wire identification

Good afternoon chaps, it's nearly the weekend so time to tinkle about with the defender.

The issue I am having is that the 12V cigarette lighter won't work, (phone charger)
Opened up the plastics on the dashboard to diagnose problem, I have power in the form of the light bulb that runs to the cigarette lighter however it looks as though the wires have been spliced at some point to connect a radio head unit see image below


Both the brown and red/blue wire go to nothing and have their ends taped over.

Anyways after a little more digging around I find these

Green. Green/black. Green/red and green/brown.
Any one know what they are for or if they have been added by someone in the past? They aren't connected Ted to anything and weren't when I purchased the vehicle.

The last question is what is this?


Many thanks in advance.

Any identification of any/all wires would be great. Jamie

A lot of those "spare" wires are various ignition switched lives etc, they will have been there for some LR part that could have been fitted from factory. You are probably going to need to get yourself a multi-meter if you haven't already and do some exploring, the cigar lighter I think is on a permanent feed, if your's is dead then fuse checking time, failing that wire tracing time. Might be worth getting hold of the Defender workshop manual complete with wiring diagrams (on the net somewhere) and work it out. I remember when I was doing some clever and neat electrics I was able to find wires already running to various locations that would suit my switches and feeds that meant I didn't need to run new wiring everywhere. My alarm is tied into some of those green connectors you showed me so the alarm knows when the ignition is switched on etc. The red thing is just a stopper, I had it too, pulled it off and IIRC it was on the sidelight circuit.

Your cigar lighter light will be on the side light circuit too.

Sorry I cannot be of more help, but it was a while since I did this, but I do remember finding a wire that went from there I think all the way to a plug on the headlight loom which was great as it means I can put in driving lights or amber strobes at a later date and the switching wires are already there - super neat!

What age / model do you have?

There are colour codes for cables that "should be" standard.

For example: http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/page/commonly_used_british_vehicle_wiring_colours

1994 defender 300tdi thsnks

Some have extra wires for oil pressure or temperature gauges or rear wiper, which will be present on the wiring loom whether or not they were fitted.

White with a red trace is live when you put your side lights on, I think the green and black trace may be ignition switched.. Have a Google or find a wiring diagram online and it's all there mate

This "may" help too:
http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/Lucaswirecode.htm

Mine has both permanent (purple) and switched (green) connections for the cigarette lighter. I think it depends on the market which was connected. White/orange is officially designated as an accessory live- on a petrol it's live in key position 1 and 2. Plain white is the ignition live.

After checking through the wires I've found that the cigar lighter is only putting out about 10 volts, I assume it should be closer to 12 as I can't get anything to run from it. I have checked the fuse which is the correct size, now I'm stumped? Any one had a problem like this?

If there is only 10volts with no load then it doesn't sound like a cigar lighter issue per se, could be a number of issues, have you checked the battery voltage with the meter? If it reads 10v then either the battery is flat or the meter is inaccurate, if so try it on a known good battery to see if the meter displays 10 or 12.5 volts.

Kwakerman said:

If there is only 10volts with no load then it doesn't sound like a cigar lighter issue per se, could be a number of issues, have you checked the battery voltage with the meter? If it reads 10v then either the battery is flat or the meter is inaccurate, if so try it on a known good battery to see if the meter displays 10 or 12.5 volts.

Click to expand...

Yes I had my multi meter on both the wire that powers the cigar lighter and inside the cigar lighter, both reading 9 to 10 volts, also for peace of mind i checked the power lead to the light on the cigar lighter which works fine, this was reading 11.5 volts. I have not checked the battery as of yet but the landrover functions fine, starts first time, powers the headlights ect.