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Wires Everywhere Please Help.


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#1 Mixagon

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Posted 31 July 2025 - 04:16 PM

I don't know where to start, look what I found tucked away behind the air cleaner (a snakes wedding) All the connectors with a red dot in front of them are live all the time even with the ignition off so not good. If I take the fuses out different things don't work one knocks the ignition off and another the turn signals etc.

All I know from previous owner is the immobiliser is not wired in so doesn't work. 

There are lots of similar wires/plugs behind the grill and some near the brake servo  which I guess was for extra lights in the past but they can wait.

Any advice about the wires in the pictures or any idea what they are for or what to do is greatly appreciated.

20250731-143753.jpg

20250731-143640.jpg

 



#2 GraemeC

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Posted 31 July 2025 - 06:52 PM

Well that's bodge city!

 

It looks like someone has tried to remove teh prvious inline fuse holders with blade fuse holder that have pre-made tails on them.  They've then used the yellow crimps to join them back onto the existing wires (presumably they didn't have any splice crimps big enough for the orange cable).

Needless to say the fuses are way over-rated for the original wiring, which would fry long before the fuse would blo if there was a short.

 

The two black and white ones to the far left should connect to the brake master cylinder lid for the low fluid warning curcuit.  I suspect the spade connectors on the lid have snapped off though.



#3 Steam

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 12:54 AM

There is no logical way to fix other than to remove any wires that do not actually go anywhere. Most of them seem to be redundant.
You just gotta love POBs (previous owner bodges)

#4 NLinPEN

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 05:32 AM

Wow, that's an impressive mess. It looks like that a previous owner added pigtails with inline fuses and covered it all up in electrical tape. Needless to say that those yellow connectors, and those inline fuses, are not original.

My approach would be to trace back each individual pigtail and see what wire it connects to. Hopefully it would connect to an original wire, having the correct color coding. And then compare this to the wiring diagram, to determine the purpose of the wire.



#5 Mixagon

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 06:25 AM

Well that's bodge city!

 

It looks like someone has tried to remove teh prvious inline fuse holders with blade fuse holder that have pre-made tails on them.  They've then used the yellow crimps to join them back onto the existing wires (presumably they didn't have any splice crimps big enough for the orange cable).

Needless to say the fuses are way over-rated for the original wiring, which would fry long before the fuse would blo if there was a short.

 

The two black and white ones to the far left should connect to the brake master cylinder lid for the low fluid warning curcuit.  I suspect the spade connectors on the lid have snapped off though.

A big thanks for the info I'll change back to inline fuses with correct ratings and do a much neater job than the previous owner. I was wondering why the brake lid only had one spade ? I'll take a closer look and sort that later. I suspect there are more bodges to find.



#6 Mixagon

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 06:31 AM

There is no logical way to fix other than to remove any wires that do not actually go anywhere. Most of them seem to be redundant.
You just gotta love POBs (previous owner bodges)

Only had the car 5 weeks and been sorting mechanical faults first because the previous owner said he used to be an auto electrician I assumed the electrics would all be ok, I suspect more bodges are waiting to be found.



#7 MikeRotherham

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 06:32 AM

 

Well that's bodge city!

 

It looks like someone has tried to remove teh prvious inline fuse holders with blade fuse holder that have pre-made tails on them.  They've then used the yellow crimps to join them back onto the existing wires (presumably they didn't have any splice crimps big enough for the orange cable).

Needless to say the fuses are way over-rated for the original wiring, which would fry long before the fuse would blo if there was a short.

 

The two black and white ones to the far left should connect to the brake master cylinder lid for the low fluid warning curcuit.  I suspect the spade connectors on the lid have snapped off though.

A big thanks for the info I'll change back to inline fuses with correct ratings and do a much neater job than the previous owner. I was wondering why the brake lid only had one spade ? I'll take a closer look and sort that later. I suspect there are more bodges to find.

 

The brake reservoir caps are still available from Minispares so should be an easy fix for a cost.



#8 stuart bowes

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 08:36 AM

I wonder why he stopped being an auto electrician



#9 Steam

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 09:16 AM

I wonder why he stopped being an auto electrician


I wonder why he started!!

#10 Aridgerunner

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 10:14 AM

I wonder how many times he was sacked?

#11 Ethel

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Posted 01 August 2025 - 12:22 PM

I agree it looks like the wires have been doubled back on themselves & there's nothing missing on the empty side of the crimps.

 

The best place to start would be to identify the circuits and find out what the fuse ratings should be. Noting that the original glass fuses are rated differently. They'll typically be about twice the equivalent blade - blades show continuous current, the glass Lucas fuses show how many amps make them blow (sometimes the continuous is printed on the paper too).

 

It may be you can stick with blades, if you prefer, but there isn't always an equivalent and it looks like the original Lucas fusebox in the background, so you'd still have the challenge of finding spares. Fuse holders without tails are available if you can get the original wire ends close enough.






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