Hi Guys,
i have a 99 4.6 and have a quick question to ask you.
i was cleaning out my ashtray/cupholder assembly and finaly realised how to take the darn thing out.
i noticed that there is a wire (that appears factory) protuding from the back of the cup holder however it has been cut about 8" long and i cannot find were it would connect,i also have no idea why there would be a wire going into the cup holder.
any ideas what this is for?

 

my first thought to your post was the ash tray light

 

I would have to go with army1 on this one.

I seem to recall that the cup holder is also where the drop in ash tray was. I used that as my circuit for my LED floor lights, through a switch.

To find the other end you might need to take the radio bezel off, along with the radio and HVAC controls. This is just from memory on which way the wire was routed back there, removing the shroud on the floor might not show enough, to find the other end, 8" back ?

 

Just wondering how you were able to get the cup holders out of the dash? Are there tabs in the slide rails that release the cup holder assembly from its carrier? The spring steel at the back of my cup holder snapped off...so it looks like I'm gonna need to find another assembly.

 

in the very back of the ash tray theres two push tabs. push them down and slide it out. you will need to remove the radio bezel to do this.

 

Got it, thanks! It came out in about 30 seconds. I didn't need to remove the radio bezel. Pull the cup holder assembly all the way to its locked position and there's enough room to release the tabs from behind.

The wire that leads to the cup holder assembly is a light, as a few folks mentioned earlier.

 

thanks to your post i now have a light
in my ashtry, i didn't even know it was there,
thanks.