Some turd broke my glovebox rifling through the contents, and so I had to buy a new one. Got one on ebay for a bargain price. Installed today after a small modification (the box I had didn't have the airbag switch so I had to move that over, quite easy to do). Nearly lost the tiny springs in the lock barrel, but found them and got that in too.

While I had the glovebox out I found this strange connector, coming down off the main wiring loom behind the glovebox. It is actually red in colour (looks orange in the photos), quite close in location to a similar green connector.

I imagine it was at some point connected to something. However the connector is actually just loose rattling around, and the side which would be connected to something has been cut short, the two cables spliced into a bullet connector and covered in insulating tape (quality).

Strange thing is I can't work out what isn't working...! Everything seems OK.

Airbag?

Airbag?

I hope not...! I'd imagine something like an airbag would alarm if not connected?

My aircon works great and all the fan settings seem to do something, but car doesn't seem to heat up very quick... could that be it?

It does look like an airbag connector with a resistor plugged in to fool the ECU. It's been a while since I looked at them, but the colour matches as well (yellow).

Possibles

Glovebox illumination

Sat Nav/aux from radio

Taxi Meter residue wiring

Mobile Phone cradle wiring

IIRC, that is the connector for the brake lining/pad wear sender connector which is a red 2-pin connector. On one side the wires are black and brown. On the other the wires are brown/green and black.

The connector for the airbag is indeed yellow. IIRC, these are 3-pin connectors with the 3rd pin unconnected. On one side the airbag ignitor wires are green and white on one side - yellow and white on the other. No stripes.

IIRC, that is the connector for the brake lining/pad wear sender connector which is a red 2-pin connector. On one side the wires are black and brown. On the other the wires are brown/green and black.

The connector for the airbag is indeed yellow. IIRC, these are 3-pin connectors with the 3rd pin unconnected. On one side the airbag ignitor wires are green and white on one side - yellow and white on the other. No stripes.

Thanks for all the suggestions. It is definitely a modified piece of factory loom - aftermarket sorts fitting cab meters don't use that kind of quality connector etc.

Yes, this connector is red and 2pin, and the wire colours I seem to remember sound similar to what you mention. Do you know how that circuit works - is it one sender per wheel - ie I might find the others have been doctored too if I looked? As mentioned there was an identical green connector which seemed to join the loom in the same position - is that the other side's connector?

It looks like the wires are just shorted out in a bullet / splice connector - do you know if that is enough to fool that particular circuit? Or am I likely to see a fault for it if I got someone to look with vagcom?

Thanks for all the suggestions. It is definitely a modified piece of factory loom - aftermarket sorts fitting cab meters don't use that kind of quality connector etc.

Yes, this connector is red and 2pin, and the wire colours I seem to remember sound similar to what you mention. Do you know how that circuit works - is it one sender per wheel - ie I might find the others have been doctored too if I looked? As mentioned there was an identical green connector which seemed to join the loom in the same position - is that the other side's connector?

It looks like the wires are just shorted out in a bullet / splice connector - do you know if that is enough to fool that particular circuit? Or am I likely to see a fault for it if I got someone to look with vagcom?

IIRC, they are both red and are in series - the black wire runs between the connectors. You need to short out both connectors to completely disable the warning. In some cases I've seen just one shorted out, as some aftermarket pad sets come with only one pad having the wear indicator. In either case, there will be no problem with VCDS (new name for VagCom).