LR Defender - Side lights stay on

Hello everyone,

Ive had a bad few days with the landy! I just smashed my drivers window by slammig it to hard (because the seals have gone rock solid I was having to slam it) and now I have an electrical fault! and my clutch pedal has suddenly got lots of play and im struggling to change gears - im suspecting the fluid is just low. (hopefully)

Its just the electrical fault im hoping to get some help with.

Here is the summary of event for the electrical fault:

1) Had an electrics overhaul recently - all electrics replaced. Workign fine for a week.
2) Got home one day, pressed in the cigarette lighter.
3) Lots of sparks
4) followed by lots and lots of smoke from the fuse box area.
5) I assessed and replaced fuses that had blown. No other visible damage.

Now when I turn the lights off they remain on side lights mode. If I take out the fuses they of course turn off, the green 'lights on' light on the dash remians on. If I disconnect the battery, this of course also works and the lights turn off along with the dash 'lights on' green light.

Interestingly, when I reconnect the battery after I have allowed at least 10 minutes to pass all is ok, the lights are off, dash 'lights on' green light is off and operates as expected - sides, to dipped to full beam and back etc. However after driving for a while, parking back up and turning the lights off the fault occurs again resulting in me having to pull the battery connection.
(if I connect it before roughly ten minutes then the side lights come back on immediately as the battery connects)

In an attempt to repair I located the dip dim unit behind the dash and disconnected, this has no impact or change to anything.

Has anyone had a similar fault, or suficient knowledge of what might be causing this to happen?

Many thanks
Rockslider

Like all Defender electical issues its may well be a bad earth.

Or who ever overhauled your wiring got it wrong.

bankz5152 said:

Like all Defender electical issues its may well be a bad earth.

Or who ever overhauled your wiring got it wrong.

Click to expand...

thanks bankz,

Perhaps a silly question, but would you know where a typical earth point would be for the main electrics?

Thanks

Rockslider said:

thanks bankz,

Perhaps a silly question, but would you know where a typical earth point would be for the main electrics?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Download a copy of RAVE that covers the Defender

lovely, cheers datatek - I will get myself a copy! I will let you know what I find and try and post up some pictures. Hopefully it is just the bad earth.

Rockslider said:

2) Got home one day, pressed in the cigarette lighter.
3) Lots of sparks
4) followed by lots and lots of smoke from the fuse box area.
5) I assessed and replaced fuses that had blown. No other visible damage.

Click to expand...

That doesn't sound healthy to me.
If a fault occurred on the cig lighter circuit and it blew the fuse, I wouldn't expect to see "lots and lots of smoke", even though the cig lighter is a high(ish) current circuit, nor would I expect more than one fuse top blow.

It sounds more like the fuse didn't immediately blow but cause the wiring in one of the looms to overheat and melt the insulation causing one or more short circuits.

There's only one way in the end to find that; open up the loom(s) and physically check and replace any damaged wires.

Brian, thanks for your post.
You were right. It was in fact not the cigarette lighter. When pressing the cigarette lighter the 12v radio supply was coming into contact with another wire. this was shorting out.

The fuses installed were too higher rating and were not blowing soon enough.

Glad you got it sorted.

B

Also glad your sorted it! Such a nice feeling!

Sounds like the guy who rewired it worked for Volvo :bolt::behindsofa: