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What the hell is all this wiring? And this big black box?

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 4:47 pm
by douglas vincent
So I was taking the condenser out of the dash in my quest to hit 2800 lbs when a black computer/data box about the size of two cigarette boxes falls out attached to a heavy duty computer cable. I am stumped and start to pull on the cable only to find there is more cable all rolled up and taped together. If I were to untape it would be about 12 feet of cable. I keep pulling and it goes under the door plastic, under the carpet and end up at under the passenger seat. Under the passenger seat is what I thought was the car computer (what do I know? I have never seen the computer and have no clue what one looks like).

The box is about the size of a small laptop and totally clips into a professionally installed metal plate. It is black and shiny and has NEC on it. At this stage I know it is not the car computer. So i start following more cable coming out of the box. One heads up to where an old car antenna was mounted on the windshield. I now have figured out that this thing is some old Cell Phone booster or what not. The black box I found behind the dash was an old school cell phone plug in but real heavy duty and INCLUDED an ethernet connection plug in! Once everything was out I must have pulled 5 lbs of wire, cable and boosters out of the car. The thing must have cost a fortune in the day but now is just junk.

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 4:49 pm
by THAWA
I was going to suggest ABS control but I guess not :)

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 5:01 pm
by vrg3
Yeah, my dad got a car phone (as they were called back then) installed in our Mercedes about 15 years ago... When I got the car it took me forever to tear all the wiring and control boxes and whatnot out of the car.

I doubt it was actually an ethernet connection... It may have been something else using an RJ-45 physical connector.

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 5:06 pm
by DLC
Awesome.

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 8:05 pm
by Legacy777
btw....the exchanger behind the glovebox is the evaporator, not condensor ;)

also....here's a pic of the ecu if you want to see
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... cuhide.jpg