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falkster

Member Since: 12 Nov 2023
Location: Sutton Coldfield
Posts: 64

1988 Defender 110 V8 Petrol CSW Trident Green

LED headlight flicker...

Hi All,

electrics this time, or rather head- and sidelights... 1988 One-Ten...
When I got my One-Ten it cam with the cheap'ish ebay LED headlight conversion. I ordered Stedi Homage lights, as they can be stickered for driving in Europe. whilst waiting for them I realised that my sidelights (is that what you call the little white ones in the front top corners?) where looking yellow compared to the white LED headlights. This sort of detail matters to me, so i got myself some LED bulbs for the sidelights and installed those, so that I can use them as DRL's. so far so good...

Once my Stedi's arrived and I installed them, i noticed that my headlights start flickering when I switch on the sidelights only (first click on the light switch). Not very bright, but a little bit like the blue lights on a stealth police car (only white in my case). If I go on the 2nd click on the light switch everything works perfectly fine (low beam and sidelights stable).

This

me, as I really would like to avoid always driving around with my headlights on, where the sidelights would really do.

Any ideas, why the headlights flicker, and more importantly, any ideas on how to sort this??

As always, many thanks for your input...

19th Jun 2024 1:49pm

Retroanaconda

Member Since: 04 Jan 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2655

I suspect the dim-dip system is still hooked up and is providing a partial voltage to the headlights when the sidelights are on.

20th Jun 2024 6:44am

discomog

Member Since: 09 May 2015
Location: Notts/Lincs Border
Posts: 2529

2015 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Santorini Black

Yes could well be the dim-dip system. The curse of the eighties. I'm sure if you do a search of the forum you will find details of how to bypass it. Defender 90XS SW
Mini Countryman Cooper S
Morgan Plus 8

20th Jun 2024 7:27am

jim4244

Member Since: 13 Apr 2014
Location: Bedfordshire
Posts: 802

2007 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 CSW Zermatt Silver

Simple enough to disconnect. The plug just needs to be pulled from the dim/dip module that is mounted inside the drivers side front wing, near to the radio ariel.

Jim

20th Jun 2024 7:36am

Martin
Site Admin

Member Since: 02 Apr 2007
Location: Hook Norton
Posts: 6610

2015 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Montalcino Red

On a 1988 the dim dip module is behind the instrument pack, and just requires the connector removing to disable it.

Source: me, has an 1988 90.

1988 90 Td5 NAS soft top

2015 D90 XS SW

20th Jun 2024 7:52am

falkster

Member Since: 12 Nov 2023
Location: Sutton Coldfield
Posts: 64

might be a stupid question, but what is the function of the dim-dip module, when it seems to be okay to just unhook it??
Wouldn't anything essential stop working?
Does it have a big sticker on it, identifying it as the dip-dim module?

And thanks for everyones input!

22nd Jun 2024 5:27pm

blackwolf

Member Since: 03 Nov 2009
Location: South West England
Posts: 17441

2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Stornoway Grey

falkster wrote:
... what is the function of the dim-dip module, when it seems to be okay to just unhook it?? ...

This has been discussed many, many times in many, many threads before (indeed a search for posts with the words "dim dip" produces 33 pages of results)! I can do little better than to quote myself:

blackwolf wrote:
It is a useless feature which is optimised to make your headlight bulbs fail quicker!

It was actually a half-witted scheme by the UK government which meant that if you turned on the sidelights with the ignition on, the dip beam headlights would come on at about half power. It was for a short time in the late 1980s a UK legal requirement, until Europe, in a rare moment of sense, ruled that it was illegal under EU law for the UK to make it a legal requirement. So it stopped being a legal requirement!

Some manufacturers, especially those like Land-Rover, who thought the 1970s hadn't ended, went on fitting it for years before stopping.

Benefits of DD: none.

Disbenefits: running a headlight bulb on a reduced voltage has been shown to make it fail much quicker than running it on design voltage.
...

22nd Jun 2024 5:57pm

discomog

Member Since: 09 May 2015
Location: Notts/Lincs Border
Posts: 2529

Some more bed time reading:-

https://dastern.torque.net/techdocs/dimdip.html Defender 90XS SW
Mini Countryman Cooper S
Morgan Plus 8

22nd Jun 2024 6:56pm

falkster

Member Since: 12 Nov 2023
Location: Sutton Coldfield
Posts: 64

Thank you blackwolf and discomog...

That's both very interesting reading. Coming from Germany originally I wasn't aware of those dimdip regulations.

Love learning stuff like this. So, thanks for your responses.

22nd Jun 2024 7:41pm

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