Hey everyone. I'm new to this forum. My name is Tony. I purchased a 1996 Nissan Maxima SE 5 speed a few months ago.

I noticed this extra wire below my shifter bezel right next to the Cig plug. Can anyone help me identify it and what it is for? It is the wire with the white tip

 

it's for the light inside the ash tray, i believe. it's been years since I pulled my dash apart. I believe if you pull the ashtray out, you'll see they harness to plug that into.

 

I thought that too, But there is already a plug going into the ash try.

 

hmm....you're gonna make me go pull me shifter trim off now

 

I just looked at mine. I only have two plugs there. The cig lighter plug, with an orange and a black wire. Then a white plug with a red and black wire for the ash tray. they are bundled seperately. It looks like yours is bundled with the cig lighter wires. My car doesn't have that. Mines an auto. Maybe it's a 5sp thing?

 

Dude, that's the cig lighter plug.

edit: woops, saw that you said it was the white plug. I'm gonna agree tha it looks like the ashtray light.

 

I just went to the car and double checked again. I have a plug on the already going into the ash tray and ash tray does have light. Unless the ash try has another plug going into it?! I don't know!

 

no, the ash tray is in it's own group of wires. see my post above. I'd check with someone that has a 5sp.

 

I'm hoping it could be a wire for my Automatic Climate Control Illumination, But it's too far to even reach the unit. My Climate control Illumination is totally out.

 

doubt that...i have auto climate and i don't have that plug

 

Thanks for the advice guys, Hopefully someone will know this! And Erty67, thanks for actually going to the car and checking. Makes me feel welcomed to this forum already.

 

no problem. hope you figure it out.

 

There is blue tape wrapped round the bottom of the two plugs if that matters!

 

Good luck finding out what that is. I'm confused too. I drive a 5 speed, but I dont think it has to do with that?

 

IIRC that plug is unused by our nissans. there should be anbother white plug like that one thats used for the light to the ash tray, but im sure you know that. perfectly honest your pictures pretty blurry so i dont know if that is the ashtray light or not. The blue tape is usually an indication that the connector was not used on your year of car or your options.

 

Ash tray light is accounted for. What exactly does IIRC mean? Is there something else I can add to the car?

 

lol i read this thread and i jus had to go outside and go look at mine. i only had two wires also. not three like yours sorry i couldnt help!!!
i HAVE A 97 AUTO

 

IIRC
If I recall correctly

 

mayb the lil bulb that lights up the ring around the cig lighter? thats the only thing i can think of if you already have an ash tray light plug. my cars all hacked together so that plug was prolly cut off along time ago if it did come in my car at one time lol

 

It's used on the Japanese version of our cars, called the cefiro. Nissan didnt bother making a different wiring harness for the one little plug. Good call on the ill. around the cig lighter, thats exactly what its for,

That plugs gives you a +12V when the key is in the acc. position, just to notify the driver that the cig lighter has power going to it. It comes from the exact same circuit as the cig lighter, why they made the harness have wires going all the way to the fuse block beats me.

bottom line, its doing its correct job just dangling there, if you want to use it for a +12 Volt source its right there for your convenience.

theres your ans

 

ahh!! Got_max You got the answers lol!! Thank you. I guess i'll just let the little guy just hang there then. Maybe i can hardwire my gps/radar detector to that someday.

 

*** Sorry I have to correct. This plug sends +12 Volts from the same circuit as the cig lighter, but it comes on when the Lights are on, It need the key in the acc position and and the illumination on.

It is not effected by the dash light fader**

great for any after market lighting accents.

 

Very interesting got_max. Said plug is not in my 98 or 99 Max.

 

Same here, at least last time I was under there I didn't notice it.

And Ed's, erty, is a 98 as well. So it's probably something like the mirror plug that 98-99's didn't get.

 

The plugs in my 96.

 

I can not see very well the plug on the pic, but I think this is the plug for the cigarette lighter and someone just swapped it with the white plug, which should not be used. That is how my car is anyway. Do you smoke? Does your cigarette lighter work?

 

Well what actually came with the car wasn't a lighter, it was just a OEM cover thing. It work fine powering my GPS or Radar when needed.

PS: Just saw Transformers 2 and it was frikken awesome. Megan Fox is sexy.

 

1.5 hours of a complicated, meandering plot with stiff acting that bored the crap out of me, followed by an hour long battle scene which, despite being incredibly cliche and predictable, was EPIC WIN.

I wonder why Nissan didn't just have the ring built into the cig lighter. I'm a 97 factory five speed, but I don't remember if I have a plug there or not.