Hey guys, haven't gotten much feedback over on discoweb, so I'm hoping you can help me out. I started to wire some cheap backup lights from Autozone and was looking into using one of the blank switch panels next to the steering wheel. When I was pulling off the blank button panels, I found a harness plugged into one of them. Anyone have any idea what it's for? If anything? Also, I'm looking to pick up a junk harness to use (sent a pm to Jammer over at dweb) but was wondering if anyone could explain the wiring of the harness (just the basic "which wire goes where"). Thanks for the help!
David

Each switch is pre-wired from the factory to go to a specific item. Post a pic with the button you are wondering about and I can tell you what it is for. With regard to what wire goes where, you can get that info from the Land Rover Workshop Manual which is also available on the Rave CD. You can get the Rave CD free from John at Tidewater Rovers. Just e-mail him and ask for a copy.

So do you happen to have his email address or know where I can get it? Here's a pic of the harness I was talking about. I also found another harness in the rear driver's side vent that I'm curious about. Is it for a towing plug? cause I don't have one wired to my hitch.

One more question... I was told I could tap into a power source inside the vent area to use in wiring my aux back up lights, got any idea which wire this is?

As always, thanks a ton!
David

I might not have all the answers, but here's what I remember.

David, does that switch have anything on the face plate? If not, then it is just a dummy and should not be powered. Hook a volt meter up to it and see. If you want to hook something into it, those switches need a .110" butt connector.

The wire they are most likely talking about is the trailer harness, maybe. That'll be located behind the same panel you took off, but on the passenger side. I don't have the color coding for that handy though, sorry. If not that, then you can use the backup light power right by the bulb as a trip for a relay, that is then hook to the battery and the new aux. backup lights.

I'm not sure what that other connector is.

pwc

I need to dig a little bit to give you solid answers. Here's the off the top of my head version:

You can find contact information for Tidewater Rovers via their website http://www.tidewaterrovers.com/
Or via the discoweb thread where he advertises them.

That switch is for your rear fog lamps (the ones in the bumper).  Did your truck not come with rear fogs?  I thought they all had them.

I'll have to open my rear access panel to figure out what those wires are for (rear foglamps maybe?).  The trailer hitch is, as Peter mentioned, on the passenger side access panel.

--Craig

The trailer hitch is actually inside the rear passenger side pillar and can only be accessed by removing the brake light cluster from the outside of the truck. You will then need a trained monkey or rodent to actually work with the trailer harness socket thingy because it is very tight inside the rear pillar. I have had to work in there several times and have the scars to prove it.

I just looked and I don't have those connecters in the rear driver's side pillar. I'm not sure what they are but they may have added them after the '99 model or they may be for rear volume controls or rear A/C or some such. I also couldn't find those connectors in the early RAVE CD that I have.

And Craig is right, that switch is for the rear fogs that I thought every truck had. Otherwise, all of the spots have "blanks" in them and they are attached to the actual wiring harness for whatever is supposed to be there so that you can just plug in the correct switch and possibly update the BCU to turn on the new functionality.

Hope that helps some.

Rick

i agree with everyone else regarding the purpose of the switch you've pictured. a likely possiblilty is that the rear fog lights are burnt out, therefore the switch appears to do nothing. also, all of the lights have to be on in order for the rear fog to work.

you can tap into the rear fog power by removing the wiring harness from the back of the rear turn signal/rear fog assembly and find the hot circuit using a test lamp. i wired in some rear floods with a few vampire clips and some luck. there should be three wires that go into the rear bumper lights: one is ground, one is power for the turn signal, and the other should be the power for the fog. i don't have any wire color info atm. right now i'm trying to figure out how to wire front fogs on my own truck. if i can get rear floods to work on my truck, i'm positive that you can do it, too. also, many would suggest that you use a relay to power the lights. i agree, but then again, i didn't. my reasoning was that usually the rear floods would be on only for a short time (ie, backing up in the dark, etc). i wasn't using them to illuminate a campsite as they were much to low to the ground to be useful in that regard. ergo, i wasn't too concerned about heat. also, the fogs i used also had an inline fuse that added some safety. hope this helps.

a

One more note; I drove a Disco for a year before I figured out what everyone meant by "rear fog lights". I had no white lightsback there, what the hell were they taking about??
If you don't aready know, it is the (I think) higher pairs of lights in the rear clusters. They shine brighter and stay on as to make it easier for people behind you to see you in fog or trail dust, separate from the brake lights. It's actually a cool feature and they make aftermarket kits for the Defenders to do the sam thing, although not as pretty.

pwc

Peter,

Do you have a link to the aftermarket defender fog kits?

Peter's memory is a little "foggy" (groan). The fog lights on the 99 D2 is the red portion of the light in the bumper. The amber is the turn signal. The lights up top are parking lights, tail lights, and brake lights.

--C

So what if I told you I don't even have switch to control the rear fog lights. What the picture doesn't show you is that harness is plugged into one of the stationary, blank pieces of plastic. It looks just like the two below it. The only switch i have on that side of the steering wheel is the front fog lights. What I'm trying to figure out is whether that rear harness is to the fog lights that i don't believe I have because I would love to be able to just buy a rear fog switch and splice into that rear harness with my aftermarket fogs and voila! be done. I know I'm probably dreaming that it would be that easy. but what would life be without dreams?

So if the rear harness is not to the lights, what's the EASIEST way to wire my aftermarket rear fogs? I don't mind wiring to the front of the car if need be, cause I want to be able to control it with a switch in the dash. I don't even want them to come on automatically when in reverse, I just wanna know:

a) whether I need to wire to the front of the car for power.
b) whether I can use the harness connected to the BLANK switch I pictured earlier.
c) if anybody can verify what that rear harness is for.

Thanks for all the responses! Hopefully we can get these unsolved mysteries figured out.

David

P.S. Craig (or any other D2 owner) what kinda bulbs do your vertical taillight enclosures consist of? I went to Schuck's and actually had to use a bulb from what they had listed as a  D1 in mine the other day. I've got two bigger bulbs in the middle and bottom, and then two smaller bulbs up top. Is this normal for a D2? or do I have something odd going on? If so, I guess my D2 is really going against the grain!

David,

Let's figure it out one problem at a time. :-)

Does the top switch turn on red lamps in the rear bumper?

--C

David,

Hang in there. We'll figure it out. It looks like someone messed with your binnacle wiring. We'll get there.

Do you have a factory Land Rover manual? Unlike most vehicles, the Land Rover manuals actually have a surprising amount of very useful information. Including what Peter posted above, but a lot of other really solid information that you will want to know.

All of the binnacle switches are pre-allocated by Land Rover to control different items on the truck. All of the wiring is there for all of the functions, and the connectors are stored inside the blank plugs so you don't have to listen to them rattle, or go fishing for them when you do decide to hook something up.

TOP LEFT BINNACLE SWITCH
You posted above that the top left binnacle switch controls your front fog lamps. That is what it is supposed to do, but someone put a rear fog lamp switch cover on it (they are interchangeable -- a fact that you will come to be happy about as this thread progresses). The wires from that switch go to the BCU (as Rick mentioned above), which then goes to a relay that ultimately powers your front fog lamps.

SECOND FROM TOP LEFT BINNACLE SWITCH
This switch controls the rear in-bumper fog lamps on all 1999 Discovery Series IIs. You need to move the switch / switch cover from the TOP LEFT BINNACLE SWITCH to this one (and buy a fog lamp switch for the top one). If you don't want the in-bumper fog-lamps, this switch could be used to provide a power on signal to a relay. I don't think the existing fog-lamp wiring is sufficient to provide power to a real fog lamp though.

THIRD FROM TOP LEFT BINNACLE SWITCH
This switch controls the aux front fog lamps that mount on a Land Rover brushguard. The lamps are Hella 4000 Fogs or driving lamps. The fogs take 55 watt bulbs and the driving lamps take 100 watt bulbs. Both require a separate wiring harness and switch from Land Rover to wire up. The switch shows a picture of a fog lamp with a "2" inside of it. The switch is momentary like the front fog switch. It sends a signal to the BCU, which then controls when the lights go on/off based on when the high beams are on. The BCU can be programmed to go on with the high beams, or on with the low beams depending on whether it is a fog lamp or a driving lamp that is mounted.

Most of us buy two switches (a cruise control switch and an aux lamp switch). We then take the aux lamp switch cover and swap it onto the cruise control switch. This is because the cruise control switch is an on/off toggle. It stays on as long as it is depressed.

BOTTOM LEFT BINNACLE SWITCH
I dunno

RIGHT SIDE BINNACLE SWITCHES
Already populated except the bottom one

BOTTOM RIGHT BINNACLE SWITCH
I dunno

maybe i misunderstood but i thought that david said his second from top, left hand side switch is actually a blank with a wiring harness to it. is this right david? if so, one way to check to see if it works is by putting power through it via a small 12V battery. i'm no wiring/electrical guru so you might blow up your truck, but it would be a way to check.

most manufacturers tend to have the foundation laid for options even in their standard cars. a good LR example are seat heaters. even if you didn't order the cold weather option, *most* D2's with real leather have the elements and wiring. just no switches to actuate said heaters. you order the option and ta-da, dealer installs two switches and a facia for little cost and big margins. it's cheaper for LR to just build all the cars the same from the factory and leave proprietary parts out until later.

anyhoo, you probably do have rear fogs. as craig said, the amber lens on the rear lower light clusters on a D2 are the turn signals and the red lights are fogs. most cars tend to only have one rear fog light. mine is on the driver's side. i suspect that the wiring will tell us if there is provision for a rear fog light. take out the light board thingie (the plastic piece with printed metal strips on it that hold the light bulbs themselves) and see how many lights there are. there should be two. the outboard light would be the turn and the inboard fog. there should also be an extra wire running through the harness to power the fog light.

if you're ever in the tacoma area, bring your truck by and we can take a look. if things go wrong, i live close to a hospital ;)

a

Yep, he said that. He also said the switch that looks like a rear fog switch controls his front fog lamps. I'm guessing that the front fog switch broke and someone just moved the rear fog switch and popped in a blank where the rear fog switch used to be. -C

Ok, sorry for the delayed response. To clear some things up:

I just went and checked out the fog light switch. I ASSUMED the top switch controlled the front fog lights. Well, come to find out, the top switch actually does control the rear fog lights. So it's got the correct switch cover after all. I guess this means that I don't have a front fog light switch?

Craig - I do have a manual so I will take a look at it.

Andy - you are correct about the second from top switch. It is a blank with a wiring harness to it. You mind explaining how to use the 12V battery.

So would this mean that the second from top harness (connected to the blank) is actually for the front fogs? I'm definitely boggled.

Andy - I'm actually in Gig Harbor right now. This is where my parents live (and where I live when not in school or playing ball somewhere). I'm not here for much longer, but let me know when you are around in the next few days and maybe I could stop by to get this thing figured out, cause I really wanna get these things wired up before school starts Monday. Thanks again for the help guys!

David

It could be. I know I moved some switches around on my old Discovery when I wanted ARB switches at the top and the other switches at the bottom. It's a pin sometimes to move them around, but it looks like that's what the previous owner did.

Do you have front fog lights? do they come one?
Try hooking up that rear fog switch to in place of the blank plug below it. see if it turns on the front fogs.
If so, then get one of these two, I'm not sure which it is
https://www.roverparts.com/Parts/YUG102620G.cfm
https://www.roverparts.com/Parts/YUG000720PUYG.cfm

pwc

PS, thinking about it more....if the previous owner took out the front fogs, they'd most likely move that rear one up to the top to make it easier to hit.  Probably wouldn't want that other harness just sitting there so they plugged it into a blank.  that'd be my guess

So, the remaining questions are:

Can I use the wiring for the switch with the blank plate to control auxillary rear lamps?
No, you cannot because those wires go to the BCU.

What are the wires in my drivers side rear access panel?
I don't know, but I can try and take a look. I won't have time until next week at the earliest.

What is the easiest way to wire up the auxillary rear lamps?
Buy a cruise control binnacle switch (YUH100370) - $27
Buy an aux light binnacle switch (STC50098) $15
Buy a wiring kit from expedition exchange (or cobble your own together based on some of the advice tossed in above).
Buy a relay and some wire
Wire it all up yourself - use a multi-meter to find a hot wire (cheap at Radio Shack)