 | Home > In Car Electronics > Side light only on with headlights |
 
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17382   
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Most likely a defective light switch with those symptoms.
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6th Oct 2022 9:23pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4410
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Hi Dave.
Since it is an F Reg it will have had a Dim Dip relay. Big pink thing behind the dash binnacle. The idea is that with side lights on the main lights illuminate at a very low voltage, a dim light. It is possible that the light switch has melted, or the relay is duff, or a previous owner has modified the lighting so the side lights are linked to dipped beam directly rather than through the switch. Hang on you have LED headlights? I forget. Dim Dip does not work with LED headlights. What should happen on a standard vehicle with H4 filament bulbs is that the side lights come on and the H4 bulb at very low illumination. If you have LED headlights fitted then the side lights will come on and the LED headlights as they fully illuminate at much lower voltage. If that is the case then you need to do a Dim Dip modification to separate the side lights and headlights. It is super easy to do. As it happens Blackwolf and I answered this question yesterday in this thread: https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic85148.html |
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7th Oct 2022 8:08am |
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17382
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Unusually the OP's symptoms do not sound to me like a dim-dip artefact, unless a previous owner has (bizarrely) chosen to disable the sidelight function completely in order to prevent the LED lights struggling to work on the reduced voltage. This would be an extremely irrational approach but people are strange sometimes!
I do however think this is unlikely since if they had done so then a further modification would be needed to make the sidelights come one with the headlights. As note above I do think it is more likely that the OFF/S&T/HS&T stalk switch is on the blink, and given that it is relatively easy to get at and test it would certainly be my starting point. If the OP tests it and finds that it works correctly then posts back, the collective forum brain can have another think. |
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7th Oct 2022 9:02am |
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| Dave12345 Member Since: 04 Jun 2022 Location: North West Posts: 87 
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Sorry I should add - normal headlights, and one of the sidelights still works when sidelights only, just not the other.
I assumed it was a bulb but it works with the main headlights |
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9th Oct 2022 11:59am |
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| Dave12345 Member Since: 04 Jun 2022 Location: North West Posts: 87
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It does sound like the switch could have had its day
https://www.lrparts.net/prc3430-defender-m...-1998.html This would be the correct part for an 89 would it not? For £12.50 it sounds like an easy way to find out |
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9th Oct 2022 12:35pm |
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| Dave12345 Member Since: 04 Jun 2022 Location: North West Posts: 87
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Got further into investigation and noticed the sidelight indicator doesn’t light on the dashboard - is this relevant?
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9th Oct 2022 3:19pm |
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| Dave12345 Member Since: 04 Jun 2022 Location: North West Posts: 87
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Christ I’m an idiot
Seems the connector housing for the bulb isn’t fixed properly into place so neither was the bulb, and the bulb was just intermittently making a connection - just coincidence that I’d seen it work on mains only (or perhaps the higher voltage here helped) Either way pushed the connector back to its proper position and it works. New lighting loom to skip the switch is on the list now regardless and learnt a few things about these along the way - thanks everyone. Still curious about the sidelight indicator but that could just be a bulb there too |
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9th Oct 2022 3:31pm |
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