I tend to be grumpy too and I don`t have much patience for this kind of stuff.
My logic, flawed or otherwise is that the resistor provides an input to the ECU to effect a fuelling solution designed to operate in an auto box situation while stopped at road junctions/ at traffic lights etc, where the auto box may be left in gear, drivers foot on the brake the engine idling, fuelling requirement is different from that which might be required if neutral had been selected due to the reduction on drag/loading of the gearbox internals ..?
It seems we may be looking at a single input..which provides a permanent predetermined resistance to earth on a manual box installation where the ECU has programming designed for an auto box...? If that is the case then why not have the resistor somewhere convenient to the ECU`s terminal, what would be the point of extending the wire to some distant location...?
If you have identified the wire, the terminal and the task the resistor is presumed to perform, and that instead it seems the input terminal is being provided with a short to earth as opposed to 50 ohms, then assuming no damage has been done... hopefully removing the short and installing a resistor might just provide a solution to your issue...... Or Not..!
Just thinking in type and claiming ZERO expertise.
