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Bluest

Member Since: 23 Apr 2016
Location: Lancashire
Posts: 4225

2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 XS CSW Java Black

Electrical Gremlin

Strange one today that I'd like to get to the bottom of

As I was driving down, I noticed my headlights were flickering in the refection from the car in front. I just had the side lights switched on, but the dipped beam, main beam and sides appeared to be randomly flickering. On switching on to dipped beam, everything seemed normal. On arrival at my destination, I turned the lights off and dipped, main and side lights (in the headlight unit only) started flickering again. Even with the engine off and keys out. Because I had an appointment to keep, I couldn't fuss with it so I just left them flickering.

On my return about 15 mins later, no flickering, but dipped beam was illuminated, like they had been left on. I checked I had definitely switched them of, which I had. I drove home on dipped beam, all fine and on getting home everything was functioning correctly as normal once again. Very odd. Can't replicate the fault now.

Tail brake, and body mounted sidelights weren't affected as far as I could tell.

I have Truck lite LED headlights, IPF halogen spots, and all LED indicator, tail and side lights. Headlights are wired through a Landreiziger loom and spots through a similar loom supplied by the spot light maker, fed direct from the alternator though relays.

This was the first time the car has been started in almost a month

I'm ruling out a fault with the Trucklites, as both were affected equally. I'm thinking maybe some sort of relay fault in the Landreiziger loom, but now the fault has cleared itself who knows?... Any suggestions? 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS

21st Jan 2019 3:57pm

MJN110

Member Since: 18 May 2015
Location: North Yorkshire
Posts: 380

2016 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 Landmark LE Montalcino Red

Hi
I had a similar issue years ago with my old BMW motorcycle the lights on when keys removed.
The problem was a defective diode on the alternator circuit?
The diode passes current/volts both ways when defective I think? 2016 Defender Landmark 90
2005 Defender CSW TD5 90XS

21st Jan 2019 4:20pm

donmacn

Member Since: 06 Nov 2017
Location: Nth Scotland
Posts: 1850

I wonder if the battery just wasn't up to par, having been left for a while?

I had something similar, though in a 300Tdi we're talking stone age electrics. I'd wired in new halogen 'crystal' lights, which had a hole in the bottom of the unit for an additional sidelight. I used a little LED sidelight bulb here, and just like you I realised they were flickering from the reflection on the car in front.

In my case, I reckon it was just cheap LED bulbs which were more voltage sensitive than they should be. However I had no flickering issues with the halogen main or dipped beam.

Another, separate issue I had once was that the main beam and dipped beam just didn't work on one occasion. I traced that back to a poor earth where I'd mounted the Landreiziger relays onto the lip of the passenger wing. Once I'd fixed that, all was OK.

So, I guess I'd check the voltage at the battery, and just check in case the earth you've used for the Landreiziger loom isn't good enough. Donald

1994 Defender 300Tdi 110 SW - owned since 2002 - 230k miles and going strong
(The 'rolling restoration' or tinkering thread: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic58538.html )
2000 Range Rover P38 4.0L V8

in the past..
RR classic - fitted with 200Tdi
1984 RR classic - V8 with ZF auto box
1993 Discovery 300Tdi

not to mention the minis and the Type 2 VW camper...

21st Jan 2019 4:22pm

leeds

Member Since: 28 Dec 2009
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 8582

My first thought on reading your post was dim dip system playing up then noticed your signature 07 110 XS. I thought the dim dip system disappeared 05/06 time.

Second thought whilst driving lights flickering then that is normally a sign of varying voltage at the headlight connector around about the triggering voltage of the LED especially if the battery was low on charge from standing a month or so

If after driving home the fault could not be replicated it would suggest state of charge of battery. I would suggest checking voltage of battery. Is it the original battery? Cold weather does play havoc with old batteries.

Sticky light switch?

Since main power for lights is from the alternator via a relay. This relay should only close when activated by light switch. So IF light switch is off this relay should not be energised.. The light feed is presumably on the battery output side of the alternator so diodes in alternator should not effect this.

So my thinking is flickering down to low state of battery charge and a sticky relay. Charge battery fully and pull relay and clean contacts would be my first checks.

The chances of a pair of reputable LED headlights simultaneously having a fault is probably very low and chances are it is a fault in the wiring.

Brendan

21st Jan 2019 4:44pm

Bluest

Member Since: 23 Apr 2016
Location: Lancashire
Posts: 4225

Definitely no Dim/Dip on mine. I will pull the lighting relays at the weekend and check for damage, corrosion etc. and I'll check the earth is good. I was thinking a faulty relay of some sort as that would make them staying on when everything was supposedly switched off. Maybe corrosion inside could cause the contacts to stick???

Battery is only about 18 months old, new Varta one. It was a bit lazy to turn over having sat so long in the cold, but once running the alternator should get the voltage to 14v pretty quick after starting. 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS

21st Jan 2019 6:05pm

blackwolf

Member Since: 03 Nov 2009
Location: South West England
Posts: 17520

2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Stornoway Grey

leeds wrote:
My first thought on reading your post was dim dip system playing up then noticed your signature 07 110 XS. I thought the dim dip system disappeared 05/06 time.
...

Dim dip continued to be fitted to some models for some time afterwards, for example all MY2007 Defenders that fell into the N1 type approval classification (such as my DC) had dim dip instead of headlight adjusters. I imagine that all DC and HT models would have had it, whilst SW models would have had the executive knob (for the headlight beam adjustment) instead.

I really have no idea why Landrover thought that headlight adjusters and dim dip were alternatives, since they do very different jobs. I think that the adjuster was a requirement for M1 EWVTA, but the dim dip certainly wasn't and was never legally a legal requirement*.

I don't know when the last dim dip Defender was built.

Dim dip was, even by the low standards of the time, an incredibly stupid idea!

* This odd statement reflects that fact that dim dip became a requirement under UK law, but the EU (in possibly its one useful contribution of all time) ruled that it was illegal to make it a legal requirement.

21st Jan 2019 6:20pm

Bluest

Member Since: 23 Apr 2016
Location: Lancashire
Posts: 4225

Managed to grab a few minutes between rain showers to look at this. The relay block (two relays combined) in the Landreiziger loom had water in it. This must be what caused the problem. This may be at least partially my fault as the relays were mounted with the terminals pointing upwards which may have allowed water to seep in.

This is going to be pain job to sort with the rubbish weather at this time of year. I need to get two new relays and re-site them somewhere so the terminals point down and out of the weather, but the loom has practically no slack in it so some rewiring is going to be required. 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS

26th Jan 2019 3:28pm

Balvaig

Member Since: 19 Feb 2016
Location: Fife
Posts: 732

2016 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 Landmark LE Corris Grey

Temporary fix- clean and dry the block, replace the relays then wrap in plastic and seal with waterproof electrical tape. Should be fine for some while.

26th Jan 2019 5:47pm

custom90

Member Since: 21 Jan 2010
Location: South West, England.
Posts: 20558

BlueST - I have a brand new Land Reziger dual relay on the shelf you can have if it's useful to you?

I mounted my Relays just each side of the radiator area, the wing lip is not a good idea and does get wet a lot. KEEP CALM AND Drill ON
🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇺🇸⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪

26th Jan 2019 6:14pm

Bluest

Member Since: 23 Apr 2016
Location: Lancashire
Posts: 4225

Hi Steve, that’s great, I’ll take it if you don’t mind. 2007 110 TDCi Station Wagon XS

26th Jan 2019 7:01pm

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