Technical mystery wire near steering column

Currently reading:
Technical mystery wire near steering column

blu73

The Force is strong with this one.
Staff member
Joined
Nov 5, 2004
Messages
19,032
Points
3,429
Location
Luke's Jedi Academy
OK so I got my mums mk2 sporting here - failed torque sensor in the PAS.

So actually stripping it down and getting the torque sensor out was pretty easy - just waiting for a replacement torque sensor to arrive from Italy now.

But whilst stripping I came across a mystery wire not connected to anything, the end is stripped exposing the copper wire like it should really be somewhere. I cannot find any plug that seems to be missing a wire anywhere.

The wire itself has a clear coating on it rather than a colour and it was just hanging around when i dropped the lower plastic column cowling off. It doesn't show on any of the wiring diagrams I can find - infact none of the wiring diagrams show a clear wire anywhere at all. My mum has had this car for many many years, she is the 2nd owner and it was practically brand new when she got it so pretty sure noone has been in there before.

Any ideas? I'll go grab a pic of said wire in a moment and post it.
 
right, on further inspection it does have black coating bit further up...

but this is the wire


this is where it goes into the loom, so that bit at top is the steering ecu, blue connector being big power cables, so they will be the pas motor power cables. the loom hanging down iirc is the ignition barrel wires


and that wire by my thumb, bit hard to see with it being next to black tape but that is the wire as far as I can tell and I can't really follow it further than that without taking way more stuff out the car


Checked all the connectors in the area and they all have as many wires in them as they have pins so am at a bit of a loss what it could be really and the haynes is really thin on the wiring diagram in this area, doesn't even show the pas motor on it... not very helpful.
 
well yes, totally was planning to put it back together and check everything still works and go from there - was just hoping someone might know what it is... When i first spotted it i thought maybe antenna for central locking or similar just seemed weird that the end is stripped like it is for it to not have been attached to something.

Really hoping this torque sensor i have ordered is right, I got one before i took it apart and its the same size, has the same yellow sheathing on the cable and the right number of wires and same connector - the spline inside are not the same and the hole itself is ever so slightly thinner so it won't fit in. Not of the adverts seem to have very good pics unless they are ones that look exactly same as the one i bought *sigh*

With it being such a common fault i really don't want to go get an unknown one from a scrap-yard - if that ends up being what i do though i can try find this wire lol.
 
it need calibrating once done but multiecuscan can do it, i have full version ;)

Considering how many people seem to have the problem I am surprised how few posts if any i could find about people changing it. Its actually really easy to get it out.. I might take pics as i put it back and do a little write up.

The torque sensor itself comes with a pin in it to hold it in the right place and it can only go in one way cause it has a tab that pokes out the side. Its really super simple job mechanically you just need to make sure the wheels are straight before you start and remember that the steering wheel only goes on one way so you have to have the splines in the right position before you reassemble everything as if you get that wrong the whole lot has to come off again to move it round.
 
Must admit this was something I had consigned to the not worth the bother bin. Interesting to see how it might unfold. Every day is a school day.
 

Yeah i saw that before i started... I've not had to take it that far apart at all to get it out. Perhaps its different cause this one is the yellow sheath one already...

And it has very little info on actually removing from the car etc. I won't go into details here though - I'll wait for the new sensor to arrive and get pics and make a post ;) Thats assuming its right this time lol.

incidently looking at the pics in that post the differences in the centre of the sensors are the same as my differences, but my original sensor is not a blue one its a yellow. You don't need to dismantle that whole unit to get the sensor out that just so you can lathe down the shaft, I have no access to a lathe though. Tbh if it doesn't fit this time i will prob just be off to the scrappies and grabbing that whole unit with the sensor in (prob more than 1 just incase) and swapping the whole bit over.
 
So little update. I ended up going to scrappies and getting a housing with the other shaft in it so the new sensor fit. All the puntos there had this random wire just hanging so must just be an aerial as we thought.
Car is back together and working.
I was kinda in a rush but tried to take pics. Think i have enought to write a quick guide. Will sort that out over next few days. Gotta go give car back tomorrow
 
Back
Top