I know I tapped into my cigarette lighter to power my glow shift gauge. SO far nothing bad has happened. I don't use the cigarette lighter though. So I am really only using un used power.

 

No, you have not tapped into un-used power, you have simply found a hot lead to draw from. Your equipment is protected by whatever fuse supplys the lighter, and this could be a lot more amps than your gear draws. While this won't change the performance of your gear, if the new stuff decided to turn to toast, it might burn up BEFORE it drew enough amps to blow the fuse.

Fuses come in lots of sizes for safety reasons. Otherwise they would all be 100 amp.

There are many cars, trucks, boats, ATVs that are burned up because someone attached extra wiring where it was not engineered to go.

You can improve your situation by adding a small in-line fuse holder on the lead gowing toward the Glowswitch. With a small fuse.

 

So I should find a different wire to use? Or how would I run a ignition based dedicated hot wire??? I could fuse it. I think that would be easy. Thoughts?
Thank you so much for helping me not SCREW UP my electrical system!!

 

You can fuse it.

 

Hey Buzz,
While recently replacing a rear right side tail light I noticed this.
Back side wall. Left side of rover. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
From far away | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Not sure .. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Same plug | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
It's the same thing that is up front under the passenger side of the dash. Now that there is two I wonder how many more??

 

You bring up an interesting point. Land Rover only used one generic wire loom that included all connectors and wiring for all possible accessories whether or not that particular vehicle had those options. Thjat way all vehicles got the same harness. If the vehicle did not include that item, the connectors were just there unused.

When I pulled my headliner, the wiring for the rear air was there even though mine does not have rear air. I have not seen the items in mine that your pics show. Do not know what is up with that.

 

That is so weird... I am going to "open" up that plug and see if I have power back there when I turn certain things on or off. EX: Power with/ without a/c on and heater on, or just fan. Then when the recirculation flap is open, closed.. Same with lights ect.. Everything I can possibly think of thats electrical. I wonder if, A) my rover got re wired at some point. Or B) Your rover got re wired at some point.

 

Maybe there is a difference between the 95 MY and the 97 MY.

Raise your hood and look at the area in front of the windshield but behind the engine bay. Are there two unused connectors there? Those are for the heated windshield option.

 

No!! They are not there! Take a picture of yours so I can confirm this.

 

I found the answer in the rave. It took some time but here it is.
The front one shows up on page K1-4 of the Electrical Troubleshooting Manual (part of Rave). It is called Air Recirculation Solenoid In-Line Fuse.

A picture shows up on page Z5-34 (Bottom right)

The rear one shows up on Page K1-8 and is called Rear A/C Switch Amplifier In-Line Fuse.

A picture shows up on page Z5-43 (top left).