blackwolf wrote:

Mine used to fail about once a year until I rerouted the trunk to avoid the excessive flexing.

Tdi4 wrote:

Landrover have used wires that are to stiff so when you repair the broken wire:

a. use (more) flexibele wire, to prevent future problems
b. do not just fix the broken wire but replace old wire in the rubber gasket (about 20 cm). So that you have new more flexibel wire in the rubber gasket.

Complete electrical noob here but wanting to do this fix as my rear offside has stopped working and might as well do both at the same time. Any suggestions on what wire to use as a replacement? I have no idea with regards to what rating of wire I need to be using or what makes for good flexibility - Gotta learn somewhere

hank wrote:

blackwolf wrote:

Mine used to fail about once a year until I rerouted the trunk to avoid the excessive flexing.

What did you do here?

After noting that the rear door wires failed about four or five times more frequently than the fronts, I deduced that the fact that the front door trunk has its ends at different heights and so bends in a relatively gentle "Z" bend whilst the rear door trunk has its ends at the same height and so bends in a sharp "U" bend every time, I rerouted the harness in the rear doors so that the shape mimics that of the fronts. Since then, zero failures in the rear door harnesses.

All four of my doors have already had the wire replaced several times, and currently use a high-flexibility test lead wire. Before re-reouting however the rears would still fail with this. I have also modified the harnesses to facilitate repairs if necessary, so that there is spare length in the door allowing me to pull spare length through from the door to the A-post or B-post and re-terminate in the event of a break, avoiding the need to dismantle the door every few months. That being said, since altering the rear doors the incidence of rear door harness failures (remembering that I use the vehicle a lot) has dropped from about 6 to 12 months MTBF to several years.

The photo below clearly shows the old and new egress points for the trunk.

The rear door wiring on the 4-door and 5-door Defender is another example of such stunningly bad design engineering that you really have to wonder what was going on at Landrover at the time. It beggars belief that something that was so clearly doomed to failure (and so unnecessarily shoddy) could make it into production, when one simple design review involving a grown-up would have identified the fundamental flaw. Simply staggering, and very, very sad.


Click image to enlarge