1996 Defender 90 electrical problems

[LanDef66]

Hi, I'm hoping to get some ideas. I am having loads of issues/problems with my 1996 300TDi 90.

For a while it was intermittent when flashing my headlights the wipers would go once or the horn would come on or sometimes both.

Also sometimes when indicating one way or the other it would have the same effect, also when using the horn would sometimes do the same. After a few weeks of this it all came to a head on the way home one evening about 9 months ago. All the lights came on, immobilizer kicked in and the horn was on all the time. Had it recovered to home and after a few suggestions from different people I replaced the main earth cables thinking it could be an earth problem.

After doing this, all seemed fine then the intermittent faults started again.

Then ,last night it died again, this time with the horn, alarm, all lights, window wipers and dashboard lights on and immobilizer stopping me from starting it. They all seem to be running on low current as they are dim or slow moving.

Now when I connect the battery and turn on the ignition all I have is everything lights up dim and turns on.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[LanDef66]

From the response its probably a one off problem., Another question, Is there anyone who can point out where the earth cables terminate in the dashboard and around that area please. Have been trying to trace them but getting nowhere fast. Thanks

Happy new year!!!!!

[Frax]

I would check your battery and charge voltage as these faults do show up on low battery power.

Welcome to the forum.

[rich broom]

could be a faulty alarm unit

[Scotts90]

You should be able to find the link to the electrical wiring diagrams on here, the 300tdi and td5 ones are very easy to follow and very similar for standard equipment. From memory the earth points are on a header on the engine side of the bulkhead bolted beside the large grommet for the loom

[LanDef66]

Thanks for the suggestions, The fault has now been traced, it was an earth problem. A cable from the blue header block behind the dashboard where a lot of earth cables join, which then goes through the bulkhead to the engine bay screwed to the bulkhead was dead, after adding in another cableto bypass the original and fixing to a known good earth point, all is back up and running. Now to get it all put back together after testing to show the water ingress behind the dash. Cheers