on?!! That will explain why the tails act like brake lights!but not sure if you can see in the next image but I have two green/purple wires in the loom...only one is live and one is thicker than the other...any suggestions?!do you think it may be worth just ripping the whole lot out and wiring in a length of trailer cable?