Land Rover Repair: Discovery Electrical Problems, water ingress, annoying problems

Question
Hi, I have a discovery mark 1/2 (bit of a hybrid)- 1995 3.9 V8i. Recently I have had some rather annoying problems such as the lights (sidelights and headlights) managing to turn themselves on by themselves when the car is locked and the light stalk set to off. I have still not found a permanent solution to this problem and it seems to have worsened to the extent that the battery seems to intermittently turn itself on and off without the key in the ignition. Therefore I went into the electrics underneath the steering wheel and I noticed there was a loud hissing coming from the fusebox as if something was frying. All this behaviour is completely random and can be fine one day and the next it has the same symptoms again. Have you ever known of this to occur and if so what advice can you give me, perhaps a common electrical short that I could attend to? If any more detail is needed please let me know and any help at all would be appreciated. Please note that the lights turning on by themselves seems to be linked to the problem with the battery. Thank you, Oliver

Answer
Hi Oliver,

could be a ground fault problem or corrosion in a wiring harness - both are very common problems with LR's.  Many series I Disco's have had problems with water ingress and footwell fusebox damage.  Some have had to replace fusebox in the footwell to solve this problem.

I've had the sidemarker lightbulb holder corrode and short out.  It caused all sorts of trouble for me - including the security system. I'd check the lights to see if the bulb contacts are not corroded.

A reputable independent LR mechanic would find the problem much faster and perhaps save you time and money.  It would be a shame to start swapping out components only to find the problem still exists.

Best of luck,

JohnMc

NB:  do you have a RAVE CD?