• Welcome to the Land Rover UK Forums

    You are currently viewing the site as a guest and some content may not be available to you.

    Registration is quick and easy and will give you full access to the site and allow you to ask questions or make comments and join in on the conversation. If you would like to register then please Register Now

General Land Rover TD5 2004 - Instrument Illumination!

madmechanic 954 said:
No ... do not connect them together ...neither you nor i know what they are for .. the problem of a fuse blowing is that the power from the switch is going to earth before it should do... pos+feed from the battery goes back to the battery ..and the neg- terminal as an earth return ... a loop as such ..but if you were to just join the two feeds together it would spark and get hot .. but if you feed the pos ..side to one side of the bulb (the center pole of the bulb holder )the power runs through the filament and then to the side of the bulbs metal casing and then back to earth .. and the battery ... loop completed .... your problem is that the pos supply to the bulb is not going through the filament .. but direct to earth .. there fore it will spark and get hot ... so a fuse is added to the pos .. supply so that if it goes wrong and the pos .. goes direct to earth the fuse melts .. ie popped fuse ...9 times out of 10 the bulb or the bulb holder is the problem for the short to earth .. even more so if the horrible aftermarket bulb holder are used .. or cheap horrible bulbs which seemed to have a bad habit of the bulb terminals/poles shorting to the bulbs metal casing .. causing the pos.. supply going direct to earth -...and not through the filament .... resitance and all that ..... so yet again yes it is an earth problem but of a different type ... instead of the pos ..supply going through the filament and back to earth .. and the neg side of the battery ..in most cases the bulb will not work because the earth return is not there so the loop of the circuit can not be completed .. clean up the earths .. or add another and the circuit can be completed .. you how ever have the other earth type fault .. in that the ... i do not know how to explain what happens resistance wise and why the bulb lights .. but your fault is the pos supply is finding the path of least resistance... a short to earth to try and complete the loop ... .. i hope this makes sense as such ..
Click to expand...
Perfect sense thank you, not knowing what they are I have not connected them...on the basis that as a young officer the REME guys painted things red on weapons and vehicles which were not for mere mortals to fiddle with, DFT nuts and bolts "don't F touch!" My limited knowledge of circuits and resistance causes me to agree with the diagnosis - the RH side light is very weak when compared to the LH side side light, so I have some searching to do!

Thank you for taking the time to explain the potential problem (s).

T
 
Lancelot said:
If I am not leaving something dangling I am getting over-excited!
Click to expand...
How hard is it to change the lamp units from one side to another ....??? just to see if the fault moves... just change the bulb holders over for a bit and see where is goes or if the light is dim ...... i take it that when you say the rhs side light is weak .. is it only the rear ...?? or both front and rear ...
 
andy63 said:
Don't know you vehicle but a quick look at the wiring diag's available on landrover workshops site does show the heater blower and sidelights share a common earth point.. (K108. 0550)
Fuse 18 serves the sidelights so you have a short somewhere on that circuit..
Click to expand...
Hi there! I have been looking for the accursed short without success, nor can I locate a diagram showing me where earthing point K108,0550 is. Could you enlighten me please and I will continue to hunt for the fault. The light circuit has been working perfectly for a month or so and then fuse 18 blew again shortly after trying to use the passenger (RHS) seat heater last week. This week is fixed in my head for fault finding!

Grateful for any assistance!

Many thanks indeed.
 
Lancelot said:
Hi there! I have been looking for the accursed short without success, nor can I locate a diagram showing me where earthing point K108,0550 is. Could you enlighten me please and I will continue to hunt for the fault. The light circuit has been working perfectly for a month or so and then fuse 18 blew again shortly after trying to use the passenger (RHS) seat heater last week. This week is fixed in my head for fault finding!

Grateful for any assistance!

Many thanks indeed.
Click to expand...
I can't remember what year truck you have and which diag I was looking at but if it was from the landrover workshops site as I mentioned then under electrical they list the different years of diagrams they have.. If you find the right diag there is a sub menu that lists earth's and hedders and often a little picture of the vehicle and the various earth points and their identifying numbers arrowed which can sometimes help in locating the locations..
If you remind me of your truck details I'll have another look..
It's intermittent which makes it harder but running in new supplies and negative wires can save a lot of work if the fault is in the loom..
Fuse 18 is your key.. And everything on that fuse will have to be checked when you can identify what it supplies..

Find Land Rover parts at LR Workshop

www.lrworkshop.com www.lrworkshop.com
 
andy63 said:
I can't remember what year truck you have and which diag I was looking at but if it was from the landrover workshops site as I mentioned then under electrical they list the different years of diagrams they have.. If you find the right diag there is a sub menu that lists earth's and hedders and often a little picture of the vehicle and the various earth points and their identifying numbers arrowed which can sometimes help in locating the locations..
If you remind me of your truck details I'll have another look..
It's intermittent which makes it harder but running in new supplies and negative wires can save a lot of work if the fault is in the loom..
Fuse 18 is your key.. And everything on that fuse will have to be checked when you can identify what it supplies..

Find Land Rover parts at LR Workshop

www.lrworkshop.com www.lrworkshop.com
Click to expand...
Many thanks indeed for that, I will hunt for the definitive diagram! Lancelot is a 2004 Left hand drive TD5 by the way.

Thanks again Andy

Thor
 
Lancelot said:
Many thanks indeed for that, I will hunt for the definitive diagram! Lancelot is a 2004 Left hand drive TD5 by the way.

Thanks again Andy

Thor
Click to expand...
well ive had a little bit more detailed look at the said wiring dig, and on the face of it it should be reasonably straight fwd to locate a fault/short on the circuit covered by fuse 18..
what is clouding the water is your earlier references to operating the heater blower and now heated seat causing fuse 18 to blow..

what I have seen is fuse 18 should be a 10mp fuse and it serves the front r/h side light which is earthed at header 0550, which should be on the centre upper part of the bulkhead ..there will be multiple earths at that point, ie the headlight r/h and l/h ....
it also supplies the rear r/h tail light which has a single earth at connector c1413 I believe..you should be able to trace that one from the fitting
if you have a trailer socket there may be a supply to it as well, and that is it in terms of fuse 18 according to the wiring dig I looked at..
do hope you can get a result:thumbsup:
 
andy63 said:
well ive had a little bit more detailed look at the said wiring dig, and on the face of it it should be reasonably straight fwd to locate a fault/short on the circuit covered by fuse 18..
what is clouding the water is your earlier references to operating the heater blower and now heated seat causing fuse 18 to blow..

what I have seen is fuse 18 should be a 10mp fuse and it serves the front r/h side light which is earthed at header 0550, which should be on the centre upper part of the bulkhead ..there will be multiple earths at that point, ie the headlight r/h and l/h ....
it also supplies the rear r/h tail light which has a single earth at connector c1413 I believe..you should be able to trace that one from the fitting
if you have a trailer socket there may be a supply to it as well, and that is it in terms of fuse 18 according to the wiring dig I looked at..
do hope you can get a result:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
You are brilliant! The words "Trailer socket" have quite literally turned a light on! I removed an awful aberration of a towing hitch, heavy as hell, too high and rusted to buggery and taped the cable up at the end for future use. Perhaps this is the issue? I will investigate later and report. Many thanks. T
 
The saga continues! I have quite categorically and totally unequivocally completely failed to locate the earthing points I planned to investigate! I did find one near the left hand headlight and the main earth strop is definitely there and in good condition. I removed the trailer cable completely and sealed the socket it was all connected to. Otherwise....aaggghhhh!
 
Back
Top Bottom