Td5 D2 - Electrics - Front Wiper Woe.

Took the above image last Autumn just before the onset of Winter wiper woe.

The front wash/wipe on Hx has always been trouble-free and only required periodic blade replacement.

Wiper blade manufacturers advise us to replace the wiper blades every 12 months regardless of usage. This is not just obviously good for business (!), but points to the degradation of the rubber blade from basking under the hot Summer sun and all that harsh UV light. Talk about Climate Change.... and the environmental impact!

All good and well, but in the real world, wiper blades only get changed when they have split or fallen apart after squealing, screaming and juddering to be replaced.

The front wiper blades in the above photo have lasted now for 4 years. They are just standard issue 'Lucas' branded replacements fitted as a pair due to the previous pair splitting from the approaching spectre of an MOT test to get through!

Spoke Too Soon..

The golden Autumn soon turned to cold rainy Winter, and right on cue I started to get 'issues' with the front wipers...

Firstly, the passenger wiper suddenly failed to clear a good third of its screen wipe area. The Driver's side was fine so venture on I did.

I carefully cleaned both rubber blades and inspected them for damage and splits. Both past muster but the passenger wipe clearance problem continued....

Then I checked the spring tension of the wiper arm. Sometimes grit or corrosion can get into the spring coils and prevent the arm applying sufficient pressure to the wiper blade.

I lifted each wiper arm in turn from the screen and it was apparent that the passenger wiper arm had next to no tension at the screen compared to the driver's wiper arm. Both springs appeared to be clean and in good condition.

Next step was to price up replacement wiper arms as the springs are integral to their construction. No point getting salvaged parts, but the new price is truly cost prohibitive!

And just what is it with that handy factory fitted wind deflector attached to the Drivers wiper arm? It ensures a good screen contact pressure at speed. How come the passenger wiper arm never had one?  Hmm.., Is it the old LR ..'that'll do' approach?


A Simpler Solution..

Mechanics and fitters have a simple trick to adjust the nonadjustable spring tension. Lift the wiper arm a few inches from the screen surface and let it flop back onto the screen. I combined this little trick with fully extending the wiper arm away from the screen in order to 'loosen' that joint which only gets moved when replacing the wiper blade. And in the case of Hx, that was over four years ago.

Carefully spray lubricant into this pivot joint, but be careful, DO NOT get the lubricant on the rubber blade or the glass screen and work the pivot joint back and forth throughout its full motion a few times.

This simple bit of maintenance increased the tension to the passenger wiper blade and restored a clean wipe pattern.

Next Problem..

Almost immediately after restoring the left-hand wiper pressure, the right-hand wiper blade began smearing, juddering and not clearing its wipe area! Diagnosis was a simple split blade so I stopped by a trusted motor factors.

New Blades Please.

Vehicles of Hx's dotage never had the option of factory fitted 'modern day' flat so-called 'Aero' blades, but they are available as an aftermarket fit. Pay the money, make the choice!

I kept things as stock and decided to buy just the re-fill blade rather then splash out on a new wiper complete with its mounting frame.

There is a bit more work required when fitting a refill blade as the old worn rubber blade needs to be removed from it's mounting and the new blade teased back into the same mounting.

Refill blades can be supplied simply as a curled-up piece of profiled rubber to be cut to length or like the refills I fitted from 'Truparts', mounted on a rigid plastic extrusion base strip. Again, they needed to be trimmed to length, but that was easy enough to do.

It Never Rains, it Pours..

Whilst I was sorting through these mechanical wiper problems a new issue arose with the wiper stalk switch. The 'single wipe' function stopped operating and I never realised how much I used it till it was gone.

Fortunately (so far, so good), all the other wiper functions still work, so it kind of points to a fault in the switch stalk contacts.

Research online quickly pointed to a common problem with the switch contacts gumming up and causing these control problems.  Remedy is replacement, or for the inquisitive a careful strip-down and internal contact clean should restore the service.

For the moment, I am happy to continue without the single swipe option, but I know its just a matter of time before the other functions drop out!

Downloaded some photos from the web to light the way..

Access to the wiper switch stalk can be achieved with a bit of steering lock and the removal of the plastic column shroud. There is no need to remove the steering wheel or SRS airbag as Rave would have you do.

The two cross-head screw bolts visible above and below the stalk need to be removed..

Careful prising of the locating/locking clip will ease the switch out. Disconnect the electrical loom.  

  

Two photos of the disassembled wiper switch. Clean all that gunky goo from the contacts, reassemble and refit using the notes and photos taken during dis- assembly..  (!!)

There is a special electrical contact grease to be used.. Good luck with finding it!

Td5 D2 Electrics - Central Locking Locked Out.

Hx has spent the last 18mth or so 'resting' with nothing like 'Daily Driver' status.

Recently usage has improved and a period of waking things up and checking things out has ensued. Of course, sitting still and doing nothing is not good in the long term and several issues have emerged, the worst being so far a drained battery!

Hx has always been locked and unlocked via the remote. The 'deadlock' feature is always engaged when locked. In the past I can only recall using the key manually in the lock for a short period when the ultrasonic alarm was acting up due to the common leaky sunroof syndrome!

Imagine the horror when I went out to unlock the other day and nothing, no response from the central locking to the key-fob. At first I thought the key-fob battery was dead. I tried the spare remote and still nothing...

I knew that the vehicle battery was a bit suspect after the long rest, but it had never lost the power to 'open' the vehicle before? I foolishly thought that the key would manually open the driver's door but no, the D2 uses solenoid controlled locks that need electrical power to operate. At that moment, as the key just loosely flapped side to side in the lock, I longed for the simple ways of the D1!

After the panic settled and with the understanding that the battery was completely dead, I had to figure out what to do. Rave, and the Owners handbook where silent on the subject and Google offered its usual dose of chatter with questionable results.

The Asbo solution is to break things, rip off the grill, smash a window, remove the rear window, or bend back the door frame in order to get access to the hood release. Bear in mind that the doors will be super-locked and will not open so crawling inside over broken glass is not recommended and rather foolish.

I read online about using an auxiliary battery to power up the alarm circuit and thought there's the sweet answer! Figured the alarm system only draws a micro current when set and therefore a small battery is all that is needed..

Luckily, I had a spare 12v 45amp battery, and all I needed were the jump leads, but they were locked in the boot of Hx!  I scrambled around for some suitable cabling and crocodile clips and planned to connect the spare battery directly to the starter motor and the chassis, pretty much the same and mirroring a normal jump start situation.

The Landy's ground clearance allows easy access to the starter motor electrical contacts from below which are thankfully positioned on the underside of the Starter Motor body.

I consulted Rave's electrical diagrams just to confirm my thinking. There is only two wire connectors to the Starter motor, one thin and one thick. The thick wire goes direct to the vehicle Battery POSITIVE terminal.

The thin wire is the ignition circuit enabler that powers the solenoid on the starter. The connection must be made to the thicker wire on the starter and there is a handy prominent bolted connection available to clip onto. The Starter Motor itself is earthed via its physical connection to the bell-housing and so the second cable can be connected to a convenient vehicle earth point.

Decided there was simply no way I was going to be under Hx when the spare battery was connected! Despite thinking it through, I just couldn't shake the idea that the engine might kick into life and Hx would wreak revenge on me. So I routed around for two lengths of cabling at least 4ft long so that they could be attached underneath and run out from under the vehicle to the spare battery.

The 'positive' lead MUST be connected to the thick cable on the Starter Motor as this is itself connected direct to the vehicle positive battery terminal.

The 'negative' lead was clipped to the ribbing on the gearbox casing.

There was no sparking or such when the spare battery was connected and with one simple push on the key fob button, the doors unlocked as normal!

Popped the hood and went straight into re-charging the fitted battery. I took a voltage reading before re-charging and it was showing 6.3 volts. Decided that was new battery territory...

Last used Hx over a week ago and all was OK so that pointed to some electrical glitch. I checked the obvious and discovered a courtesy light in the rear passenger compartment was left on. This was hopefully the cause, eating away at a probably depleted battery all along.

UPDATE  -  The battery on Hx was re-charged and has since been OK. Initially I was going to replace it. It was fitted nearly five years ago so has given good service. I priced out the replacement from 'Tayna' who do an incredibly efficient postal delivery service, but figure to give the old battery one more chance.

I have fitted a voltmeter into the AUX socket to monitor the battery and charging voltages. Makes me wonder why LR never fitted one themselves? Oh! let me guess, the old LR  ...'that'll do" approach! 

Td5 D2 Sunroof- manual to electric.

The twin sunroofs on Hx were originally manually operated and to compliment their fitting, the original owner had specified the leaky sunroof option in the 'only when parked downhill' mode!

I put up with that leaky situation for way too long, spending many an hour reading about solutions and hatching a plan to convert the sunroof operation from manual to electric. Taking the headlining out to trace and cure the leak would provide the perfect opportunity to convert the sunroof to electric operation and I began to plan combining both tasks.

Do the Research.

I found the pages of Rave invaluable in planning what to do. All the components are described, identified, located and the wiring diagrams have all the answers if you stare long enough!

Lots of advice and opinions about the conversion to electric can easily be found on the web pages. All of this web stuff is good to read but you do need to pick and choose reference points and you just cant go wrong with Rave.

The Essentials

Two motors, a little box of tricks, the factory wiring loom and a set of fitted switches are all needed. Fitting the components to the vehicle is easy enough. It really can be a case of plug and play.

Even the final hurdle of switching the BCU to operate and control the circuit can be by-passed if needed. When I was planning the work I did not have a Nanocom to interrogate the BCU and this stage troubled me, but as I worked through it, it became obvious that a direct 12v supply to the power loom would be another option. In the end and by the time I got around to the work, I had saved the pennies and bought a Nanocom.

The Motors

LR part number  -  EGQ100230

These small compact and powerful motors are readily available second hand. Their design and connectivity remained virtually unchanged throughout the entire Discovery D1/D2 production run. I would not be surprised if these motors can be found in other vehicle ranges as well.

Despite having well sealed cases they can suffer from water damage caused by the leaky sunroofs. Combine that with long periods of non-use and the harsh environment of the roof space and the internals can seize up in extreme cases. However, with a bit of care and a good clean even the worst offenders can be brought back to life.

Sunroof motors from a D2 can be identified visually by the red plastic 'timing' disc surrounding the drive-cog (D1 motors have white discs). All the motor cases are marked with manufacturing and install dates, but that doesn't mean much when you consider even the youngest factory fitted ones are now knocking 15 yrs old!

The motor bodies are secured to the sunroof frame by three bolts. The locating holes are already present on every sunroof frame. It is important to source the mounting bolts as one is a bit unique. A good parts dealer should know this and supply the bolts with the motors. 

Timing Marks.

There is a micro-switch mounted near the edge of the red plastic disc and indents on the side of the disc control the operation of the motor as it revolves with the cogwheel. It is important to get this 'timing' correctly set before fitting the motor to ensure the sunroof will open/tilt correctly. This is easy enough to do before the motor is attached to the frame... 

Timing mark (hole) correctly positioned to side of micro-switch. This is the position the motor must be fitted to the 'closed' sunroof  frame.

There is a small drilling on the outer edge of the disc that must be aligned with the edge of the micro switch as shown in the above photo. Look closer and there will be a yellow painted mark on the metal casing as well. In the above photo it has faded badly.

This setting represents the closed and locked position of the sunroof mechanism and provided the motor was removed and refitted to the sunroof frame when the sunroof was closed and locked then all should be Ok.

If the motors are bought second-hand it's an easy visual check to do, particularly if the motor has been stripped down and re-assembled to repair a seized mechanism. 

Should the timing marks not be aligned it is simply a task of powering up the motor and letting it run its cycle till the timing marks align. An alternative method is to use an Allen key in the drive spindle recess to wind the motor around.

Seized Motors.

I sourced my sunroof motors from the Internet and when they arrived, I tried to hand operate the mechanism by gripping the cogwheel and twisting it. They would not budge and it led me to fear that they where seized. I then remembered the Allen key recess on the base of the drive spindle.

Fitting a suitable Allen key in there did shift the motor but the effort required was more then I would have expected. However, attaching a 12v supply to them soon kicked them into life. A spare 12v 45Amp car battery was used as the power source. The motors are power hungry and any current below say 15Amp might not kick them into life.  When fitted to the vehicle loom, their supply circuit runs a 30amp fuse.

At the time, I had already read up about fixing a seized motor. There are a couple of excellent illustrated tear-downs currently on the Internet and they can easily be found by a Google search for 'Discovery 2 sunroof motor'.  The post by 'Bigdave' on 'Landyzone' has an in-depth step by step photo guide....

After a strip-down and a good clean-out of the mechanism, it should return to life. Although my motors were both functioning, I decided to open them up for a peep inside. All looked OK and there was no signs of water ingress so I reckon they have had an easy life so far.

The Electric Sunroof Wiring Loom.

Research on line about the presence of the elusive loom throws up some differing opinions. Obviously it will be present if the vehicle already has electric sunroofs fitted, but it also appears that the loom was sometimes fitted even if the sunroof operation was 'manual'. This seems to be the case for the D1 and the D2. However, when the 'facelift' D2 model appeared in 2002, it seems that the loom was omitted unless the vehicle was fitted with electric sunroofs?

The loom itself is neatly self contained. One end has all the relevant connectors for the motors, switches and control box and the other end has a single plug that connects to the main vehicle harness. This modular design makes its installation easy, it also makes it's omission an easy cost-cutting measure.

Hx is a 'facelift' 2002 model D2. So the first task was to find out if it already had the loom or not...  

There are two ways to do this.

(1) - Remove the overhead console and stare into the Abyss! If present, all the connectors will be readily apparent. There will be a mixture of blue, green and white coloured connectors.. 

Overhead console removed showing the loom connectors, motor and 'magic box'.

(2) - The other option is a bit easier and involves looking for the brown 3-pin connector at the other end of the loom. The loom is routed along the top of the windscreen and down the RH A-post pillar and terminates behind the RH foot-well kick plate. 

With the kick-plate panel removed it is easy to see if the sunroof loom is present in the vehicle by looking for the fitted brown 3-pin connector....

Two photos above show the brown female 3-pin connector (C0454) located behind the RH foot-well kick-plate. This is the sunroof loom feed from the main vehicle harness. In this photo, it is unconnected which means there is no sunroof loom fitted! Count your blessings if you find this connected with the matching male brown connector (C0457) as it means the sunroof loom is already installed!

Sourcing the loom

As the loom is fairly compact and modular, it is easy enough to pop into a Jiffy bag and be posted around the world. I sourced everything I needed for the conversion from the Internet. I still feel that the best place to go, look and learn is the local breakers yards, but it can be very hit and miss... and it depends on location... And the yard. The Internet wins again.

The loom I ended up buying was from a D1. It was advertised as such and was at such a bargain price I just could not say no. Some of the connectors needed changing but it was a simple task as I already had some spare matching connectors. I would however, recommend buying a D2 loom for the conversion on any other D2!

How to tell them apart is easy. A D2 loom will have the brown 3-pin 'in-line' connector at one end as discussed above. The D1 main loom connector is much more 'blocky' and not brown coloured! The only other difference is to the connectors on the rear of the four switch control buttons which were updated on the D2.

When it came to connecting the D1 sunroof loom to the D2 main loom on Hx, I kind of hummed and arred about sourcing the proper fitting and wasted time searching the Internet for a suitable match. In the end I just removed the three spade terminals and connected them directly into the main harness plug. Some gaffer tape for insulation and Bobs your uncle!  I tell myself one day I'll source the proper connector, but out of sight is out of mind.

When it came to powering up the circuit, I had the use of a Nanocom unit to interrogate the BCU and enable the Sunroof motors to function. It would be possible to hard-wire the sunroof circuit in the footwell area but the BCU control option is just better, more designed and offers time-out functions as well.

The Control Box

LR part number  -  AMR 2128

This contains all the circuitry to operate both Sunroofs. The switches and motors are all connected to it and it too has remained unchanged throughout the D1/D2 production. It is mounted onto the roof frame roughly above where the fitted courtesy light is installed. Access is easy once the front overhead console is removed. 

It should have the fitted mounting plate attached as shown above. The two multi-pin terminal connectors are part of the wiring loom and they simply plug in to the Ecu box.

Overhead Switch Pack and Console.

The final piece of the jigsaw is the overhead control switch buttons. Fitting them properly will mean replacing the front and rear overhead consoles. This is easily done with the front console but the rear console is attached to the headlining from behind the headlining and it will need to be removed to gain access.

Also, as the headlining will need to be removed to install the rear sunroof motor and lay out the wiring loom, it makes sense to do the other jobs (ie. leak seeking) as well while the headlining is out. 

A switch pack from a D2 is shown above. Note the triangular inserts on the front and rear sunroof buttons. The button in the centre is the rear isolation control. It has a simple physical latching function that can become 'sticky' and lead to malfunctions. 

Here is the reverse of a D2 switch pack showing the distinctive in line terminal sockets. Note that not all of the available terminals are used in every connector. This gave me the option of fitting the switches with some panel illumination the same as with the door window switches on the central console. Add that to LR's thousand and one improvements! 

Front Console.

Here is an image from the web of a D2 fitted with the switch pack mounted on an electric sunroof console..

The consoles are readily available from breakers, but I winced at the prices charged for what is basically a piece of moulded plastic. 

Here is the manual console removed from Hx with the switch pack that needs to be fitted to it. I decided to modify the existing console to get the switch-pack to fit and ended up cutting the winder recess out completely as there are clearance issues once the sunroof motor is fitted above it. I ended up with a flat panel just like the designed one and I cant help wonder just what could be mounted up there onto that big flat area...

Rear Console.

A single rocker switch replaces the manual winder on the rear console. I sourced the console online and easily fitted it to the headlining while it was removed from the vehicle.

The console arrived with the courtesy lamp attached and that gave me the idea to open out the blanked off housing that is used by the rear air-con control and to fit the extra light in there. 

The smaller blanking plate below the motor switch provides direct access to the motor spindle. An Allen key can be used in the recess should the sunroof ever fail in the open position and need manually winding shut. 

Conclusions.  

With the headlining removed, installing all the components of the electric sunroof and getting the system running can easily be done on a lazy afternoon. I had already spent many more hours though in planning what to do and bench testing the components before fitting them.

All the components are still readily available second hand. The motors can still be bought new for a premium price, but with some extra work even seized motors can be brought back to life. 

Personally sourcing the components from a scrapped/donor Discovery would be the ideal way to go about this conversion as you would see at first hand how the system was laid out and installed.

Removing the headlining panel is a pain but it is essential to do the work properly and to address all those water ingress issues that can or will or already have occurred.  Resolving those issues has a whole chapter to itself!

Any problems with the operation of existing electric sunroofs will almost certainly be traced back to water ingress.

Td5 D2 electrics - puddle/marker lights

Following on from the install of the foot-well lights and having laid out the 12v supply lines around the interior, it was an easy task to extend that circuit to power up and control some door marker and puddle lights.

A brief bit of history.

I used to own a 300tdi Discovery and one day while poking around on it I noticed some rubber bung/ grommet things low down on the front door trailing side. They could only be seen when the door was opened and it puzzled me as to what they were for?

In time it was revealed that the top-of-the-range crowd sported little red marker lamps mounted in these holes that would illuminate whenever the door was opened as some kind of warning or 'marker' to approaching traffic. I found out that the light units were simple rubber grommet mounted push-fits that ran with a single '501' type tungsten bulb behind a red plastic lens.  

Furthermore the same marker lights were used on contemporary Range Rovers of the 'classic' variety.
And they could be found easily on those fancy new Internet trading sites.

Well, I never did get around to installing them, but years later the idea came back to me and it now appears that every car has them incorporated into their door openings. Don't know if this has become a EU type approval/directive on motor manufacture or a 'global market' condition, but they are certainly a more common sight whether they be simple red reflectors or indeed powered bulbs, which in this day and age almost certainly means LED.

Well, I do like all things 'retro' and the thought of retro-fitting these marker lamps into Hx began to really appeal. I knew I could easily swap those nasty hot running 501 tungsten's for LED equivalents so I began the task of sourcing the lamp bodies from the usual suspects...

Seems I'm not alone in this quest and the Internet is now selling these original light fittings at a premium price!

I was about to bite the bullet when some further planning revealed that the rubber-bunged pre-drilled holes in the door frame of the D1 are not there on the D2! Guess that is just another one of those thousand and one improvements that LR claimed when the D2 was unleashed. My enthusiasm did not extend to drilling out those holes so an alternative was needed.

I never did buy the original LR marker lamps but I did source some suitable round grommet mounted red and white LED lamps in sealed enclosures that certainly would be weatherproof and easy enough to fit. I would end up fitting these to the rear passenger doors, but for the front doors I kind of copped out and went for the easy option of some red reflectors mounted onto the door jams. I would however return to the front doors to install some white puddle lights.

Rear Door Marker Lamps

Whilst fitting some new speakers to the rear passenger doors, I took the opportunity to fit one of the circular red LED fittings into the corner of the modified speaker panel. Again I was reluctant to drill through the metal door frame and the flat plastic base of the speaker surround seemed an ideal location...

The door-card needs to be removed for access to the internal wiring loom.

Wiring-up was in theory, simple. I wanted them to work when the door was open. The existing courtesy light circuit on the D2 is ideal for this and all it needed was to be connected into that circuit. Easy in theory but routing the cabling was a big task.

I did think about connecting to the door actuators inside each door and to use them to drive the light. After all, it is their signal of 'unlock' that the BCU interprets to operate the courtesy lights. This would save a lot of hassle routing the supply cable.

Unfortunately, it was not the ideal solution. The BCU has other inputs that allow it to operate the courtesy lights and so it is not solely reliant on a signal from the door lock actuators. For example, removing the key from the ignition also lights up the courtesy lamps before any doors are actually opened.

I decided the simple solution was to run the cabling into the front foot-well to connect into the lighting circuit I had made there which was running perfectly under all conditions and even dimming out gently!

For the cable run I used some spare two-core speaker wire. LEDs run at a tenth of the power consumption so thick gauge wires are not necessary. The standard 'black' and 'black/white' colours of the speaker cable greatly helps in assuring the polarity is maintained when connections are made as LEDs are sensitive to that kind of thing!

Running and Connecting.

The route I chose for the cabling starts behind the speaker grill then follows the fitted wiring loom inside the door frame that supplies the door actuator/window motor /speaker. It passes through the door grommet tube and into the bodyshell 'B' pillar. The lower B pillar trim panel needs to be dislodged to gain access but it does not have to be totally removed (neither does the door aperture seal). Just remove what is necessary to gain access.

These two images show the contorted routing of the cabling through the right-hand B pillar. Use was made of a small inspection mirror and a handy piece of wire was used to help pull the cable through the door grommet and through the B-pillar into the interior. It was not easy and rather frustrating. However, once the method was sorted on one side, the other side was a doddle! 

Once the cable is through the B-pillar it diverts from the fitted loom and emerges at the base of the plastic trim inside the bodyshell. From here it rather sneakily gets routed inside the plastic weatherstrip cover (which is hollow) and heads forwards into the front foot-well, then up behind the kick-plate and into the under dash area where the supply connection will be made.

As the cable is being routed, take every opportunity to secure it as much as possible. This is good practise as it will ensure no potential rattles or entanglements or rubbing and chaffing. Its possible to wrap tape along the existing loom to bind the new cable to it, particularly in the area of the door hinging as this is where the most movement will be.

Being cautious, once the cable was in position and before all the trim was put back I exposed the wiring at each end and did a continuity test with the multi-meter just to prove that there were no breaks in the newly installed wire...  How many times will I learn that Assumption is the Mother of all Fuck-ups?  All was good so I turned back to the marker lamps.

The lamp unit is supplied with about 10cm of twin-core 'tail' attached. First task is to crimp some insulated spade connectors on the ends to match the ones already on the supply cable. I already knew by bench testing that the red wire was '+' so whatever strand of the speaker cable I connected to it I labelled both ends of it with a '+' mark on an attached piece of tape. Its easy to identify the cores by their markings (or lack of!) but it is also so easy to get confused at the other end so a clear label is recommended. Particularly if your inclined like me to stop the job half-way through and return to it days later!!

I liked the idea of using spade connectors as it meant if the LED unit ever failed it could be replaced easily by just prying it out of its housing and disconnecting the spade terminals. Future proofing as well! 

Power Supply.

Hmm... Here are a couple of hand-drawn schematics I did just to get the wiring connections sorted. At this stage I had already fitted some LED lights into the front and the rear foot-well so it was just a question of connecting into that circuit to power the rear door marker lights. It can be seen that I also took the opportunity to connect up the front door puddle lights at the same time...

KEY : J1 and J2 are two-way connectors as shown bottom right.
FNS - front near side    FOS - front off side  (UK model).

Basically, I just cut into the existing circuit that was supplying the foot-well light.

It was pretty much like spaghetti under there and I was determined to make it all neater by using some two-way multi-connectors that did away with the choc-blocks and twisted wires!!

The white twin-wire connectors used to make the short 'fly-leads' can be seen in the last photo. Following the schematic, I was able to assemble the 'fly-leads' away from Hx with some confidence that they would work. And when all the connections were finally made, all the lights worked first time!

Front Door Puddle Lights.

Put a lot of thought into finding the most efficient, compact and easy way to install white light fittings that could be used as 'puddle' lights for the front doors when opened. 

D2's were never fitted with them so there is no ready-made path to follow. Plenty of other vehicles do have them and a bit of research in the real world and online goes a long way in planning how to go about it. There are lots of options and fitments available so it does come down to personal preference.

I decided to use a compact strip of LEDs that are designed to be surface mounted and come encased in resin for isolation/protection and weatherproofing.

I sourced the above 12v LED strips from the Internet for pennies! Their performance and physical dimensions proved ideal for the application. 

They are designed for 'surface-mounting' and come complete with a 3M sticky backed base that has so far performed well.

There are six LED segments on each strip and the 'yellow' toned ones produce a bright white light while the other strip produce 'red' light. There are lots of colour variations available for the adventurous and there are even available LEDs that can vary their colour output..  Bear in mind that when functioning these lights are classed as 'external' vehicle illumination and as such are governed by various Road Traffic Law. 

The puddle lights fitted are of the 'white' variety and the location used was along the bottom lip of the door-card. They are actually mounted on the bottom of the front door 'bin' molding which being made of hard plastic offers a stable base for the adhesive strip to bond to.

Once installed, these LED strips are completely hidden from view and all their light is directed down onto the road surface once the door is opened. 

A lot of modern day cars have 'puddle' lights installed into the base of their external door mirrors and waste a lot of their output illuminating the outer door skin.

 LED strip in place on bottom of the door bin.

A small hole was drilled through the door-card in order to route the supply cable into the door frame where a crimped spade connection connects them to the supply wiring.

Once again, two-core speaker cable was used and it was carefully threaded along the front-door loom, out of the door frame and into the bodyshell to emerge in the upper foot-well area where it connects to the foot-well lighting supply circuit.  


Back to Schematics.

It can be seen that both the 'puddle' light and the 'rear door marker' light share the same supply line via J2/J1. This arrangement was chosen mostly for its neatness and ease of isolation. An added bonus was when after a few months the LH / FNS puddle light developed a fault it was easy to initially diagnose where the problem was. 

Maintenance / Wiring Issues.

Once installed and wired up, the front door puddle lights worked flawlessly for about a year till the LH light failed completely.

Despite all the claims, LEDs can and do fail early on in their working life. Typically they can start to flicker and once in that state they must be replaced. Naturally I was a bit disappointed over the failure, but knowing I had some spares to swap, I saw the failure as a chance to prove how easy it was to change the fittings.

The old school 'tap and bang' method of maintenance does not work on LEDs!!, and reading up about how I installed them and studying the schematic made me begin to question the wiring. Chief concern was with the type of insulated spade connectors that were used to connect the LED strip to the wiring loom behind the door card...

These red plastic insulated spade terminals proved to be unreliable.

The connectors used at that time were the cheap, nasty and just plain ugly plastic collared type. I wrote at the time of my doubts about the security of them chiefly as you cannot easily see that the wire strands make contact with the metal connector. Press too hard with the crimp tool and the plastic will shatter and cut through the connector. Not enough pressure with the crimp tool and well.....

I had to remove the four screws along the base of the door bin and was then able to get a thin wooden wedge between the bottom of the door card and the door frame. There was no need to remove the door-card completely which was a blessing. That gap that opened up along the base was enough to get fingers in behind to dislodge the wiring tails and test the components.

First test was to undo the connectors and apply a 12v test voltage direct to the LED strip. To my delight and surprise the LED strip lit up as normal indicating that the fault lay in the supply wiring to the LED.

After a quick physical check of the spade crimps, one of them just separated from the wire! It was replaced with a better designed connector (one with an additional outer cable gripper). I had the smug grin wiped off my face when I re-connected to the vehicle loom and the LED again failed to light!

So the problem now must be in the supply wiring. I undid the fly lead in the foot-well (J2) and with a multimeter did continuity tests from the connector to the led strip connection. The Earth return was fine but there was no beep for the supply line. 

Again when physically moved, the crimped end of the supply line just parted from the cabling and on inspection it appeared that the wire strands in the cabling had just disintegrated to what looked like powder! I had to strip back the cable a good few inches before solid wire was again found and the multimeter sang sweet. I had never seen cable strands in this state before and it really puzzles me what had gone wrong particularly as it had conducted OK for a year or so..?

Anyway, with new spade connectors attached and the wiring back in place the LED strip returned to life..

Td5 D2 Interior - Door Cards

All the internal door-trim 'cards' on the Discovery 2 are easily removed and all have the usual mix of screws and plastic poppers attaching them onto the metal door frames.

With luck, there will seldom arise the need to remove them during ownership, but as time passes, window regulators, motors and locks start to fail and it soon becomes necessary to delve in behind them.

The door cards are interchangeable across the range. They are available in a choice of colour which was basically beige or black with a matching fabric trim. 

Depending on the level of factory-fitments, it is possible to upgrade the 'base' level up to the 'hi-range' by adding the wooden trim strips and also fitting the extra speakers. All the necessary holes and locating points are present and they just need opening out to fit. 

On Hx, the front left-hand window regulator failed and needed replacement (see 'Hx52 - window regulator'). Also the right-hand door lock and handle needed to be removed when the outer panel was re-sprayed. The hassle of having to remove the door-cards before the real work started was a bit daunting.

REMOVAL 

Here is a diagram of the left-hand front door-card. All the other doors including the tailgate have similar fixings...

(1) - Two screws deeply recessed into the handle grip. They attach to the door frame but do not attach the handle to the door-card.
(2) - Single screw holding the plastic lock-lever trim-plate to the door frame.
(3) - The lock lever needs to be 'open' to gain access to the screw and to remove the plastic trim-plate.
(4) - Four screws deeply recessed along the bottom of the door 'bin'. They attach to the door frame, but they do not attach the door-bin to the door-card.  
(5) - Location of the multiple plastic pronged rivets that hold the door-card securely to the door frame. There are no 'prongs' along the base of the front door-card.

With all of the screws removed, the prongs can be detached by use of a flat, wide blade carefully inserted between the door-card and the door frame. Start at the bottom along the base and by applying careful pressure the lower plastic rivets on the side will be heard to 'pop'. It will sound like they have snapped-off and that has to be avoided at all costs. Make progress around the perimeter slowly working up to the top edge. Resist the temptation to pull or jerk the door-card free as the fixings and the door-card can be easily cracked at this stage.

 Above image shows a typical stress crack that can develop on the reverse of the door-card from over enthusiastic removal. All that can be done in terms of repair is to fill the crack with some super glue and support the joint while it dries. The structure of the door-card base appears to be a mix of moulded foam/GRP with embedded metal plates for local strength.

Also shown is one of the plastic locating pegs. It's red base is bonded to the door-card structure while the white plastic prong snaps into place on the red base.

Don't worry about the door-lock 'button', it will take care of itself. I found the rubber glass wiper strip along the top edge to be more of a problem especially when re-fitting the door-card! It is not attached to the door-card so it could be removed at the start before removing the door-card if necessary. It is held onto the door frame by four spring clips. Gentle upward levering with a flat wide blade will soon free it from the frame. 

When free, the door-card will just lift away horizontally using the door handle to balance the weight. The door lock button can easily be removed at this point. 

First thing to check is the state of the plastic poppers, look for any weak or broken ones. They can be replaced but it is another hassle to avoid particularly if the red base breaks as they are moulded into the door card structure. In general, its best to avoid repeated removal of the door-cards to avoid the wear and tear. The door-card structure can easily crack or fracture around the mounting points and that is caused simply by over enthusiastic removal.

Refitting the door-card is as any good manual would say, simply a reversal of the removal. Once the plastic pegs have correctly engaged in their holes a gentle tap is all that is needed to pop the pegs back home. I found it was harder to re-mount the door-card and to get it's top surface located under the rubber blade of the glass wiper trim-strip. The screws along the bottom of the door-bin can easily be over tightened and break through their brittle plastic locations.

Last image shows the reverse of the front door card. Of note is the mounting of the extra speaker near the top and the four mounting posts for the wooden trim strip can be seen in between the red pegs along the top. The lower 'standard' speaker has been removed from the card in this image.

Modifying the Door-Cards.

Wooden Trims.

When I removed the door-card, I took the opportunity to fit the 'wooden' trim strips that I had previously sourced from E-bay. They have four short threaded studs on the base which pass through holes in the door-card to be secured by four nuts. The position of the four holes is marked out on the reverse of the card whether they are drilled out or not.

Additional Speakers.

All D2's have a door-bin mounted speaker as standard. An additional 'mid-range' speaker unit can be mounted near the top of the door-card. A suitable hole will need to be cut out of the door-card to accommodate the speaker but the position for the hole is again marked on the reverse of every door card. Furthermore, the vapour barrier attached to the door frame has the bowl shaped recess to accommodate the rear protrusion of the speaker case. Even the necessary speaker cable c/w plastic connector is present in the door loom. It truly is a case of plug and play.

The speaker is secured to the door-card by the threaded locking ring shown here


I have not fitted these speakers into Hx. At least not yet!. I have established how to do it and indeed have traced the wiring to do it with but when I look online for these specific speaker units, the prices are prohibitive. The last time I looked they were going for £50 a pair! The rear passenger doors can also be outfitted with these additional speakers, but it must be said that they are not interchangeable as their respective diameters are different.  

Puddle Lights.

Having fitted additional foot-well lights onto Hx, it occurred to me to extend that circuit to power some 'puddle' lights mounted on the front doors. I decided the best position was actually to surface mount the LED strip onto the door-card and run the wiring into the door frame, through the fitted door loom and emerge in the foot-well area and connect to a supply circuit.

I sourced some weatherproof strip-mounted LED's from the Internet that proved to be ideal and easy to install...

There are 6 LEDs on each strip and they are encased in resin and have a 3M sticky-backed mounting. They are mounted along the bottom edge of the door card and nicely hidden from view. A small hole was drilled to route the supply wiring behind the door-card.

( photo of puddle light operation )

I have written elsewhere about their installation. See  'Hx52 - puddle /marker lights'...



Panel Trim Bling.

Bought some gold vinyl trim-line that was simply push-fitted into the joint between the differing panels on the door-card. The door-card does not have to be removed to do this.

This type of finishing strip is available in a range of colours and fitting it is simply a matter of cutting it to length, teasing it into shape around bends and then pushing it into the panel gap. It is held in place by friction.






In some places the panel gap was too wide to 'grip' the blade of the trim-strip securely, but I found that a rolled out piece of 'blu-tack' pushed into the gap helped to hold the trim-strip in position.