This past weekend I installed a new stereo including routing a microphone wire to the A-pillar for speakerphone. The next day while commuting to work the kick panel along the transmission tunnel in the driver’s footwell was noticeably hot and warm air was flowing into the footwell. I just took a minute to trouble shoot when I got home from work today after the second day of this problem and felt the wire circled in the photo below unplugged behind the control valve. I must have dislodged it while fishing the microphone wire through the area. Is it likely this is my problem? I’ll have more time to pull out the valve tonight to see if I can find where this should be plugged in. I also found a loose wire (in the photo it is the black one lazily looping over the vent) that is just broken off and not attached to anything. No fitting or clip on it either. I don’t think that’s my problem as it was already broken (apparently) before I had this heat issue but I figured I’d mention it.



Thanks for any insight you might offer.

 

Not sure about either wire. Knowing the color of the circled wire might help, as it can be traced to determine what function it serves.

What year is your XJS? I'm guessing it's a rather late model as the label on the duct says "Valeo Climate Control". Older models would say "Delanair". As far as I know, Valeo took of production of the Delanair systems in the early 90s (?)

Cheers
DD

 

You are correct that it is a later model. I should have included that in my post. It is a MY96 convertible. It turned out the wire circled (which is black) came off the A/C temperature potentiometer. I was able to get it back on but the prongs coming out of the back of the potentiometer are rather delicate so hopefully I didn’t mess them up too badly. It looks like I can order a replacement if needed for $75 which is a kick in the pants for a stupid mistake but then again any problem that can be solved for $75 is not terrible in the big picture of life. I’ll be able to test out the solution on my commute to work tomorrow. I’m certain this was the cause of the trouble but I’m not certain I didn’t damage the terminals getting it all plugged back together.