The last week I had got ready to solder the replacement wires/plug for the factory front amp as a previous owner/stereo shop unplugged it, then cut about 4" of wire and the plug off it. As I was getting ready I noticed that there were some melted looking wires, and thought well I am here so I may as well replace the melted parts. Well I opened the passenger side under dash area, and removed glove box so I could see exactly what I was working with. That was the beginning of the massive nightmare of what I found going on with the wiring, both passenger and drivers side. As I dove into the mickey moused(nicest way I can put it) wiring that a previous owner had done, and making a list and what not of what needs to be repaired/replaced I noticed some very let's say creative wiring. The pictures will show what I mean, and now we are to the problem of where I could use some assistance if possible. In order to get the correct gauge of wire and whatnot I am needing to know what gauge I actually need. I attempted to gauge the wires using a old pair of crimper/stripers and got what I believe is the correct gauges, but figured I would check with you all to see if perhaps someone might have a better idea/know the gauges. I had contacted LR direct and unfortunately the guy told me that they don't have that sort of information, and to check forums. Well I did do a rather extensive search before deciding to make this post, but couldn't really find anything other than battery cable gauge, and that sort of thing. I have attempted to make the pictures smaller as while my phone can take some fairly detailed pictures, they are usually also fairly large. Anyway thank you for reading.

Gauge Estimations - Blue arrow - Brown/purple stripe - 14awg / Green arrow - White/pink stripe - 14awg / Red arrow - melted(Purple/brown stripe) - 16awg / Yellow arrow - White/red stripe - 18awg / Orange(or brown?) arrow - Brown/purple stripe - Either 12awg, or 10awg / Purple arrow - Brown/pink stripe - 14awg / Light green arrow - Purple/grey stripe - 16 awg.


Ignore cut wire, did that while attempting to determine wire gauge, and am going to be doing a little soldering, so another wire won't hurt.

Not sure what this one goes to, optional something perhaps?

The two melted wires from first image go all the way back to bout the center of dash.. also in upper picture may notice the empty space. Well that is where the window lift ecu should be.

Window wiring, like this on drivers side also. Linked together by creative wiring


More creative wiring, someone thought it was a great idea to jump the window wiring to each other with the large orange and black wires. Then tap into the ignition wire with a fuse holder(large yellow wire) and ground it to the frame of the center console mounts.

Nah there is no reason all those windows should be on separate fuses. Let's join em all together on one 10amp fuse.

Just to show the scale/amount of wire they used while doing this botch job. Ignore small red wire with red tape. Was for a previous mickey mouse wiring that I removed, and later removed the wire.

 

was that Discovery in a fire ? If not, that was a lot of over loaded circuit and wiring. Nightmare to say the least. All I could say is use closet gauge and type (stranded, solid,etc.) For sure do not use much bigger gauge and too much smaller either. The smaller could act like a fuse and blow out. There are connectors that you can use that shrink wrap and connect all in one. You could use a lighter to use them but a heat gun is much better. They are called Solder Seal Wire Connectors. I get them at Amaz0n.

 

Not that I am aware of. When I got it I had noticed the fuse satellite being melted like that, and was baffled. After going to replace the cheap cd player with a good one I had I noticed a lot of creative wiring just to get power to the stereo. Mostly a lot of those little things(don't remember name) that you put two pieces of wire in, and it has a little latch and piece of metal to join the wires without cutting/stripping. Also noticed a lot of wires that had been tapped that way but were then taped up, probably because they weren't the wires they needed. So my only guess is that someone either tried to tap into the rear window fuse for stereo, and it cooked, or someone tried to bypass the window lift ecu and it cooked a bunch of wires. I do have a actual wire gauge on order so I may just wait to be safe as it should be here mid next week. Luckily I did find a place online that sells wire in 5' min sections where I can get the exact same colors as the ones in the car. I think the hardest part will probably be trying to lap solder the wires for the amp as whatever nitwit cut it, did so far enough back where I may have to slightly pull it out of loom to access. Thank you for the suggestion on the connectors, I believe I have some up in my shop..somewhere. As it is semi organized chaos currently :P. Luckily though as far as I know that is the extent of the creative(to be nice) wiring, or at least that I have found. None under the hood, and none under the vehicle that I have seen in my various trips under it repairing stuff.

 

So just a small little update, the wire gauge got here today so went up and measured the wires. Figured I would post the gauges just in case someone else ran into this issue. Hopefully no one ever does for the same reasons though :P. Will update again probably a few days to a week from now, after I order the wires, and it arrives. Hope you all have a good one

Drivers Side - Fuse Satellite #2
White with red stripe - 16awg / Melted(Purple with brown stripe) - 14awg / Purple with grey stripe - 14awg / Brown with pink/purple/red stripe - 12awg / Brown with purple stripe(x2) - 10awg

Passengers side - Window Lift ECU
White with pink stripe - 12awg / Brown with purple stripe - 12awg.

 

Well small yet huge amount of swearing update. Ended up not being able to find any wires that could come close to what colors I was wanting to find (somewhat similar to stock) so ended up ordering a whole harness off ebay. Wasn't what I thought too much as it was round $395(usd) for pretty much the whole wiring loom from headlights to under dash and center console(shifter/window switches), plus came with window switches, multi function relay, SRS box(metal looking), and some other parts which I can't remember lol. Yesterday got it all untangled and checked the wiring and it was all good. Today went up to measure wires as the original plan was to use the ordered harness as parts, and cut and solder what I needed, and yes I know cut harness bad, but honestly didn't want to pull whole dash to just replace a couple plugs and wiring. Well now to the swearing, found firstly that the partly melted wires on passenger side went behind the heating and ventilation unit, but just barely so only minor swearing. Then I looked at drivers side to see how that was, well found something that well what I said would make a sailor blush. The small red/whit stripe wire going behind the heating unit was slightly cooked, but enough I could fix, but then noticed bare wire running all the way behind the unit.

So what turned out to be a well I will just fix these cooked/melted wires as they don't go too far back has now turned into a well I am pulling the whole dash so may as well replace the loom rather than cutting it, well maybe. The maybe is if the numbers off the loom will match up/are compatible with mine as I know from looking there are several different part numbers for the looms, but sadly don't know if there is any real difference other than power seat stuff, or variations on the stereo manufacturer that originally came in the car. So it may be a while before I update again, but will do so as I am able, and take pictures along the way to show how bad it was, and what not. Hope you all have a better day than mine has been so far :P, and as always any suggestions, or tips are appreciated, as I have never pulled a dash with SRS so this will be a new one :P

 

Its always the 5 speeds that are hacked up! Mine has/had some terrible hacks

 

good luck on all that

 

Now that I think about it, the 95 other than having a broken distributor cap hold down clip only has one thing that is out of place. A toggle switch on the center console(between seats), and no clue what it does, but then again I haven't pulled the console to check either. As throwing the switch did nothing when it was running. Though hasn't just been wiring, have also had to deal with a bunch of well to be honest brute force removal of trim pieces. The center console(dash) facia was yanked out after the lower screws were removed which broke the mounts behind the clock and ashtray, and two of the screws for the heater controls, along with various other things like rear pockets/etc.

Thanks, I am hoping I won't need it though, and will only find some damaged wires behind it and not any other big surprises. That being said though, not holding my breath on no more surprises either :P

 

So this one is kinda a retroactive update, as it's what happened over the last couple weeks, and I just was exhausted, and forgot to update :P. Ran into some more little wires that had been cut or spliced in main loom, but luckily they were easy little fixes. . Note that some repairs have tape on them, that is down to they were not the easiest to lap solder, and figured just in case will put this tape over the shrink. Still have one left to do and that will be fun, fixing the mess that is the master window control assembly/switches. Will break the images up into 2 posts as there are quite a few pictures, and honestly wanted to show the progress as I have been getting to and fixing the mess that was/is the wiring. I hope it is ok to do this, if not let me know and will correct it.








The one wire that started all of this, from fuse satellite 2(melted bare wire) to the window lift ecu, and and ended up taking a couple other wires with it :S

 

Here is the repairs well all but the master window switches/control assembly

Satellite 2 wiring repaired

Another picture of satellite 2 repair. Figured would show a second view, also added tape over shrink because I forgot to trim down and solder joint had a poking out part, but not pushing through shrink.

White with pink stripe wire from the window lift ecu. Had found in spots it had almost melted through all the way to drivers side of the hump. Not sure if that was because of the scorched wire(melted to bare) or not.

This was just a small black wire that I found cut, tape added on top of shrink for same reason as satellite 2 #2 picture.

This was a splice, they had cut the indicated wire, and on the right side added a red wire in a lug crimp, and on the plug side(left) they just took the wire, fed it through the bolt/screw hole in the crimp and taped it.

Amp/speaker wiring repaired, one of main reasons I was fixing wiring, and found the other wire damage, so glad I was doing it, but not at the same time :P

This and next picture are window wiring from doors into driver(this pic) and passenger side(next) area. Also where they had run wires to basically wire front left, and right, and rear left windows together :S