ElectricDogs

I have two Defenders, a 1998 2.8i and a 2010 Puma. I bought the Puma 5 years ago, it's a slightly pimped commercial which came with an aftermarket central locking system and manual immobiliser but no alarm fob; I sort of assumed being a commercial it wasn't fitted with an alarm and haven't given it much thought since. The 2.8i came with 2 fobs, the battery in one of which packed up yesterday. Not having a new battery handy I grabbed the spare, which I hadn't used up to now. Imagine my surprise when both Defenders responded! This raises a few questions - 1. I had assumed that any given fob/10AS combo would operate on a discrete channel and whilst not unique to a vehicle, how come one of the fobs operates both vehicles and the other only the 2.8i? 2. I would obviously prefer to have discrete fobs for each vehicle. I can buy fobs on eBay and elsewhere, but how do I go about making sure each only operates one vehicle? 3. Flush with my newly discovered functionality on the Puma, will the 10AS need to be reprogrammed to operate the door lock actuators (the rear is a genuine LR one, the other two aftermarket, but they are simple 12v devices and work fine on the same system)? It would make sense to use one fob if possible. I appreciate these are slightly dumb questions but I never really gave this any thought before...so help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. That part is actually ok, now. I thought I had found the issue the other day when I found that the brown wire was indeed broken inside the rubber conduit precisely where you say (same problem as I had on the other side last year). There is nothing else broken in that area.....he says confidently(!?!). What is confusing me is what could be causing me to only get about 5.5v on the blue and green when I press the keyfob lock/unlock. The passenger and rear doors both work fine. I suspect you are going to say that the only way to know for sure is to take the entire loom to the drivers door out.....the lazy person in me was hoping for a shortcut given the fact that I will need to be doing this on a gravel driveway in the grey miserableness.....

An aftermarket locking system was fitted to my 2010 Tdci by the previous owner. It wasn't installed well and has generally been a pain in the neck, to be fair it's largely down drilled holes without grommets or any kind of covering of the wires causing wires to break, the kit itself has been pretty reliable. My current problem is that the actuator on the drivers side (ie the one with 5 wires) isn't working. With the door card off, testing the voltage on blue and green to earth shows only about 5.5v. if I use a battery to apply 12v to the wires, however, it works, so if I am not mistaken, there's nothing wrong with the actuator. I tested the voltage going into the controller, it's 12v. I have continuity on all the wires going from the controller to the main actuator, but I haven't removed the wires completely as yet, them being buried inside the dash, where I will only venture as and when I have to. Can anyone advise what should I be looking for here? The earthing of the black wire, maybe?

This is driving me nuts. Fitting rear door central lock actuator. Where does the little salmon coloured clip go on the connector? i have been fiddling with it for an hour!! Marc

Yes exactly, the fuel tank is in the way and it seems a royal pita to remove it just for this, especially when it’s -2 outside. A bolt cutter it will be, just wanted to be sure I wasn’t missing the bleedin obvious.

This one almost certainly falls into the dumb question category, but I am in the process of replacing the rear Exmoor Trim folding seats on my Puma but can't for the life of me work out how to remove the 'butterfly' clip which is bolted to the floor, into which the two seat belt clasps fit. I can see no way of getting access to it from the underside, although there is clearly a nut there as opposed to a captive. I have searched the site (plus others!) and haven't found any relevant posts, which leads me to believe that it must be something pathetically simple that I am overlooking. Photo of offending piece of metal attached. Can anyone help?

I found this lurking behind the switch panel housing the ciggie lighter on my 1998 2.8i. Looks like a grey trace in the wire, which LRW tells me probably has to do with the rear fog light, but that's all present and correct on the other side of the steering wheel where it belongs. Pretty narrow gauge wire, I can't easily remove the red 'thing' to test the wire so thought I would ask before using force! Can anyone enlighten me? A relic of some long-removed feature? Marc

Got it out, not the most painless experience, knuckle-wise in 4 degrees! is it possible to fix these things? It’s completely jammed. Got the screws out and circlip off the back but can’t get any further without what feels like a destructive amount of force. ....just hoping to save myself £100+ for a new one!

Thanks, that is precisely what I was wondering but I didn't want to try it only to split (another) pipe or something. I would try it now were it not precipitating down outside.

Sorry! Defender...1998.

I know it's a weird time of year to be talking about aircon, but is there any way of replacing the aircon cooling fan without having to evacuate and refill the system? From what I can tell it's impossible to get to the bolt heads on the back of the condenser without removing it or having 50cm long rubber fingers and if I remove the condenser including the pipe connectors on both sides, I need to drain the system....right? Or am I missing something bleedin' obvious here? Hope I am.... Marc

Thank you, that's not far and always happy to have an excuse to stop by Lawes!

Eightpot is your aircon controlled by two switches, one for the fan and one for the temperature, or does it have a single control with the temperature on an outer ring? I think the later ones had two switches and the aircon was no longer a local install but the same as the TD5.....so almost certainly different wiring.

A fellow 2.8i owner? Don't know if you heard about a little get 2.8i owner's get together outside of Cambridge this coming Sunday? PM me your mobile number if you are interested and I WhatsApp details to you... My a/c was 'sort of' working in that the blower only worked on full speed, indicating a busted resistor which I will get around to replacing. Then in the last couple of weeks it stopped working, hard to be precise given that I haven't had much need for it. So I just prised it open and what was the fuse was just a mass of molten plastic. The plastic bits that dropped out when I opened it were clear so probably 25A, although I think I need to get this properly and professionally sorted; I can replace the fuse holder but if the wiring is wrong in the first place I am likely to end up in the same place. Difficult without a wiring diagram mind you...

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies. I was exploring the theory that it might be a fuse put in to protect an inverter (pretty common in SA vehicles) installed under the cubby box given the female IEC plug installed there - see photo. I will remove the cubby and check it out. @eightpot, your connector looks similar but mine only has the brown wires, not the red ones. I do have a clear connector like that in the same area but haven't paid attention to the wire colours but will take a look. I take your point on some of the electrical repairs, although in fairness this one was owned by University of Cape Town Geology Dept who trekked all over southern Africa (306,000km ...) in it and I am guessing not all repairs were done with the luxury of a professional auto electrician in the vicinity! @Steve b - the Suffolk based auto-spark would be great. I have a recommendation for one near Wellingborough but the vehicle might combust before I get there! @Bowie69 are you referring to the fuse in the diagram below? Mine has two browns on one side along with another brown on the other side with the brown/white.

I actually did "google" it earlier, but using duckduckgo which came up with nothing. Using real google I see what you see ..and you are right, it's a fuse. It doesn't open, it seems the fuse holder part has melted itself shut. This begs the question, is this a standard part? It doesn't look like any fuse holder I have seen on a Defender. I have no idea when this happened, I don't remember smelling anything and given the way it had welded itself to the back of the carpet there would have been quite a stink. Given that everything apart from my aircon is working, I am tempted to ignore it although investing in a fire extinguisher might not be the worst idea.....

More photos. The only wording I can see is in the second photo and it would seem to indicate that it's not a connector (UEI = Universal Electronics?) but I am none the wiser. What I do know is that something is wrong, so any thoughts you might have that could point me in the right direction would be great.....("go see an auto electrician" would be one!)

Hi Paul, thank you very much for getting back to me. I will post some more photos later this morning. I am pretty sure it's not the resistor, isn't that mounted on the evaporator in the passenger footwell? That said, replacing the resistor is also on my list as the fan had been operating on full speed only up to the point where it stopped working altogether. The 1998 2.8i seems to be a hybrid 300tdi and TD5, at least when it comes to aircon. I believe the aircon unit itself was sourced and installed locally in South Africa and it's certainly very different to the 300tdi version, which had two cooling fans over the condenser, mine has a single unit in front of the radiator, like in the td5. I believe the 2.8i used the 'standard' td5 aircon post 1999, which of course isn't a lot of help!

This is my 1998 2.8i, so understood if it's difficult to help, but thought it worth asking. Can anyone help me identify this rather sad looking connector? It has a brown/white and two brown wires, located to the left of the fuse box. I went there trying to diagnose why my air-con blower has packed up (all speeds) but I don't think this has anything to do with the air-con (and fuse 18 and 19 both fine). Part of the brown/white wire is exposed at the connector and there is 12v when the ignition is on. I have checked both the 300tdi and td5 electrical manuals and the likeliest candidate seems to be a header for the heated rear screen (which is working), but I would very much appreciate the input from those here who know far more than I about these matters! ....and any advice on diagnosing my aircon blower problem would be an added bonus!

Brilliant, thank you very much.

The speedometer on my 1998 2.8i was loose, so went behind the dash to tighten it up only to find that the securing ring (or whatever the name is, pictured...the grey bit) won't tighten properly, the thread is a little worn. I tried copious amounts of plumbers tape to encourage it to tighten but the outcome isn't ideal. From what I can see this isn't the part that was used to secure the speedo on late 300tdi/early TD5 models and I can't see it anywhere in any parts manual or the usual online suppliers. Does anyone know if I can replace the fixing with a 300tdi or TD5 alternative, or if the grey ring is indeed available somewhere? Marc

Hi Steve, my apologies for missing your reply. I ended up going to a local upholstery shop and buying some 'stuff'...I was quite pleased with my outcome if I say so myself and it got me around the North Coast 500 in comfort!

Does anyone know if and if so, where, I can get a replacement part for the knackered, cable tied seat back support webbing in the photo? I was feeling the seat frame pushing into my side and on taking it apart all the padding had disintegrated. I suspect this jury-rigged cut/shut job had something to do with it so would rather put the seat back together properly if possible. It could be that my Googling is off today, but I can't find this part sold separately. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Also, take a look here from about 8m 20s - very good demo.

This must be the longest living thread on the forum! It's also my first post.... I *think* I read everything to ensure that my question isn't answered but it's possible that I missed something relevant due to my ignorance. My issue is with a 2.8i (1999, I think 300i in terms of electrics), the hazards and indicators all work, the only thing is that the indicators don't flash on the instrument panel when I use the hazards. The trailer light flashes fine and the indicator light (single indicator on instrument panel) works fine when using the indicators from the stalk. All the wiring at the hazard switch seems fine and I tried a new switch for good measure. Do I need to take off the instrument panel and start fishing around for loose/broken wires or is there an easier way to work out what might be wrong? Marc