98 Disco

So the other day the radio would not turn on. What it would do is if you hit any of the buttons it would just beep for a good ten to 15 minutes straight. I also realized that the electric seats or the cigarette lighter would not work.

I checked all the fuses under the steering wheel and under the hood for good measure. Everything was good. Then I pulled the radio out to check the wires and it started working.

Worked for my drive home and then the next day it stopped. The beeping started again. I disconnected the battery and now I don't get anything. No beeping, no blinking security light, no seats or cigarette lighter.
It randomly turned on yesterday for about a minute while driving though then turned off.

Any ideas?

 

Man of man I have no idea.

 

do you have a multimeter? if not you may want to pick one up. if you want to fix this problem on your own it will help you out big time, you can get them pretty cheap nowadays.

 

Land Rover wire harness are full of internal splices that are very poor in construction.

I would bet you have an intermittent connection quite possibly inside the wrapped bundles. Good luck finding it.

 

Haha great.

I do have a multimeter. I took a quick look today at the rave manual to see if I could understand the schematics in there. I think what I saw was that the constant power feed is the Purple wire and the ignition power feed to turn the radio on is the Light Green Orange wire.

I checked the purple wire and it gets 12 volts but the LGO wire doesn't get any. I think the LGO wire is on the middle harness plug and none of those wires on that plug receives 12 volts.

I couldn't figure out the rave manual to see where those wires run so I could check the next connection down the way.

Does anyone know, are the radio, seats, and cig. lighter interconnected somewhere on the harness?

 

well here is the deal, yes they all interconnect somewhere because they all go to the same battery! your job is to basically use your meter to "follow" the power pipeline from its end to its break. do this by locating all the connectors inline (the rave manual not only shows you a pinout of each connector but a picture in the back as well (just make sure you are looking at the right vehicle, remember english vehicles are RHD) I would suggest starting at the under dash fuse box and working out towards the accessories. I will tell you that the power seats are powered independently and the drivers side is tied into the door trigger somehow (sorry don't remember exactly how it is wired) the radio has constant and switched power and the lighter I believe is switched power. not sure if that helps but it is somewhere to start.
if you need more help locating harnesses and wire routes let me know and I will do my best to help you out.

 

I have my console and floor mats out and I rewrapped and rerouted various portions of my harness. In that area the factory harness is a real rat's nest, and like I said they do terrible quality splices right in the middle of a bundle and do a poor job of insulating these splices. I will take a closer look at mine over the next few days and let you know what I find. I do not like the way the factory bundles lay directly on the floor of the vehicle with the padding and carpet over them. Why they did not run them in better places I don't understand. As I rewrapped and rerouted mine, I broke them into smaller bundles and improved the routing. I bought some adhesive backed tie-wrap anchor blocks that I can stick on the sidewall of the teranny tunnel and tie-wrap the bundles where I want them. I want all that stuff off the floor and better protected.

Remember, Disco's are bad about water leaking in and saturating the carpets and the nice thick padding acts like a sponge. Nothing like a sopping wet sponge laying on top of a poorly insulated wire splice to help it perform well over time.

I also have the factory radio out and have not replaced it yet. Maybe I will be able to give you some helpful info later.

Oneother thought as well, the grounds have several splices and a variety of connection points, could be a problem with them as well, if you lost a ground connection, it will act the same way.

 

Haha Chris thanks for the response. I was hoping maybe they just happen to all connect at a certain place behind the dash somewhere I could look at real quick. I'll have to study the schematics then.

Danny I appreciate the insight to how the wires are run under the dash. I had no idea they were just run under the carpet. I do have the clogged AC lines that leak a little on the passenger side. I don't really use it that much though so I haven't unclogged it.

Maybe it is a ground wire since if the seats are powered independently but my problem is related somehow.

What a perfect time for this, I just transfered to Rutgers school of engineering and am a good 45 minutes away from most of my tools with barely any free time. Seats and cig. lighter I can deal without, its driving without the radio that really bugs me.

 

Learn to sing good country songs to yourself and after a while you won't even miss the radio. Hell I make up my own songs as I drive, similar to Jimmy Buffet and Willie Nelson type ballards.

At the price of these beasts, you would expect a well laid out terminal board and wiring conduit like an aircraft or something, but it ain't so. Look at my photo albums, I think there are some good pics with my carpets removed. I really don't plan on reinstalling them either.

There are ground post under the carpet and center console area, where the seats and other grounds terminated to little threaded studs.

 

well I can give you a simple solution to that problem, just run 2 wires from the back of the radio directly over to the ignition switch (one hot and one switched) throw a fuse in each one (or if you promise yourself it will be very temporary run one hot to both power wires at the radio and be sure to power the radio off when the truck isn't on) then basically hotwire your radio so it works until you have the time and tools to fix it right.