Thread: Defender Headlight Upgrade Kit

I have no experience of them - but I would be inclined to talk to one of the satisfied customers - the major shortcoming of the Defender's lights is the wiring not the light units.

John

I've just fitted the wiring upgrade to my vehicle and several of the leads supplied were too short.
I spoke to the supplier and he advised they should be fitted as close as poss. to the battery but he's obviously not looked under a Defenders bonnet recently as there's not too many places they can be put except under one of the wings.

I feel they are more of a generic kit to fit vehicles with batteries under the bonnet, not under the seat.
I've sent him a message saying I didn't think they should be marketed as being specifically for a Defender because of the short leads, or alternatively, some measuring needs to be done and the kit changed accordingly.
That being said I think there's a marked improvement in the light output (although I'd already got better globes in ...fatboys or something) which is pretty dismal with the standard wiring.
Hope this helps.
Alan.

x2

drivesafe makes a great wiring harness kit for the defender, took my defender lights from candles to something very useable.

Just in case anyone has not followed previous threads, I will repeat the key information here.

Landrover Series, 90/110/120/127/130/Defender, for reasons best known to Joseph Lucas, do not have headlight relays. This means the entire current runs through the headlight main switch and the high/low switch. While this will stand the standard bulbs, albeit with some loss of brightness, increasing the wattage of bulbs without changing the wiring will result, sooner rather than later, in damaged switchgear, and probably won't improve the lighting much anyway. Apart from switches being (ridiculously) expensive, the lights are sure to fail at the worst possible time.

The first step in improving lights is to upgrade the wiring to incorporate relays for high and low beam, either one for both sides or left and right, before increasing bulb wattage. Drivesafe produces a kit to do this (and there are others) or you can buy relays, wire and fittings and do it yourself if you are competent to do so. If your lights are still not good enough, check the earth returns, and only then consider higher wattage or fancy bulbs, and possibly better light units (although replacing them would come first if they have damaged lenses or reflectors).

John

Note that the Headlight upgrade that he is selling does not comply to Aust Standards. No E code.

IE they dont dip on the LH side to stop oncoming glare....

I concurr, installing relays for low and high beam for each lamp unit works wonders and ends burnt out switches.

With the old setup it is just no fun fighting with the prince of darkness for some light i.e Lucas!

Emerald

where does one find these drive safe wireing kits?

Originally Posted by 460cixy

where does one find these drive safe wireing kits?

PM Drivesafe or go to traxide.com