What do these stripped wires connect to?

[adf]

Noticed these brown wires with their plastic coating cracked and coming off in the engine bay. Does anyone know what this connects to?



For context, the brown wires are against the firewall in the middle of this pic

[adf]

They look like they are just being grounded so maybe nothing serious to worry about

[AudiTechS4]

grounds for your coilpacks and engine harness i believe. you can electrical tape them up , or get some heat shrink tubing if you wanna be fancy

[PetrolDave]

The way the insulation has cracked looks like the wires have got very hot at some time, which surely isn't right?

I wonder if there is another larger earth wire between the block and the chassis that isn't connected or is high resistance causing extra current to flow in these wires? Does the starter motor seem sluggish?

[badger.]

Those wires look the exact same in my car lol. I need to tape them up as well.

[924Carrera]

My car has the same exact thing going on. You'll notice that of the two wires, only one is in really bad shape. That's the ground for your SAI pump. I bet if you get into your harness, you'll find that the red power wire (same size) for the SAI pump is in the exact same condition...and that is something to be a bit concerned about. Mine were both like that all the way from the pump to the ground, for the ground wire, and all the way to the massive 40A fuse in the ECM relay board, for the power wire.

[JimmyBones]

Those wires look the exact same in my car lol. I need to tape them up as well.

Mine and just about every other B6/7 S4 that I have ever seen is like that. I taped mine up and it hasn't been an issue. Those wires are right above the back of the engine by the exhaust so they will see a lot of heat especially when in rush hour traffic.

[JayDog747]

Does anyone know if these are plant based plastics? Mine are still intact.