NS Passenger Dipped Headlight Keeps Blowing Fuse

SMG · Oct 14, 2019

Hi there
Got a 2002 TD5 110 CSW. Think it's got Britpart Lynx Eye LED highlights that were installed 2+ years ago. Whilst I was driving this evening, the nearside passenger headlight went out on dipped beam... full beam was fine. Driver's side is fine on both dipped and full beam.

I tried the easy check first, and found fuse 23 (10A) had blown. Replaced it, all seemed OK... started on the drive home and about a minute later the new fuse blew.

Am guessing it's a short somewhere, but not sure best of way spotting them / what end to start looking from / common places headlight wires chafe. Any tips on fastest way to find the cause of the short?

Many thanks

SMG

mystery · Oct 15, 2019

first place to check is the actual head light connections and wing harness for damage through rubbing

SMG · Oct 16, 2019

Thanks Mystery, going to have a good hunt this weekend

nobber · Oct 16, 2019

Did the fuse get hot?

K14 · Oct 16, 2019

Disconnect the headlight from the loom. If it still blows it’s the loom wiring, if it doesn’t blow it’s the headlight fitting

Galladog · Oct 18, 2019

My 2003 Defender had the same problem, the wire was chaffing behind the horn inside the wing.

SMG · Oct 19, 2019

Here's what I did today....

Disconnected the front passenger light.... switched on engine, turned on main (dipped) headlights... fuse blew. OK now I know it's not the light itself. Replaced fuse.
Disconnected the main harness to wing harness connector.. switched on engine, turned on main (dipped) headlights... gave the main harness abit of a wiggle... fuse didn't blow. OK now I know its' somewhere in the wing harness.
Checked wing harness to main harness socket and wires.... couldn't see any damage
Checked wires at other end, couldn't see any damage, quite hard to really check behind the horn, as very tight space
Tried to see if I could pull the whole wing harness out.....spent an hour trying to get the blower intake out the way so I could disconnect the clips holding the wing harness halfway along. I managed to pull the harness out a few more inches at the head light end, but couldn't see any damage.
Decided to give up for the day, so put it all back together, and then thought what the hell, let's see if it's fixed itself.

This time when I start the engine, the dipped headlight on passenger side worked fine..... but now I've got a dodgy full beam on that side.

Full beam (constant) doesn't blow any fuses.... it mainly stays off, but every few seconds it flickers on for a split second.
If I do a full beam "flash" (pull indicator lever towards me) the full beam on passenger side works OK.

Bit stumped... my messing about with the harness must have moved the wire(s) that were causing the original fault. Any ideas on next steps?

Cheers
SMG

K14 · Oct 19, 2019

IMO the new fault,and original fault are one and the same. The wing harness needs to be repaired or replaced.

SMG · Oct 25, 2019

All fixed. I took it to my local independant... he took off the wheel liner trim which gave him access to bits I couldn't see. Live wire had chaffed against somewhere behind the heater intake. Wing harness didn't have all the fir tree clips inserted, so was bouncing around.

NS Passenger Dipped Headlight Keeps Blowing Fuse

SMG

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mystery

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SMG

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nobber

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K14

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Galladog

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SMG

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