I am doing an “engine out” engine bay restoration on my ‘88 XJS V12 and when I removed the left hand wiring harness I found this wire tucked away in a hole seemingly connected to nothing. Can anyone help me identify what this is for?

 

This is just an educated guess. Those wire colours lok like those associated with the washer pumps. Is your car a right hand drive model, as I cannot see the brake stuff in your photo?
If it is, then older RHD models than yours used to have the windscreen washer bottle and associated washer pumps in the location you show. Later models, have the washer reservoir in the front wing behind the wheelarch baffle.
So two possibilities:
If your washer bottle should be in the location in your photo, then this is the pump loom; or
If your washer bottle is in the new location and works, then knowing Jaguar, they might have just disabled this old part of the loom and tucked it out of the way!
I am pretty sure that normally, that hole in the wing carries the flexible line to the overflow bottle, located behind the wheelarch baffle. If not that, then a big bit of loom that goes to a bulkhead multiplug the other side of which goes into the cabin.

 

Do you have headlight washers? I deleted mine and tucked the harness for the 2nd pump in about the same spot.

upon 2nd look. My car is LHD, that wire and the pump are on pass(RH) side.

 

It connects to the appendix

 

It’s left hand drive and no headlight washers.

 

When dismantling the fenders during the restoration of my car, I saw that on both sides under them there are cable harnesses and terminals. In addition, on one side, I don't remember which one has a vacuum tank and on the other a fluid tank. Maybe this cable goes there. I will upload a photo of a disassembled donor, hopefully it helps

 

I have this wire on my 1986 lhd v12, i have no idea where it goes.

 

As mentioned above, those wires exiting from the blue relay-like thingy (actually a special diode block) control the headlight washers, if fitted, and also the electric fan post-shutdown runon.
Where they connect to on a LHD car, where the washer bottle is on the RHS, I do not know. It would be worth tracing the wiring from the washer bottle, maybe there is a bit of loom connecting it to the LHS?

 

Not to derail this thread, but there is another one of these blue relays at the front.

 

Rebuilding the wiring harness is on the menu so I will attempt to figure out/confirm what these wires are for. Most likely, like Greg mentioned, they are for the headlight washers which my car does not have.

Thanks everyone!

…Dean

 

Just a thought.... Jag usually had one wiring harness for all the cars. This includes wires for other lighting options like the European side turn/indicator lights fixed about where the US side marker light fits.
quick google images of a 1988 XJS will show this. Maybe thats the wires function