Hi, guys. Can anyone tell me what the little black box that sits just behind the right headlight is? It's about the size of a cigarette pack and has a red and yellow wire lead attached. There is also what looks to be a factory OBD connector attached at the bottom. This is all behind the inner fender wall but is visible from directly below . On my(98)B, the red and yellow lead has been disconnected, left hanging, and a short jumper wire installed basically shorting out what ever the unit is.any suggestions? PS, it's not the flight recorder, they are orange

Ah! Now that would be the government tracking device which is hidden in all cars so they know where you go and can record your conversation (plus whatever else you get up to) whilst you are in or near the car. Alternatively it might be the experimental g***le tracker which helps them target you with advertisements which you may be interested in and will not share any of your private data with anyone else, except those they choose to. Or it might be raining here and I can't get out and cut the grass so I'm bored sitting indoors and have a vivid imagination and don't really know the answer.
I'll leave it to you to decide...

Well Crachat , a good imagination is never a bad thing. After perusing numerous Fiat electrical schematics I have discovered it's true purpose in life.It is a device which ramps up the voltage to the cat to cause it's innards to heat up.It appears that catalytic converters need to operate at very high temps in order to burn off pollutants and other harmful emissions before they leave the tail pipe.We are talking 750 degrees plus.So it appears that the unit on my car has been wired to dump the voltage rather quickly instead of ramping it up according to spec and not setting of a code.

Sorry but this information is incorrect. Our beloved B does not have electric heaters or fuel afterburners to help the cat warm up sooner (btw such electric heater would need at least 2kW of energy from your alternator, which is far beyond its capabilities).

What you look at is a "catalytic silencer overheating sensor" that probably converts signal from cat-mounted thermocouple into something ECU can understand.
This will activate "CATALYTIC CONVERTER HOT" warning light in your dashboard. But you will never see this light

wapper said:

Sorry but this information is incorrect. Our beloved B does not have electric heaters or fuel afterburners to help the cat warm up sooner (btw such electric heater would need at least 2kW of energy from your alternator, which is far beyond its capabilities).

What you look at is a "catalytic silencer overheating sensor" that probably converts signal from cat-mounted thermocouple into something ECU can understand.
This will activate "CATALYTIC CONVERTER HOT" warning light in your dashboard. But you will never see this light

Click to expand...

eramosa.... :.)

Thanks for the info. I wondered about that description myself seeing that the box was marked 12v, and having no heat sink or heavy gauge wiring attached. So its just a heat sensor to activate a warning light.Now I just have to find out why its disconnected.Everything on the car is stock.