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ckamps

Member Since: 04 Jul 2023
Location: Oregon
Posts: 43

Tail light not working - fast turn signal

2022 110 X Dynamic with just under 19k miles. I purchased it preowned from a JLR dealer at 18k miles. Twice in the last week, the right rear tail light has stopped working. The only indication of an issue from within the vehicle was a fast blinking turn indicator light when attempting to use the right turn signal.

Before the first occurrence, the Defender was sitting outside in freezing rain and snow at a ski resort. Before the second occurrence, I had just taken the Defender through a touchless car wash. Leading me to believe that the issue is due in part to high moisture.

The tail lamp started working after the first occurrence once I shut off the Defender and let it sit for ~10 minutes. However, today, after the second occurrence and letting the Defender sit for several hours, the problem persisted. (UPDATE: When I started the Defender the next morning, the tail light worked!)

EDITED: Per the feedback in this thread, looking at fuses is not useful given that fuses are not dedicated to the tail lights.

If I had the GAP tool or similar, I'd also consider looking for fault codes to help isolate the issue.

According to my nearest dealer (3 hours away), the factory warranty should cover the cost to transport the vehicle to their shop. I have not yet decided to take this approach as compared to driving it and getting a rental car for a few days. The dealer won't cover the cost of the rental and does not provide loaner vehicles.

I’m aware of the recall of the smoked tail lights (for example, on the X trim level) given that they can be temporarily disabled by bright lights. However, in those cases, a restart of the vehicle would bring the lights back to life. My tail lights (X-Dynamic trim) are the non-smoked units. But I've also seen forum posts where people have gotten the non-smoked tail lights to be disabled by shining bright lights on them. 2021 D90 Pangea First Edition
2022 D110 X-Dynamic HSE Eiger Grey

Last edited by ckamps on 31st Dec 2024 8:11pm. Edited 2 times in total

31st Dec 2024 5:39am

Fifth Horseman

Member Since: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Lanarkshire
Posts: 327

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 XS CSW Santorini Black

Nearly all of the lighting circuits are supplied direct from the body control module, no fuses involved. The BCM senses the current drawn by the lamp and shuts down the output if excessive current is drawn. For the indicator circuits if the current drawn is too low, as caused by a lamp fault, then this is detected and causes the fast indicator flash.
The only lights that are fed directly by fuses are the headlamps. If either of the fuse links you mention had blown then there would be many more issues.

If its the whole light unit that has stopped working then the first things to check would be the connector at the lamp and the earth point which is under the boot (trunk) floor

31st Dec 2024 8:43am

LR Nuts

Member Since: 10 Aug 2022
Location: UK
Posts: 1170

I agree with above ^^^^^

The rear lamp cluster does NOT have any serviceable parts, if lamp is not functioning as you would expect it could mean changing the whole cluster.

Here is the wire colour code

good luck

31st Dec 2024 9:54am

Fifth Horseman

Member Since: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Lanarkshire
Posts: 327

One thing to note is that the NAS spec rear lights do not have a dedicated indicator circuit, the outer lights are red and come on with the brakes. The brake light doubles as the indicator.

31st Dec 2024 11:37am

ckamps

Member Since: 04 Jul 2023
Location: Oregon
Posts: 43

Update: JLR dealer has informed me that they're replacing both tail lights due to them being able to make both fail by shining bright lights on them. This is under warranty.

Again, this is on an NA spec 2022 D110 X-Dynamic that doesn't have the smoke tail light lenses.

The two things that don't add up in my mind are:

1/ Unlike what I've read concerning a restart reactivating the smoke tail lights, my D110 failing tail light would not reliably reactivate upon engine restart.

2/ Over the past < 1,000K miles of ownership, only one of the two tail lights experienced this issue on an intermittent basis. The other tail light seemed to work fine.

Oh well... As long as the issue was isolated to within the tail light and not in wiring external to it, I guess the new tail lights will be a good thing...

BTW, here's a forum post of a NA spec 2020 HSE owner able to make their non-smoke tail lights fail based on shining a bright light on them:

https://landroverforums.com/forum/2020-def...post781669 2021 D90 Pangea First Edition
2022 D110 X-Dynamic HSE Eiger Grey

13th Jan 2025 11:13pm

ckamps

Member Since: 04 Jul 2023
Location: Oregon
Posts: 43

Mystery solved (I think): The JLR dealer informed me that, when they removed the exterior trim from the passenger side tail light, they found that the upper portion of the lens of the outer smaller squares was broken. Likely due to the previous owner backing into something. There was no sign of damage to the lens from the exterior.

The semi exposed circuit board helps explain why the tail light would stop working when sufficient moisture or direct water contact was experienced. I assume that the light assembly would go into a fault mode until it sufficiently dried and the Defender was restarted.

Since the dealer deemed that damage to the outer squares would not affect the design flaw of certain Defender tail lights turning off when exposed to a bright light, the dealer decided to replace both trail lights under warranty.

While diagnosing my Defender’s issue and before disassembling the trim, the dealer might have done the flashlight test to confirm that my Defender’s original red tail lights suffered from the same well known problem affecting the smoked tail lights. (Some community members have demonstrated the issue on non-smoked lights).

Since the original red tail lights were not available, the dealer was able to source OEM smoked units normally used on the NAMER X model (I have an X Dynamic). IMO, the smoked units look much better with my eiger grey color.

Lucky me on both counts: new tails light and smoked to boot!

This situation helps me understand that why I was unable to find other occurrences of these symptoms in the community forums. i.e. There’s probably not a lot of cases of lenses with hidden damage…

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge 2021 D90 Pangea First Edition
2022 D110 X-Dynamic HSE Eiger Grey

Last edited by ckamps on 18th Jan 2025 4:28pm. Edited 1 time in total

18th Jan 2025 3:45pm

LR Nuts

Member Since: 10 Aug 2022
Location: UK
Posts: 1170

Good you got it sorted !

18th Jan 2025 4:25pm

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