Mystery ground wire

[Bgfoot05]

I pulled my heater box,  and there was a ground on the driver's side that fell out it looks fairly new its got a ring on one side and a spiral l small spade on the other.   Is about two feet long,  any ideas, if rather figure it out now while everything is out than after I put everything back together

For reference,  only thing in the car that's extra is the radio and po word the power for that by splicing into most of the hazard switch

 

 

[Hans]

Doesnt look stock.

[2002iii]

Extra ground for the multi gage on the cluster?

[Son of Marty]

Not stock, all BMW grounds are brown, probably for a radio or maybe the gauge pod aux ground.

[bpeckm]

Impossible to have too many grounds!  Ground something, can't hurt.

['76mintgrün'02]

Just now, bpeckm said:

Ground something, can't hurt.

 

Don't ground the tachometer.

[Dudeland]

Did it ever have A/C?

 

[Bgfoot05]

11 hours ago, Dudeland said:

Did it ever have A/C?

 

Don't believe it ever did

[Mike Self]

Sure looks like 2002iii's conjecture--ground for the temp and fuel gauges in the instrument pod.  It would have a ring terminal on one end to go under the attachment nut on the gauge's backside, and a push on terminal if ganged with the ground for the heater.  The heater's ground (on the terminal block) is  female terminal, while the hot leads are male, so the wire's terminals make sense...

 

mike

[jimk]

4 minutes ago, Mike Self said:

The heater's ground (on the terminal block) is  female terminal, while the hot leads are male, so the wire's terminals make sense...

Or called idiot proofed connection layout.

[Bgfoot05]

It was on the gauge the connection was short had to pull the Guage to see it