It’s Electrifying
Pat sorts out the electrics on his 110
LAST month I went off to Yorkshire in my Defender. Thank goodness I did all of the 500 miles of driving in the daylight hours as my headlights have not been working for a few months now.
Several reputable workshops have attempted to sort them out over the years, but each time I have been left disappointed and without working headlights. Its previous owners thought it was a Christmas tree and added miles of wiring to run extra lights and goodness knows what other accessories. Then when they removed the accessories, they just left the obsolete wiring in place. It also previously had a dual battery system when it arrived over here from Africa but I have only been running a new single battery.
The seriousness of the bad electrics came to a head when greenlaning in Bedford and I had a small onboard fire. I have now owned my Defender 110 for just over three years and it has done 290,000 kilometres. It was time to sort out the electrics once and for all.
How do you find a good auto electrician? At a BBQ, of course. After mentioning it to some friends, one of them recommended a mate who had previously worked for JLR and Nissan. They said he was very good. The auto electrician wants to remain anonymous so let’s just call him Sparky the Great. So I went to see Sparky and showed him the sorry state of the wiring on my Defender. He said that we would need two full days to try and sort it so I left it with him for a weekend.
Unfortunately for Sparky it was one of the hottest weekends of the summer. My instruction to him was simple. I wanted it to be like it was when it came out of the factory, except for the Unichip, which I wanted to keep. Within two hours of leaving Green Mamba with Sparky, the Whatsapp messages started coming in. ‘This is really bad. I am not sure how you have not had a fire. It is much worse than I thought’. By the end of day one he had cut most of the cancerous wiring but was worried that he would not be able to get it all finished on the Sunday. I was not worried as I wanted it done properly. This included new terminals for the batteries, new rear lamps fitted, plus perfectly working headlights.
I was in London on the Sunday for a family BBQ and around lunchtime Sparky sent a message that he was behind schedule and that he was not going
to be able to fit the 40” LED light bar from Osram onto the front of the Frontrunner roof rack. I told him not to stress as the main thing to me was cutting away the obsolete stuff and getting it all working again. As we left London I got a message to say the headlights were working again, as was everything else. I told Sparky that I would be there at 8.00 pm. The first thing he did when I arrived was take me into the garage and show me the pile of wiring that he had removed. The old spot lights and mini light bar were gone and the new one was smartly fitted. I popped the bonnet. All the unnecessary wiring had been removed. It was just incredible really. Sparky has done in two days what JLR would’ve taken a week to do and charged me a grand. While Sparky wants to remain anonymous if you are looking for a specialised auto electrician please feel free to email me on patrick@lrm.co.uk and I can give you his details.
The above happened two weeks ago and I am pleased to report it is all still working like it should. Yes, Sparky did run out of time and did not rewire the heated seats but right now that is the least of my worries. I celebrated a fully working Land Rover by loading her up with my canoe and doing a sneaky mid-week wild camping trip with my son and some friends on, yes you guessed it, the River Nene. Other Defender duties included using the awning to protect the attendees of my son’s 7th birthday party from the rain, several tip runs and an outing to Woburn Safari Park.
The final act of importance on my Defender 110 in the past few weeks has been a service. Yes, I probably have not done big miles in it in the past six months but I like to service my Land Rover a minimum of twice a year. Thanks again to Andrew and the great team at Woburn 4x4 for going above and beyond. It is so nice to go to a workshop that cares about your Land Rover as much as you do.
What do I have planned next? I am looking at upgrading all the lights with Wipac LEDS and then I am going greenlaning in Norfolk. Finally, if we are allowed to travel to Europe I will be doing something there in a very special and unique new Defender. Watch this space.