Help Identifying Mysterious Wire - Suspect Compressor Activation Wire

[ylwjacket]

Last week, something happened in the engine bay, but the result was a broken serpentine belt, frozen tensioner, broken pulley, and blown up radiator.

Not sure of the original failure, but anyways, it's been a fun week dealing with it.

When it happened, it was towed to Pep Boys (only thing nearby where it happened). The guys there did everything but the radiator. The guy also told me he got the old belt out of the other pulleys, etc.

I replaced the radiator tonight, and noticed not all of the old belt was out. As I was looking at and removing some more of it, I also noticed a broken wire on the front of what I believe is the a/c compressor. It is clipped down in the top, and connects on the front into a yellowish plastic thing right behind the belt.

I don't know if Pep Boys did it, I did it (don't think it was me), or it got whacked in the "event". Now, I am trying to figure a few things out:

- what exactly is this wire
- does it require replacement of the compressor, or is there a way to replace just the wire
- will a splice work, at least for awhile, until I recover financially from the $2.5k I've dumped into this car in the past couple of months.

I've attached a few pics so you can see the 2 ends of the wire, and a piece of belt yet to be removed.

Thanks much.