Wipers/headlights Electrical fault

Calling all lecy wizards

Have a electrical fault with my 110. When i turn the headlights on the wipers come on and the radio goes off and on repeatedly......lol

It doesnt do it on side lights....but does on high beam and flash....anyone have any ideas of where to start.....or had a similar probelm...

cheers

Dodgy earth bonding points is my bet. Had something similar on my 90 that occured after I took it wading for the first time at Tong. Put the brakes on, reverse light lit up as well as the brakes and the fog light indicator came on the dashboard.

Ended up running a pair of new wires from the fusebox to the brake lights and earthing them directly to the chassis instead of back through the loom to a dodgy bonding point.

thanks mate..now that makes sense as was just after i went through very big puddle.....so could this be a faulty earth on the headlight circuit or wipers circuit? can anyone spell out a fix for this...ie if i just earth one of the headlights to chassis......thanks again for reply.

P

110greeny said:

thanks mate..now that makes sense as was just after i went through very big puddle.....so could this be a faulty earth on the headlight circuit or wipers circuit? can anyone spell out a fix for this...ie if i just earth one of the headlights to chassis......thanks again for reply.

P

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unfortunately its a common problem just have a good look around at all the earthing points and clean them up, it could also be a short in the loom somewhere but start with the simple bits ie earth points

thanks jim...reading another thread it seems theres a earth on the inside of the wing that could be the problem...i cant see anything....has anyone ever located this before?

Cheers

Can you confirm the year and engine you have so I can get the diagrams out and have a look for you.

Agreed that the eathing may be a problem, but usualy affects things on the same eathing point e.g. if the eath point on the front wing ahs gone then power will run through a circuit with two earthing points (i.e. the breaklights are linked together so if you turn on the sidelights and the earth has gone on one side then it will run back through both stop lights until it reaches the earth on the other side - as an example) Same thing will happen if you put you foot on break, and it goes back through the indicator circuit to the front light

It does however seem a little strange what your describing, and it seems as if power is getting into the ignition dependent circuit somehow and then feeding back accross it.

Other quation I would need answered is does the radio come one and off in time with the wipers?

Hi James

300tdi 1996ish body ....radio goes off completely and then back on when lights are off.... apart from the main chassis and engine earth points and the one in the engine bay middle top of bulkhead i cant find any other earths to check...it does only happen with ignition on...with ignition off lights perform as you would expect.. I have since read of another issue exaclty the same here...

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f7/electrical-interaction-headlights-dir-indicators-wipers-61994.html

Id really appreciate any more info...I have been playing about all week with this...

Thanks again
P

what a good thread mine has been doing the same for the last 5 weeks and is starting to drive me insaine!!!

Just been having a look at wiring diagrams - dont have the one for yours but using previous one, and a bit of educated guessing.

What I think is going on here is this:

The main beam is ignition dependant (i.i it is on only if the ignition is on.) These feed of a central power point (i.e. the ignition switch). Off this point runs the headlights, radio(the control side) - the amp will run off the fixed on power due to load(they havetwo power supplies to avoid overloading the circuit), the wipers, the indicators etc.

The side lights are not ignition dependant (i.e. work all the time).

I think the eatch point on one (or both) front wings is connecting all the wires (e.g. side light, indicator, dipped beam) together but not putting it onto the wing (likly some corosion between contact and wing).

This is then causing power to run through the sidelights, through the earth into the earth side of the dipped beam bulb, out of the live side, back through the switch, to power the wipers control circuit (at around 6 volts) and then back to the wipers earth, reducing the radio down to 6volts as well.

Ill have another think as this does not explain all the symptoms and i'm not fully there with a fully diagnosis yet....

What would also help is for you to remove the sidelight bulbs and the diped beam bulbs from the circuit on one side, and then the other to see if it removes the fault as I am sure this is an earth problem. - Would also be interested to see what happens when you put the indicators on with the side lights on (do the side lights come brighter and the indicators dim or vice versa)

The other thing to check is that the wing is still electricaly connected the the rest of the landy - if all the bolts are shot you could be losing voltage here as well.

I'll try and find a 300tdi circuit and put my mine to it over the next few days and let you know.

Thanks for taking the time to have a look James thats much appreciated....still cant find this earth point on the inner wing...or any others for that matter...does anyone else have a similar vehicle they could take a look at...seems like this exact problem is quite common...Thanks again James

P

Easything to do is follow the wires back from the front side light and see where they go - i know its not the easies thing to get to - or you could remove the front headlight as i suspect you will find it behind there somewhere. While you have the bulb(s) out you could try making up a wire with a spade connector on one end and the other end connected to the engine etc, and put the spade connector into the earth connector of the plug that goes on the back of the light, then see if everything work as you will have created a new earth for the wing.

Just to update for future reference....I did what you said james and scotchlocked a wire from left hand headlight earth and then bolted it to the front body panel above the grill and vola...instant fix.....many thanks for taking the time to guide me through mate much appreciated.....

no problem. Just watch out for scotchlocks as they have a habit of failing, especialy when they get wet! - i try to avoid them, and make sure the cable you have used is big nough to carry the load when the main beam is on

Did a search and found this thread as I'm suffering from a similar problem. Wipers work fine when headlights are off, or just with sidelights, however when headlights are turned on OR stalk is pulled back to flash the wipers start continuously by themselves. When the headlights are on the passenger side headlight and sidelight are very dim, and also the passenger side indicator stays on continuously, but very dim, and indicating left has no effect. When headlights are off though left indicator works as normal.

Pulled out the wiper fuse which stops the wipers coming on with the headlights but the passenger side headlight & sidelight remain dim and indicator remains dimly on. Have removed the standard earth for the lights from the inner wing and remade it in a different location and it's a good earth to the battery now, have tested it with a meter. Any ideas what might be going on?

Quick update, completely redid all of the earth mounting points for the passenger side headlight, drilled a hole through the inner wing, cleaned it with sandpaper, shoved all the earths for the various lamps into a single ring terminal and bolted that to the inner wing. Result seems to be the lights all function as they should, they're all as bright as the other side and indicator functions correctly, though there's a slight dimming of everything when hazards are activated but not enough to cause problems I don't think. However the wipers are still operating when the headlights are turned on!

Removed the fusebox and have disconnected the red relay/delay switch behind the metal plate. The wipers never parked/had intermittent anyway but now they only have one speed so at least it's road legal, would still like to find out what the problem is though! Have seen the wiper motor earth itself suggested as a possible fault elsewhere, is it likely that would have anything to do with my predicament? Is there an earth point in or around the steering column area that I should check next? I've already got the column cowling and instrument panel out and couldn't see anything but I don't know where to look.

Thought I'd update this just for future reference for anyone suffering similar problems. Ended up being simple in the end, the new earth on the inner wing I'd made for the passenger side lights, spotlights and electric fan simply wasn't up to the job. Despite showing a low resistance when connecting a multimeter between the inner wing and the -ve battery terminal, with more than two lights switched on the current seemed to be finding other ways to earth, such as through the fan thermistor wire as that was getting red hot and obviously back through the wiper circuit, activating the wipers when the lights were switched on.

On inspection also noticed there didn't seem to be an earth strap between the engine and chassis, so I ran one from the chassis to a bellhousing bolt then continued that onto the inner wing where I bolted the rest of the earths to it. End result, nice bright lights that side with no flickering or messing about and everything working as it should.