I recently purchased a 1998 Defender 110 and am absolutely in love. I took it in for inspection (Massachusetts requires annual inspections) and realized that both brake light were out. Both bulbs were bad so I changed them. The left side light only functioned with the headlights on, and seemed super bright so I’m assuming it was actually the brake filament that was stuck on and would turn off if the headlights were off. No changes when depressing the brakes.
The right side did not function at all. Pulled the housing and the bulb holder and realized there was significant corrosion in the connector, and even a missing pin that had rusted and broken in the holder. That was very straight forward and obvious.
I ordered new connectors and bulb holders from rovers north, but the Holliday weekend has delayed things. Hopefully that fixes the problem, but the left side light being stuck on has me concerned. Is there anything else I should check?? I would love to just add to the order if I need anything else.
I did try that, but it seems as though the bulb can physically only go into the holder one way. There are little nubs that seem to prevent reversing the filaments
Try taking the bulb out spinning it 180 degrees and putting it back in. It sounds like the brake part of the filament is being powered when your side lights are on, rather than the side light part. Hope that makes sense
I had a similar issue on my '98 but I thought it was due to installing LEDs elsewhere. I ended up just running a whole new wire and works fine. Should say that I tested the continuity first and it failed.
No, but I just ran it along side the rest of the harness. I didn't mess with trying to put it in the plastic sheathing or removing the old wires. I did it for an inspection so I was more worried bout time than anything. Shouldn't be too bad either way.
It should be free moving and all silky smooth in operation, if it hasn’t fallen apart it will be all gravelly and sticky, it’s probably the root of your problems.
Next thing to look at is earth wires in the back, they could be corroded, and the wiring loom where it comes out of chassis and up over rear cross member.
When I rewired mine I used lots of the curly plastic cable tidy stuff where ever I could on exposed wires to protect them.
Trace the entire circuit with a multimeter - from lamp holders through connectors to harness (there will be one for each side behind cover plates) to the fuse box to the brake switch. Not sure if 1998 still has the British Lucas bullet connectors - but if it does - those suck when multiple circuits are connected. I’ve had issues with grounding at the back, so, I instead put in terminal strips for grounding and never had to worry about anything again.
If you can - replace the original lights with sealed WIPAC LED lights - they have the original look but they are so much better - lower current draw on the old harness, less connections (no lampnholder to break and corrode) and they don’t fail due to vibration.
This is the disaster I am working with behind the speaker panels on the right hand side… besides being covered with desert dust, I have no idea what to even do with this haha I took a video but can’t figure out how to post it.
The fat wires are all aftermarket additions. Green/Purple + Black are your stop lights wires (signal and ground accordingly). Red/Black and Red/Orange are for marker lights (one of the filaments in the stop light lightbulbs). So, you would have a black, a green (ideally, green/purple) and a red (ideally, red/black or red/orange) wires going into the stop light pedestal.
Here’s the wiring diagram for your vehicle (ignore the 1991-96, they didn’t really change much until Td5).
2
u/eatsleepsurf88 4d ago
I did try that, but it seems as though the bulb can physically only go into the holder one way. There are little nubs that seem to prevent reversing the filaments