Thread: Anyone know what this is?

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but I understood all yellow stuff was to do with Air Bag components & if that is the case you should find other Yellow cables & conduits in front.

Air Bags were an option for my '95 D1 & I never had them so I can't really confirm the above opinion.

Bugger, I just re-read that. Black you said? No idea, but I seem to recall there are Headlamp "level" (?) detectors which are 2 wire in that area.

Originally Posted by TrickyChip

This black insulated blue connector is neatly tucked away and goes back through the firewall on the drivers side on my '95 V8 ES. Anyone any idea what it's supposed to be connected to?!

Thanks all!
BlueConnector.jpg

Not 100% sure, but I've tried to track it down via RAVE.
If you don't have a copy (yet), highly recommended to get yourself one.

Anyhow, in RAVE, this one is(or may be) a bit of a mystery.
The only connector in the face view section that looks remotely like this plug is one marked C179.
It's not in the index(this C179) as it both does and doesn't exist.

I assume that when you use the term black insulated, you refer to the black sheath?
If so, if you can pill it back a little and confirm the colour of the two wires.
1 Yellow/Red and 1 black(earth).
If those wire colours are correct then you have a water valve connector.
As you have presented the image, the pin on the left, just near the small plug notch should be black(earth), and the pin on the right should be the yellow/red wire.

In the location view section in RAVE, this plug is connected to the water valve(whatever this thing is) which is bolted to the firewall, directly behind the the auto box fill/level tube(in a straight line from the front of the vehicle) .. ie. between motor and master cyl/brake booster.
Note tho that the location is just a guess, as the image they present in RAVE for the V8 is for LHD vehicles(so in the image it's actually between engine and windscreen washer bottle) brake booster is on the LHS on LHD models.

In RAVE it's marked as "Early Production".
From that, I guess we can assume that they originally had some electrically controlled water flow system for the HVAC using this plug, and at some point they changed the heating control system, but left the harness as is.
They probably had a set number of harness made up, and even tho they made changes to other systems, the harnesses were still relevant to the vehicle.

If the above is correct, and you don't have the water valve device, then it's one of those anomalies you would ignore(and maybe mark the plug .. in some way for future reference)

ps. from what I'm understanding in RAVEs diagram, the yellow wire is made active(gets power) when the two temp control dials(on your heater controls) are set to maximum cold.
Again going off RAVE, this plug(it's wires) arent' directly connected, there are two other pugs and wire connections before it comes to this wire plug, so if you get no power to it when temp controls are set to max cold, then it'd make sense.
While it makes sense(from Landrovers point of view) to use a redundant wiring loom made after an alteration was made to the vehicles operation, it would make no sense to actually connect up the non operational section .. so more than likely the intermediate connections from the heater controls via the grey wires won't exist.
Last thing you'd want are live exposed wire when the heater controls are set to max cold! .. so unlikely it has power at any time(but I'd check anyhow).

Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by 4bee

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but I understood all yellow stuff was to do with Air Bag components & if that is the case you should find other Yellow cables & conduits in front.

Air Bags were an option for my '95 D1 & I never had them so I can't really confirm the above opinion.

Bugger, I just re-read that. Black you said? No idea, but I seem to recall there are Headlamp "level" (?) detectors which are 2 wire in that area.

Thanks for your reply, sorry about the picture I can see how it would look like air bags! I didn't think Disco 1 had auto levellers but I'll look into it

Originally Posted by AK83

Not 100% sure, but I've tried to track it down via RAVE.
If you don't have a copy (yet), highly recommended to get yourself one.

Anyhow, in RAVE, this one is(or may be) a bit of a mystery.
The only connector in the face view section that looks remotely like this plug is one marked C179.
It's not in the index(this C179) as it both does and doesn't exist.

I assume that when you use the term black insulated, you refer to the black sheath?
If so, if you can pill it back a little and confirm the colour of the two wires.
1 Yellow/Red and 1 black(earth).
If those wire colours are correct then you have a water valve connector.
As you have presented the image, the pin on the left, just near the small plug notch should be black(earth), and the pin on the right should be the yellow/red wire.

In the location view section in RAVE, this plug is connected to the water valve(whatever this thing is) which is bolted to the firewall, directly behind the the auto box fill/level tube(in a straight line from the front of the vehicle) .. ie. between motor and master cyl/brake booster.
Note tho that the location is just a guess, as the image they present in RAVE for the V8 is for LHD vehicles(so in the image it's actually between engine and windscreen washer bottle) brake booster is on the LHS on LHD models.

In RAVE it's marked as "Early Production".
From that, I guess we can assume that they originally had some electrically controlled water flow system for the HVAC using this plug, and at some point they changed the heating control system, but left the harness as is.
They probably had a set number of harness made up, and even tho they made changes to other systems, the harnesses were still relevant to the vehicle.

If the above is correct, and you don't have the water valve device, then it's one of those anomalies you would ignore(and maybe mark the plug .. in some way for future reference)

ps. from what I'm understanding in RAVEs diagram, the yellow wire is made active(gets power) when the two temp control dials(on your heater controls) are set to maximum cold.
Again going off RAVE, this plug(it's wires) arent' directly connected, there are two other pugs and wire connections before it comes to this wire plug, so if you get no power to it when temp controls are set to max cold, then it'd make sense.
While it makes sense(from Landrovers point of view) to use a redundant wiring loom made after an alteration was made to the vehicles operation, it would make no sense to actually connect up the non operational section .. so more than likely the intermediate connections from the heater controls via the grey wires won't exist.
Last thing you'd want are live exposed wire when the heater controls are set to max cold! .. so unlikely it has power at any time(but I'd check anyhow).

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your detailed reply Arthur, I will get a copy of RAVE is it available through AULRO? I'll check the wire colours and if they are live at cold heater setting tomorrow. I understand what your saying but wouldn't it be odd for a car manufacturer to maintain obsolete wiring? I would have thought it would be more cost effective to cease production of obsolete wiring? Maybe not, just a thought!

Originally Posted by TrickyChip

Thanks for your reply, sorry about the picture I can see how it would look like air bags! I didn't think Disco 1 had auto levellers but I'll look into it

Adjustable (3 position IIRC) headlights were fitted to D1s although I believe it was not an option here in Aus. I have a private import 96 model that has them.

One web site suggested for a Heated Windscreen. Another... Levellers.

The plot thickens.

Originally Posted by TrickyChip

.... I understand what your saying but wouldn't it be odd for a car manufacturer to maintain obsolete wiring? I would have thought it would be more cost effective to cease production of obsolete wiring? Maybe not, just a thought!

I was thinking more along the lines that:
Say LR expected to produce 100 vehicles in a given month or 6 months or whatever, they put an order for the company that makes the wiring loom .. 100 units for D1 .. etc, etc.
Company makes them, and in the time that they makes these looms(100 of them), LR decided that some small subsystem is either a potential problem, or redundant .. either eliminate potential issues or saves them money.
But they still have committed to those 100 wiring looms.

You see this regularly in that they make a specific loom type, with redundant sections that just aren't connected.
As an example: on the D2, many(all that I've seen so far) have a connector for a heated windscreen, but they don't necessarily have the windscreen that has the actual heated element, and the fuse/relay simply isn't installed where the connector traces back too, so the connector isn't live.
So even tho you don't have a heated screen in a D2, if you install a screen with a heated element(big bucks I think) .. you also add the relay and fuse(s) .. and you have a heated screen, where you originally didn't.

etc. etc.