brake lights

[boneheaddread]

Hi,everyone just joined this group , bought my first discovery 1 on sunday , its a nice one full history only 2 onwers excellent bodywork but the last owner had only owned it for 12 months and abused it the inside was filthy and none of the lights were working and it needed a good clean and going over , anyway all cleaned out now just put a new set of headlights in and new bulbs lenses ansd fuses where needed ,there is just one problem left and I cant sus it out . When I put my brakes one the brake lights light up ok ,but when I put my driving lights on the brake light filiment lights up instead of the dull one and when I put the brakes on ( with the lights still on ) the driving light filiment lights up so you cant see the brake lights ??? I have cleaned all the cluster contacts changed the bulbs and fuses but none of this makes any differance?? any ideas thanks john

[cress]

When you say driving lights, do you mean the front? If this is the case it sounds like an earthing issue. However I have replaced stop & tail bulbs only to find they work the opposite to how they should ie Side lights put brake light on and brake pedal puts side light on. This was due to a fault in bulb manufacture.

The only other thing I can think of is towing electrics, does it have a tow bar with electrics fitted, if so you could disconnect the loom for the towbar. just behind offside rear light cluster and try again.

Hope this helps

[boneheaddread]

When you say driving lights, do you mean the front? If this is the case it sounds like an earthing issue. However I have replaced stop & tail bulbs only to find they work the opposite to how they should ie Side lights put brake light on and brake pedal puts side light on. This was due to a fault in bulb manufacture.

The only other thing I can think of is towing electrics, does it have a tow bar with electrics fitted, if so you could disconnect the loom for the towbar. just behind offside rear light cluster and try again.

Hope this helps

Hi, yes I think that you put it better than me.They are working back to front, sidelights put brakelights on , brakelights put sidelights on , but the bulbs can only be put in the right way round ,so maybe I have got some back to frint bulbs to????

[boneheaddread]

When you say driving lights, do you mean the front? If this is the case it sounds like an earthing issue. However I have replaced stop & tail bulbs only to find they work the opposite to how they should ie Side lights put brake light on and brake pedal puts side light on. This was due to a fault in bulb manufacture.

The only other thing I can think of is towing electrics, does it have a tow bar with electrics fitted, if so you could disconnect the loom for the towbar. just behind offside rear light cluster and try again.

Hope this helps

Hi, again getting confused now ,the bulbs only work back to front when the side lights are on .If I turn off all lights and try the brakes they light up fine???

[JimAttrill]

I have come across this sort of problem a couple of times now, mostly on Defenders. It is possible to force a single-filament bulb into the stop/tail light holder. This can cause all sorts of trouble when you put the brakes on. I had one Defender TD5 where the engine would not stop with the brakes on The owner insisted he had not touched the bulbs, but there it was, a 5w single filament bulb where it should have a 21w/5w double filament one.

Nice to see another new member John. What is useful to others is if you put your location in your profile so we can see in what area you live and you can also add your LR description, engine, etc in your signature. Then you don't have to always state exactly what vehicle you are talking about when you post.

[boneheaddread]

I have come across this sort of problem a couple of times now, mostly on Defenders. It is possible to force a single-filament bulb into the stop/tail light holder. This can cause all sorts of trouble when you put the brakes on. I had one Defender TD5 where the engine would not stop with the brakes on The owner insisted he had not touched the bulbs, but there it was, a 5w single filament bulb where it should have a 21w/5w double filament one.

Nice to see another new member John. What is useful to others is if you put your location in your profile so we can see in what area you live and you can also add your LR description, engine, etc in your signature. Then you don't have to always state exactly what vehicle you are talking about when you post.

Hi, thanks for the reply, just checked all the bulbs they all seem to be the right bulbs in the right holders , just out of interest just tried to turn off the disco with the brakes on and the front sidelights come on and the engine will not stop either ,????

[JimAttrill]

You have the classic symptoms of a short caused by a single-filament bulb in a dual-filament holder. Take the bulbs out again and compare the number of contacts on the bulb and in the holder. Believe me, you have a wrong bulb in there.

[Comical Engineer]

If you're sure you've got all the right bulbs then check the earth connections.

I can remember fixing 2 or 3 1980s Escorts with bad earth on the rear lights. When you put the brakes on they were dull, brakes plus sidelights would light up the side lights, sometimes on one side only, and bakes, lights and flasher - anything could happen. not a common problem on Discos but an easy thing to check.

[sotal]

Sounds like a wrong bulb to me too, I'm sure even with the two fillament bulbs there is two different types and you need to get the right type