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Page created: 13-May-05 Re-published: 1-Nov-09 |
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Technical: Discovery I |
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Lighting
Additional or upgraded lighting can have many practical uses on a vehicle already as functional as a Land Rover. I’ve made full use of the roof rack to fit a variety of additional lights and have also upgraded some of the existing lights. Headlights
I am extremely pleased with the result, as the light they produce is much whiter and crisper than the standard bulbs. Spot
Lights I've fitted a pair of Ring Sportsline spot lights to the front of my Discovery, wired so that they come on with the main beam via a relay. I chose these particular lights as they came out well in a survey carried out by one of the Land Rover magazines a couple of years ago, in terms of price, robustness and beam quality. They use standard 55w halogen bulbs and so are road legal.
Roof lights
On
the front of the roof rack I’ve fitted a pair of spotlights in the
center for distance, and a pair of fog lights on the outside corners to
give a wide spread of light to each side. Each pair is individually The
switches are standard Discovery front fog light units, part no. AMR
4138. They are mounted in existing blanked off positions beneath the
clock, although it's necessary to file off a guide notch to fit this
switch in the right hand position. The spot lights are aimed slightly downwards at a point about 10 metres in front of the end of bonnet to light up obstacles directly in front whilst the fog lights are aimed off to either side to show the ground to each side of the front wheels. There is a slight issue with glare on the bonnet and windscreen, particularly from the spotlights, and I intend to solve this by fitting a horizontal deflector below these lights to cut off the beam to the front edge of the bonnet. I’ve yet to work out exactly how far out such a deflector needs to project so watch this space! Brake Lights I’ve
always thought high level brake lights to be a good idea, particularly
when the lower lights can be obscured by mud or dust, and I’ve
duplicated the stop, tail and indicator lights high up on the body work
of my last two Land Rovers. The rear bodywork of the I came across these neat little Hella fog lights in the Vehicle Wiring Products catalogue and mounted them on the back of the roof rack with a couple of ‘P’ clips. They may not, strictly speaking, actually be legal to use as brake lights. Whilst they have the same size 21w bulbs, the different reflector shape means they are significantly brighter than the standard lights. However, they are so high off the ground that it’s never been a problem.
The
wiring loom sections comprise the 3-pin plug and three wires - red,
green and black - that each terminate in a bullet connector. To fit
these to the vehicle loom it's necessary to cut off the existing two pin
plug, which has a red and a black wire, and connect the corresponding
colours of the new loom section. To
keep it simple I crimped a female bullet connector on each wire and
merely plugged in the new loom. The green wire to the new plug is the
feed for the brake light and this needs to be connected to the brake
light supply to each light cluster in the vehicle body. Behind each
light cluster is a six-way connector and the Green/Purple wire feeds
the brake light. I spliced a new piece of wire to this on each side of
the vehicle and
fed them down through the grommets in the body floor. The wiring to the
bumper lights is encased in split flexible conduit The bulb holders, part no XBP100190, are quite cheap and under £2.00 each but the wiring loom sections, part no. STC 4637, are about £15.00 each. However, since carrying out this modification I've discovered that it's also possible to buy the connectors individually from Vehicle Wiring Products, part no. 01253. Rear Work Light
This light makes an excellent additional reversing light and, because it can be pointed almost straight down, also illuminates the rear load area with the door open. I’ve
modified my light slightly by removing the on-off switch from the casing
and using instead a remote switch on the dashboard to prevent tampering.
The 55w light is controlled by a relay. The switch is one of several
that fit in a frame to the left of the heater controls (shown right).
The work The switch in the bottom right position and the LEDs in the bottom center relate to the split charge system. The switches, and the frame that carries them, are from the parts list of the late model Range Rover Classic, which trialed the dash board architecture that would be used in the 300 series Discovery from late '94 onwards. They occupy the space usually taken by a coin tray. The switch frame part no. is AWR1159LNF and there are various switches depending on what you want them to do e.g. interior light, rear heated windscreen, etc. The ones I used were: AMR3597 - front fog lights (x3) AMR3600 - interior light AMR3605 - blanking plates (x2) For their original intended application these switches, and the ones above for the roof lights, would be connected into the factory produced wiring loom with purpose designed plugs. Unfortunately, at the time of installation I wasn't able to source any of the appropriate plugs without also buying large and expensive sections of loom. Instead I've used some 2mm female spade connectors insulated with heat shrink, which has worked faultlessly. However, I've recently been told by a contributor to the site companion forum that the same type of plug was used for the switchgear in Maestro and Montego cars, so it would be relatively easy to salvage some of these from a breakers yard. Wiring  The
wiring for all of these lights is cable tied along various sections of
the roof rack where it runs to the top of a length of rigid plastic
conduit that is, in turn, fixed to the side of the snorkel.
From the bottom of the conduit the cables pass through a pair of small
holes drilled in the plastic scuttle trim panel and are then routed
around the engine bay to the auxiliary
fuse box.
Front Indicators I've
replaced the front indicator lenses with clear versions that use
coloured bulbs, as these have recently become available from a company
called 4x4 Parts Master. I've also replaced The front lenses are very straightforward to fit, as they are merely held in by a large spring clip that's easily accessible through a hole in the slam panel beside the headlight. They came already fitted with the correct orange coloured bulbs and new bulb holders so it was a simple matter of unplugging the old and plugging in the new. Easy.
Finally, it's important to salvage the small foam rubber gaskets from the existing lenses as these are not supplied with the new ones.
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Although
300 series Discovery headlights are much better than the DAF van based
units of the preceding 200 series, there is still plenty of scope for
improvement. Following a discussion on the members’ forum of the
Discovery Owners Club, I decided to try a simple upgrade and fitted a
pair of Philips Vision Plus halogen bulbs from Powerbulbs.com.
These bulbs are direct replacements for the standard items, are fully
road legal with the same power ratings, and require no modifications to
the existing wiring or switchgear.
When
it came to mounting the lights I was faced with something of a dilemma.
Because there is a gap between the plastic moulding that supports the
number plate and the top of the bumper. the easiest solution would have
been to cut slots in the top of this moulding so that the light brackets
could be bolted straight to the steel bumper. However, the casings of
the Sportsline lights are quite compact and they didn't look right
mounted this low down. I discounted a bull bar or A-bar because of both
the additional weight and the fact that the fixings for these types of
bar generally rely on the existing bumper mountings and this can
interfere with the steering guard and towing/jacking points. Then I
discovered this low profile light bar made by Innovation 4x4. This has
been designed to span over the number plate moulding and bolts straight
to the top of the bumper. Its raises the lights to just the right level
and was just what I was looking for.
High-level
lights, usually mounted on the front of a roof rack, have become a
popular accessory since the earliest days of the Camel Trophy. Lights at
roof level do offer some distinct advantages when driving over rough
terrain at night as they shine down to reveal holes that would otherwise
appear only as shadow. However, if I’m brutally honest, I admit that I
think they look good too! My Safety Devices Highlander roof rack also
came with light brackets built in and it seemed a shame not to use them.
controlled via relays in the auxiliary fuse box and dash-mounted
switches. The lights are Hella Comet 500 spots and Ring Microline fogs.
The latter were chosen specifically because they are inexpensive and
easy to replace, as they are the most vulnerable to damage from
overhanging trees.
Discovery
doesn’t really lend itself to this sort of modification, and the twin
indicator and sidelight set-up of my ’95 model means it’s not
really necessary. However, high-level brake lights are still a useful
addition so I looked for a way of fitting just those.
A
rear work light is one of those genuinely useful add-ons that no Land
Rover should be without. Mine is a Hella unit and it’s mounted on a
bracket that's integral to the roof rack, although I’ve added an extra
joint that allows the light to be swiveled from side to side as well as
up and down.
the side repeaters with similar clear lenses, although these are a
standard Land Rover part intended for use on the new Range Rover. I'm
the first to admit that, unlike the other modifications I've made to the
vehicle, changing these lenses serves no practical purpose but I do like
the look, as it updates the front end to a style employed on more modern
cars.
The
side repeaters need a bit more thought as the method of fixing is
concealed. Essentially, they are held in by a plastic 'spring' that's
moulded into the back of the lens body. By pushing the lens sideways,
the spring is compressed and the whole thing can be gently levered out.
There is a locating lug on the lens body that fits into a slot in the
wing that will be at the top of the aperture. By comparing the new
replacement lenses to 
establish
the orientation of the spring, it is then possible to see which way the
lens needs to be pushed.