No speedo, no fuel gauge, no temp gauge, no side lights

[carlosbeldia]

After they failed, I changed the screw and nut for both ground points in the right side of the chassis. I also cleaned thoroughly the ground in the firewall and the one attached to the gearbox. I have checked out all the gauges connections behind the dashboard, everything looks ok. Last time it happens, I tried moving the nut of the starter and everything worked again, but it's not happenning now. Please somebody help me, I'm going for a 1.000 km dessert travel and I can't go without temp gauge (my Nanocom was stolen yesterday, I recovered it, but the thief take the cable, and I can't find it here in Colombia, so I don't have this option).

I almost forgot. Additional to gauges and lights failure, engine feels kind of "rough", like potentiometer in bad shape, but as soon as everything works fine engine works just fine again. I also clean and move black and red ECU connectors with no results.

[western]

have you looked at & tested the fuses for these circuits ?

[carlosbeldia]

There is only one fuse (Fuse 3, passenger compartment, 10 A) and it seems ok, no rust, everything OK. I have just double checked the connector going from starter switch to the fuse with no result. How can I test the starter switch?

[K88 MUD]

Check to see if you have indicators working.

[crwoody]

The supply for the instrument cluster gauges all come from the engine ECU so I could understand why they should all go off at once, have you checked the earth point inside the seatbox beneath the ECU? a bad connection here would directly influence the ECU.

I am puzzled by the loss of sidelights though, they are fed entirely independently apart from a connection to the ignition switch if you have the dim-dip module fitted, but even then, it goes nowhere near the ECU.

I think you need to get in there with a multimeter to sort this one out.

[carlosbeldia]

I cleaned out the earth of the ECU..... no results. Today, instruments came to live briefly, but when turn the right side light on, they went off again. Before this, I use the left indicator with no problems. I'm really concerned on the "juddering" driving I'm getting from the throttle, it's really anoying...

[crwoody]

From what you say, it sounds like there may be a faulty earth connection somewhere - possibly in the loom.

Even for the ground circuits there are a lot of splice connections within the loom, and "headers", multiple connection points attached to the loom, (they look like coloured plugs with wires in one side but not connected to anything.) It's possible one of these splices could have a bad connection due to corrosion or strain.

It may be worth trying everything electrical including all lights, horn, radio, wipers - the lot, switch them all on one at a time and see if any one circuit interferes with any another, this may help to pin it down a bit closer.

[carlosbeldia]

I've have had a short circuit the last two years in the rear fog light, who goes on when I step on brakes. However, this haven't affected until now. I'll check tomorrow. Does anybody knows of any blind ground point like named by Woody? how can I be sure if there is a short or something? I know what kind of connectors you say, but I think they are really hard to check. How could I do? Please help me, countdown to rally is getting shorter and I still have this problem.... any idea is welcomed..... there are no dumb ideas.....

[FridgeFreezer]

When more than one thing is affected at the same time it's 99% certain to be an earth fault, check all of your earth connections all the way back to the battery.

Not sure I'd be driving a 1000km rally without sorting this problem out

[carlosbeldia]

Yes I know, I'm not running the rally witouth my temp gauge at least. I have track all the earths with no results. Mine is a 2001 110, these are the ones I have found, please let me know if you have some other:

ECU under the passenger seat (both inside the box and the extension to chassis)

ECU ABS under the passenger seat

The main earth of battery (both the lead to the gearbox and the one to the chassis

Earth cable behind the expansion tank of radiator

Earth point of back seat's interior light

[carlosbeldia]

HELPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to leave in 2 days and still have this problem...... any idea will be taken to practice inmediately....

[crwoody]

As I've said before, you need to be looking around with a multimeter on this, you should be able to see if it's an earth fault or not by checking for the supply and return side of any affected part.

For example - you say the sidelights are not working, so with the lights switched on, check the supply side wire, (red/black = left, or red/orange = right) with the meter negative lead to a body or chassis earth and see if you have 12 volts, if you've got 12 volts but the light is not on, then check the earth wire (black) which will probably also have 12 volts on it which means you have an open earth somewhere.

If you repeat this process for any other non-working circuits, you should be able to get more of an idea where it's going wrong, (most of the earth return wires are black.)

Remember though, a fair number of these earth wires are joined together (spliced) in headers or actually within the wiring loom itself.

Ideally you need the circuit diagram, the pages showing the earth distribution also show the length of wire between joints/splices etc, this can be useful to help pinpoint roughly where a fault may be once you've isolated it to that circuit.

Try here for a diagram -

http://exerro.com/oldsites/2009/indigoprime.com/landrover/Defender%20MY2002%20Wiring%20Diagram.pdf

[Gromit]

Have you worked through the wiring diagram?

Fuse 15 supplies the instrument cluster. Are you getting 12v at this fuse and header 0285 (wherever that is!) with the ignition on? (Green/white)

If you are, and you have earth from the instrument pack to the battery, then I'd say it's time to look at the ECU

Also, The sidelights would feed gauge illumination, so maybe there's a short between the instrument illumination/supply. (red/orange) and fuse 18. Do the instruments light up?

[carlosbeldia]

Thanks a lot for your explanation Woody, I'm really kind of a dummie when electrical problems come. I'll try the way you say and let you know.

[crwoody]

Just a quick clarification - when I said " ... with the lights switched on, check the supply side wire, ... then the earth wire .. " I meant to say to check it at the lamp or instrument, not at the switch.

[carlosbeldia]

Mine is a 99MY (2001). Can anybody tell me where I can find Header Earth 0550 (K108)? I mean where in the car. I found another earth behind the expansion tank, a white one, bringing a lot of cables. Cleaned with no results...

[FridgeFreezer]

The RAVE manuals feature a photograph and location of every connector on the vehicle, they're available for free download if you search this forum.

[western]

Mine is a 99MY (2001). Can anybody tell me where I can find Header Earth 0550 (K108)? I mean where in the car. I found another earth behind the expansion tank, a white one, bringing a lot of cables. Cleaned with no results...

Look in upper centre of bulkhead in engine bay, that's where RAVE says Earth Header C550 is located.

it's a light grey plug near the cooling system header tank, refer to RAVE info sheet attached.

[carlosbeldia]

OK, I took it out and clean a lot of dirt present, but with no result. I want to install Rave in my laptop, but it have Linux and shows me an error. I know it's really annoying, but can anybody extract the electrical manual and send it to me or take it to a server where I can download it?

[Anderzander]

Carlos - have you been checking with multi meter as crwoody said? or around fuse 15 as Gromit said?

[carlosbeldia]

I already tried with multimeter the four side lights, all of them mark 0 volts, don't know how to test the instrument pack. I haven't seen what Groomit said, sorry, I'll try in a moment, but can anybody tell me where is Header 0285? as I said, I don't have the Electrical Reference Booklet, where photos are.

[western]

but can anybody tell me where is Header 0285?

see sheet attached.

[Philip Tonkin]

On the plus side when this happens you don't clock up any miles on the odometer ;-)

It happened to me because of an indicator fault. Sometimes it blew a fuse under the cover by transfer lever, usually a 20 Amp one three from the left on the top row from memory, but on others was blowing a different fuse in the same location or even one of the main fuses under the drivers seat.

Turned out to be an intermittent internal fault in the bulb holder of one indicator.

[FridgeFreezer]

Indicator is not the best one to fault-find, I'd go for the sidelights as it's a very simple circuit - battery, ignition switch, fuse, switch, light bulb. If the switch is on you should have 12v at the bulb, if you don't then keep following the circuit back until you find the last place there is 12v, then you're pretty close to the fault.

[carlosbeldia]

Good and bad news................ The fault dissapeared after I moved the wiring harness behind the dash, the one that is supposed to carry the CO285.... The bad news is that behind the dash are only wires, there are no connectors, looms or splices, so it fix itself, I don't know where the fault was (or maybe is?) located.I suppose it's due to this car is an export vehicle, so it have to be different from UK models, I hope. Do you know if maybe the connectors are in the other side of the dash in LH cars?

I really appreciated all the help and patience you had with me. I had to dismantled all the dash, radio connections and other things in order to reach this cable. After I see the gauges working, I tried everything to make it fail again, with no result, so the mistery continues, and now it's clear it have to be a ground connection related to Header 285..... I'll keep looking and let you know.

Thanks, really thanks, specially to Woody and Western, really patience when my ignorance arise.....