Defender headlamps stuck on

I'd suggest getting a meter or test lamp to check the switches - I'd hazard a guess that either the master lights switch or the main/dip switch has fallen apart internally.

Richard

On or around Sat, 01 Oct 2005 10:31:19 +0100, Alistair Bell enlightened us thusly:

defender light switch is a pile of crap. I don't think that age defender

Relay may still click even when the contacts are welded together. Do the lights go out when you remove the relay? Bear in mind what others have said about the car possibly not having a headlight relay though...

There's a dim/dip relay - luckily they very rearely fail...

PRC8123 Dim/Dip Controller - Defender from 274311 to HA705856 £88.01 ic VAT !!!!!! Richard

On or around Sat, 1 Oct 2005 16:14:06 +0000 (UTC), beamendsltd enlightened us thusly:

ISTR it's no longer a legal requirement, though, so you can bridge across the relay position with a short wire with 2 male blades. ISTR it goes between the 2 blue/red wires.

dim dip came and went, in some strange fashion, as a legal requirement, although my S-reg minibus has it.

Had something similar on my 90 couple of years ago.. the loom to the rear lights enters the chassis leg right next to the exhaust on the V8, exhaust heatsheild had crushed & melted all the insultation off the wires. For some reason there was a permanent live running to the rear (even when ignition off) and this was tracking across to the sidelights.

Solved it by ripping out all the wiring from inside the chassis and replacing it with a length of trailer wiring running outside the chassis (but well tied up out of the way)

Tom

Was there not something about vehicles not having dim-dip (after a certain date) having to have headlamp levelling adjusters instead? Badger.

Well, I was about to reply last night saying that I had already checked the switches but decided that I should isolate them to make completely sure! At this point I spotted the Blue/red with a couple of volts having disconnected the battery so on a whim put the headlamp fuse in and this dropped it to 0v. At this point I had a bright idea and went looking for the Dim/dip controller aka voltage transformer and found the little Lucas box and heat sink in the back of the dashboard. Fortunately taking it apart showed no smoking components and cleaning the contacts on the circuit board inside appears to have solved the problem.

Thanks all for the ideas.

Alistair

On or around Sat, 1 Oct 2005 23:09:25 +0000 (UTC), "Badger" enlightened us thusly:

I think that's the HID lamps. After a certain year they had to have dim-dip on all new motors, then a few years later they no longer did. I guess the models in production at the time kept it.