OK here is a quick easy and very cheap modification you can do on your Land Rover Discovery. L.E.D interior lighting. now if you own a Discovery like me then you are probably aware of it’s pretty dim overhead interior lights.

So here is how I solved that problem for less than £10!

I replaced the original festoon bulbs with direct replacement LED’s from Ebay.

these ones for the front two. click here

And this one for the back click here

I went for the more powerful one on the back as I wanted to really light the boot space well.

Ok here are some pics so you can see what I’m talking about.

This photo shows the two LED replacement bulbs, the smaller one is for the front and passenger lights and the larger one is for the boot light. You can see the smaller one is a direct replacement for the original festoon bulb the larger one has a sticky back so you can stick it in place with a cable extension to a festoon adapter.

The bottom image shows the two LED’s with the original festoon bulb and I also put my fingers in to give you an idea of scale.

Only tool needed is a small flat head driver to help pop open the plastic covers. Here you can see me doing the rear seat compartment.

Simply pull out the old bulb and replace with the new.

One minor problem though, the rear passenger light seems to have a slightly tighter gap between the connections, which means it wont sit properly. I found the it hold it good enough to make a connection though so no probs really. you can see from the photo below how it looks when it seats.

OK quick test to see it’s the right way round and BINGO!! we have light!

Now onto the boot light.

Again a super simple procedure. Just insert the festoon adapter, check its the correct way round ( you wont do any damage if it’s not) pull off the sticky back and stick the light panel to something within the housing. ( I used one of the nuts that hold the unit in place).

And that is it. 5 minutes of your time and your done.

Here is a quick before and after so you can see the difference. The camera exposure settings are identical so you can judge accurately how much brighter they are.

BEFORE

AFTER

Pretty cool eh?

So what do you think? worth wile modification?

I have been wanting one of these for ages and decided to bite the bullet. The Land Rover Discovery series 2 comes with a standard tow ball which is great if you tow trailers and caravans. I don’t do either. What I do want is a super strong recovery point. A lot of people think it is OK to use the two eyelets which attach to the tow bar fixings. They are not recovery points!! They are lashing points to secure the vehicle in transit. I’m sure they would be OK to tow a car along the road with but anything more taxing and your asking for trouble.

I also know a lot of people wrap a tow rope around the standard tow ball. This is really dangerous as it is not un common for the tow ball to snap when under heavy strain. You really wouldn’t want to be in the path of that thing when it’s coming at you at speed!

So One cheap and easy way to gain a really strong and secure recovery point is with a tow jaw like the one I have just purchased. A solid proven bit of kit For heavy duty recovery and all for under £40! bargain.

It is a really easy conversion too.

Top pic shows original tow ball that is going to be removed. It is simply two nuts and bolts that need loosened. So to make it a little easier I sprayed them with WD40 about an hour before I started the job.

Now you can see the tow ball removed.

Next you simply offer up the new tow jaw and using the same nuts, bolts and spacer you just tighten them up to 220 N·m using a torque wrench.

And that is it fitted Simples.

What I have found though is my heavy duty tow strap Is to big to fit straight on. It is supposed to be a quick fit shackle but the tow jaw is to wide to allow it to quickly fit around it. As you can see in the first picture.

No problem though, it just means using it as a normal shackle, so pull the heavy duty cir-clip out (pic 2 and 3)

An simply remove the jaw pin like in the photos below. ( more WD40 helps here).

Finally place the straps “shackle” within the jaw, replace the pin and re insert the cir-clip.

And there you have it safe strong and effective all for £40!

What do you reckon? have you got a better way to do this on a disco 2? If so let me know.