Land Rover Repair: Mysterious Yellow wire unconnected behind dash of my 1996 Land Rover Discovery SE, land rover discovery, elgin illinois

Question
Hi John -

I appreciate your assistance here. . . My dash lights are out on my 1996 Discovery SE making driving at night time impossible. To find the root of the problem my first instinct after checking fuses was to remove the instrument cluster and check bulbs. I removed the fascia around the speedo cluster and lying on top of the cluster is a single yellow wire connected to nothing. No connector on the end, no terminal on the end, almost like a clean cut wire or a broken off wire. In tracking where this single yellow wire comes from I found it to be in a bundle of wires taped neatly on or by the left or drivers side of the speedo cluster. In fact most of these wires plug in on the left side of the cluster. The wire is solid yellow. It is slightly thicker than those around it but not by much.  The wire looks long enough to go to something on switch bank on the right side of the cluster where the radio controls etc are or one of the plugs over on the right side of the cluster but there is no evidence of there being anything missing. . I hope this is specific enough. . . Please advise! Sincerely - Chris Walsh, Elgin, Illinois  

Answer
Hi Christopher,

it's possible that this wire is not needed for NAS Disco's.  I doubt it has anything to do with your dash lights not working.

Strange as it sounds, I've found that brake lights can often cause my dash lights to stop working.  Check to make sure ALL exterior lights are operating.  If there is a short or blow bulb, it can affect your dash.  It does not have to be a dash light.

As for the single yellow wire, you could use a multimeter and determine if it is live.

Best of luck,

JohnMc