Side Lights Blowing Fuse

Hello people,

You will have to bear with me on this one. I noticed that my near side lights were not working the other day and found that the fuse had blown, i replaced it and tried them again and they worked fine, however when i started the engine and tried them, the fuse blew again.

So i spent Sunday morning having my first official rummage on a Landy. I had all four side lights opened up and checked all the connections. It appeared that the rear near side connection was a bit loose and had signs of wear. I decided to clean it up and swap this with the offside rear and replace the fuse. I started it up again and all was fine. This led me to believe that it was the connector that had caused a problem and my cleaning had done the trick.

So this morning on the way work i was dissapointed when i heard the by now familiar popping sound, gutted, and to make it worse it was the nearside lights again and not the offside with the swapped over "faulty" connector.

So, any ideas?

Yup, got the same problem, except mine only blows when I put windscreen wipers on as well. It is probably a short circuit somewhere, usually where wires pass from the inside to the outside of the vehicle. First place to look is remove the O/S cover in the rear of the vehicle to see the back of your tail/stop light. If you have an after-market towbar fitted this will be an absolute rats nest of bullet connectors. This is a good starting point as you can chase the wiring both ways. If all this is fine, next place is the wiring to the front side light, again probably where the wire passes through the bulkhead is worn and causing a short.

A lot of patience and the circuit diagrams from Rave disk 2 are needed. Download Rave Disk 2 from The Green Oval - Home

My Def 90 was doing this. It defied all attemps at a fix for long enough.

Turned out that there was a "wear-through" short circuit in the wiring harness that goes from the front left bulkhead around behind the wipers stuff and heater, and behind the wing bracer to the front left lights.

This harness was a lot EASIER to hoick out and repair than I thought it would be.

I undid all the wires at the front end after noting where they all went and labelled them with little bits of masking tape.

Then I worked the harness out backwards towards the bulkhead, and there LO AND BEHOLD where it was bent round a corner was a bare wire, worn through to the copper. It's just luck which wire gets shorted. Could be flasher, sidelight left, dip or main.

If you don't find it any other way, worth a try.

DO NOT put the harness back where it came from!
There are far better ways to route it.

CharlesY

Cheers for the replies people, i will give it another go this weekend.

DO NOT put the harness back where it came from!
There are far better ways to route it.

Click to expand...

You can get at more of the harnesses in the wings if you take the plastic wheel arches off first.

Defender_Shrew said:

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Hello, Michael was just telling me an army story about a friend of his who slept with a Landrover. Lonely nights in the desert..

Click to expand...

His nickname was Black Dick.

I have had a similar problem before and would suggest that you check the rear number plate light as this is on the same circuit as the NS side lights. The insides are often rusty and in my case the bulb holder was bent and shorting out.

Neil

Thats something i have not checked! To be honest i swapped all the side lights over and cleaned all the connections and yet again it appears to have fixed the problem, but i reckon it will be a false alrarm like before, all the messing seems to fix it temporarily. I will have a look at the number plate light tomorrow. cheers!

I keep telling you ..... check that harness in the left front corner from the lights back to behind the goddam heater .

CharlesY

To be honest CharlesY i read your explanation but didnt fully understand it, i kind of knew what you meant and had a go at getting to where the electrics came into the main cab but was a bit lost. Could you explain the bulkhead bit again? Sorry to be a pain in the arse. Ive got a Haines manual on the way but the postal strike has got hold of it.

Get all the wires off the connectors at the back of the left front lights, but label each one with a bit of numbered masking tape so you know where to put it back.

Once the harness is loose, work it out backwards, all the way to the heater and if need be one stage more. Check for damage and burning every inch of the way. If you find a burn, slit the harness open and repair the burst cables by soldering new joints and tape it over with the best of self-stick tapes.

When you put the harness back, route it the easy way that does not involve feeding it through wing panels.

CharlesY

Nice one CharlesY, much apreciated. Even though its currently still working, i will have a look this weekend, i had a chat with my dad about it and he told me a story about an old MGBGT he took to france when he was young he suffered a similar problem but it involved all the electrics, he stripped it all down and couldnt find the problem anywhere, he got that ****ed off that he kicked it and all the electrics came back on. They dont make them like they used to. Cheers again.