Technical What is this orange/white wire in the front left wheel well?

[BenL]

I have a Series 7 2021 2.3 160 Multijet XLWB - "Maxi", OEM Camper 160HP XLWB AUTO 295-H36-7/A in Australia (right-hand drive).

There is a lone orange/white wire in the front left wheel well, dangling there, it appears to have been caught up on something at some point and partially shredded. Any idea what this is/was? There are no fault codes or warning indicators.

 

[Communicator]

The only thing that comes to mind is a connection for brake pad wear sensor, but is the vehicle normally equipped with this facility?

 

[BenL]

I had another look; my van does have a pad wear sensor, but I believe that's a different cable (that is far more protected).

The van's still under warranty, so I'll ask next time I'm near a "Fiat Professional"...

 

[BenL]

So I discovered this is indeed what's left of the pad wear sensor wire: seems that something caught the wire and tore it off.

 

[RS3100]

When driving home with my just collected and then brand new van in 2016, the front nearside wheel hit a pothole which was invisible to me being in deep shade towards the edge of the road. When I inspected the van on arriving home, it appeared that the wheel had deformed to the extent that it hit the brake caliper, but being a steel wheel it had rebounded with no damage or permanent deformation to the rim itself. The pad wear sensor was another matter. They are slotted onto a small sprung piece or metal which clips into a recess in the front of the caliper body. Thankfully the cable was undamaged, but the spring clip was missing and the associated moulding on the cable connector had broken off. I reattached it with a cable tie wrapped around the pad wear cable connector and the metal ferrule at the end of the brake hose, and when I had to remove the pads on the opposite side some time later, I threw away the metal clip and reattached the cable similarly. Almost every Ducato that I've seen, more than a couple of years old, has had the pad wear cable sensor wires either attached by cable ties in a similar fashion, or missing altogether.