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Help with basic wire identification

maxitoman007

Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2017
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Car is a 1987 Volvo 740 Turbo wagon. Was looking in the engine bay and spotted a wire with an eyelet on the end that wasn't connected to anything. Car still ran fine surprisingly but I was wondering where this wire should go. I found it close to the battery so I tried attaching it to the positive terminology al of the battery but that just cause the battery to drain rapidly. The wire is surrounded in black corrugated plastic and runs along the bottom of the car along the driver's side all the way to the rear behind the back left wheel where it goes back into the body. Anybody know what this wire is for/ where it needs to go? Any help is appreciated, thanks.
 
Find out where it goes once it gets inside the body. Does the car have a tow hitch?. It doesn't sound like a factory/stock wire.
 
I thought wiring for tow hitches was spliced in at the rear, into the wiring there,and does not need a hot power source other than that?

If so, it isn't tow hitch related.

Maybe it was used to power an aftermarket laser disrupter device which a PO had mounted on the rear and has since removed?
 
I honestly don't know. Maybe the car has an aftermarket sound system? I think I would notice a sub though. I'll try to send some pics later. I cut into the corrugated plastic and found that the wire is black. There are no black wires going to the battery on the wiring diagrams I've looked at, so that just adds to the confusion.
 
Yeah, if that wire isn't fused at the battery, I would be very sure I knew where it goes before I connected it again.
 
I found it close to the battery so I tried attaching it to the positive terminology of the battery but that just cause the battery to drain rapidly..

lol I wouldn't do that again. the corrugated plastic is called split loom, and running a wire outside of the vehicles body is pretty amateurish. it is most definitely the leftovers of some questionable aftermarket installation probably audio.
 
It may have gone to a brake controller. If they used to tow with it and the trailer had electric brakes then the controller gets power all the time.
 
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