I have yet again experienced a prime example of why Land Rover ownership is so much more interesting than driving a normal car.
Yesterday evening, leaving work to pick up my daughter, I noticed that my Radio / CD player wasn't working. It had been fine in the morning, so I was a little put out by it's capriciousness.
I did a quick check of the essentials (lights etc) and they all worked, so I elected to ignore it and carried on with my journey.
When I got home, it was pi**ing it down, and continued to do so most of the evening, so I left things 'til this morning.
It's amazing how a spot of sunshine makes you more inclined to tackle a job.
I checked again, and the radio still didn't work. I also found, by going through everything on the vehicle, that the headlight high beam flash wasn't working, the horn wasn't working, the interior light wasn't working and the clock had stopped. This suggested to me that I was looking at a blown fuse, as I dimly recalled that these things were normally grouped together off one fuse.
So I went and found Mr Haynes and his manual.
As has been discussed before, the Haynes manuals don't acknowledge that Defenders built between 1996 and 2002 exist, so I generally rely on the wiring diagram for the 1991 - 1996 model, although it differs in some respects. I found the various components, and traced their wires back to find what fuse they came from.
This is where things started going wrong...
According to the 91-96 wiring diagram, these items are fed through different fuses. I was prepared to accept that one fuse might blow, but to think that three might blow all at the same time, was beyond the bounds of likelyhood.
I briefly considered the idea that the Landy hated me so much that it would blow three fuses just to spite me, but realised I was being silly, so I discarded the Haynes manual and went to use mark-one eyeball instead.
I removed the lid of the fuse box, and had a look at the legend printed on the inside of the cover.
According to that, the 20Amp fuse in the top left position was the one that had the horn, interior light and so on off it.
I looked at the fuses...
There wasn't a 20Amp fuse in the top left position, it was a 15Amp, but I sort of expected that fuses might be replaced with the wrong rating, so I ignored that. I pulled the fuse and tested it with a meter.
It was fine...
I put it back in, and tested the horn - nope, nothing...
I looked again at the fuse box lid...
Maybe, if the lid is upside down, then it should be the bottom left fuse?
So I pulled that and tested it... it was fine...
Maybe the lid is reversed, and it should be top right?
So I pulled that and tested it... it was fine...
Maybe if it was reversed AND upside down then it should be bottom right??
NO!...
Eventually, having thrown the fusebox lid out of the door in a fit of pique, I resolved to start at one end and work my way through every fuse in the box.
Perversely, working on the assumption that it would not be one of those at the top left, I started at bottom right and went backwards.
It was the third from the left on the top row that had blown...
According to the fusebox lid (once retrieved from the road), that fuse was for the heater... The heater worked fine, thank you...
I replaced the fuse with one of the correct rating, and tried the radio, the horn, the interior lights, the clock... They all worked now.
I went out for a play in my nice Landy later on, with my daughter and brother. We took some photos, which I will post soon.
Yesterday evening, leaving work to pick up my daughter, I noticed that my Radio / CD player wasn't working. It had been fine in the morning, so I was a little put out by it's capriciousness.
I did a quick check of the essentials (lights etc) and they all worked, so I elected to ignore it and carried on with my journey.
When I got home, it was pi**ing it down, and continued to do so most of the evening, so I left things 'til this morning.
It's amazing how a spot of sunshine makes you more inclined to tackle a job.
I checked again, and the radio still didn't work. I also found, by going through everything on the vehicle, that the headlight high beam flash wasn't working, the horn wasn't working, the interior light wasn't working and the clock had stopped. This suggested to me that I was looking at a blown fuse, as I dimly recalled that these things were normally grouped together off one fuse.
So I went and found Mr Haynes and his manual.
As has been discussed before, the Haynes manuals don't acknowledge that Defenders built between 1996 and 2002 exist, so I generally rely on the wiring diagram for the 1991 - 1996 model, although it differs in some respects. I found the various components, and traced their wires back to find what fuse they came from.
This is where things started going wrong...
According to the 91-96 wiring diagram, these items are fed through different fuses. I was prepared to accept that one fuse might blow, but to think that three might blow all at the same time, was beyond the bounds of likelyhood.
I briefly considered the idea that the Landy hated me so much that it would blow three fuses just to spite me, but realised I was being silly, so I discarded the Haynes manual and went to use mark-one eyeball instead.
I removed the lid of the fuse box, and had a look at the legend printed on the inside of the cover.
According to that, the 20Amp fuse in the top left position was the one that had the horn, interior light and so on off it.
I looked at the fuses...
There wasn't a 20Amp fuse in the top left position, it was a 15Amp, but I sort of expected that fuses might be replaced with the wrong rating, so I ignored that. I pulled the fuse and tested it with a meter.
It was fine...
I put it back in, and tested the horn - nope, nothing...
I looked again at the fuse box lid...
Maybe, if the lid is upside down, then it should be the bottom left fuse?
So I pulled that and tested it... it was fine...
Maybe the lid is reversed, and it should be top right?
So I pulled that and tested it... it was fine...
Maybe if it was reversed AND upside down then it should be bottom right??
NO!...
Eventually, having thrown the fusebox lid out of the door in a fit of pique, I resolved to start at one end and work my way through every fuse in the box.
Perversely, working on the assumption that it would not be one of those at the top left, I started at bottom right and went backwards.
It was the third from the left on the top row that had blown...
According to the fusebox lid (once retrieved from the road), that fuse was for the heater... The heater worked fine, thank you...
I replaced the fuse with one of the correct rating, and tried the radio, the horn, the interior lights, the clock... They all worked now.
I went out for a play in my nice Landy later on, with my daughter and brother. We took some photos, which I will post soon.