Terminal disconnection

I am replacing the timing belt of my recently acquired 2005 Rover 75 1.8 SE. As you know, the offside front wheelarch liner needs to be removed to gain access. Most of the fasteners have been undone – destroyed in most cases – but I cannot work out how to disconnect the blue ABS and the black pad wear connectors after removing their respective grommets from the liner. The fact that they are normally housed close to the heat of the engine and have remained undisturbed for a long time does not help.

There appears to be some sort of locking/locating pin forming part of the housing, although the blue one is slightly different from the black. Any circular movement is out of the question, so it must pull straight out, but it will not move. One solution would be to disconnect both wires at the business end, but I am rather reluctant to disturb that part of the wiring at present. Do I need to modify my approach? WHA Burgess The low brake pad warning wire As you have correctly assumed, the terminals do need to be pulled apart and not twisted. The black pad wear indicator wire connectors and the blue ABS sensor wire connectors both have a small locating lug at the top and should pull apart after pushing in the small tab on the socket side of the connection. As these have been in place for some time this can be difficult and using hot water to soften the plastic may help. As long as you ensure they are dry before reassembly this should not cause any problems. When reassembling, ensure the plugs are clean and dry on the inside and that the plug pushes fully into the socket.