What is this electrical connection?

[bettingsumo]

Can someone tell me what this electrical connection is? It is next to the fuse box in the engine bay of my 96 Pathfinder.

I don't know why I have never paid any attention to it before, but I opened the hood to clean the engine the other day and noticed that the inside of this connector looked a lot cleaner than the rest of the engine. The fact that it is clean makes me think something was plugged into it, but I can't figure out what.

I looked in the engine of a 98 Pathfinder to compare, but it does not have this connector sticking out next to the fuse box.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

What are the wire colors coming from the harness? It's most likely for an option that your vehicle didn't come with and it was probably taped up under the fuse box.

[bettingsumo]

There are 3 wires coming from the harness: Black, White w/ black stripe, and White w/ red stripe. They go into a hole in the side of the fuse box.

Also there is a slot on the side of the fuse box where the harness clicks into just as it is shown on the pic, so it wasn't hidden under the box or anything like that before. It has been there the whole time; can't figure out why I never noticed it.

[Pwnin O'Brien]

The harness goes to the LH shock absorber actuator for the adjustable shock absorbers (if your vehicle was equipped). I'm assuming your Pathfinder wasn't equipped with the electronically adjustable suspension.

[bettingsumo]

Ahh, that makes sense.

I had adjustable shocks in my 88 Pathfinder and specifically requested that option when I ordered my 96. There was a long wait for the first R50's back in 1996 and when they finally delivered my new Pathfinder I was disappointed that it did not have the shocks I asked for. The dealer claimed at the time that even though that option was listed in the marketing materials Nissan had eliminated the adjustable shocks for the second generation Pathfinder. I thought it was strange that the owners manual still showed the shock adjustment switch on the dash, but it wasn't until years later when I noticed you could buy adjustable replacement shocks that I knew they lied. Oh well.

Thanks for solving the mystery Pwnin!