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I bought a used van a few years ago at a strange time: I needed a particular kind of vehicle right away, and there broadly just weren't any at a reasonable price (because chip shortage, mostly). I spent a long time (several weeks) looking, and became increasingly frustrated with what would have normally been a simple process.

When one showed up at a good local dealership, I bought it. I barely looked at it first.

Unusual? Probably. But those were unusual times.

Anyway, it had a small metal toggle switch mounted under the dash. The old-school kind, with the metal tag painted with red and black On/Off silkscreen.

I never did figure out what it was for.

I had a peek more than once (of course) to see what it connected to, but it was just a Siamese pair of wires that drifted off to unseeable areas.

The only other modification I could find was a very neatly-installed remote starter.

And that remote start box did have a switch input (for valet mode, whatever that means), but it was not connected.

(It all got ruined in a crash a couple of months ago and the purpose of the switch shall thus remain a mystery.)






Sometimes it's for a sound system or some other wired feature someone installs from aftermarket stuff. When they sell the car, it's easier to remove the added system and leave the switch.

That's pretty common, yeah. Or fog lights. Or (on VCM Hondas, such as this example) VCM foolers/defeats.

I didn't ever find any evidence of aftermarket anything except for some suspension parts (new shocks/struts, tie rods, woot) and the remote starter. And...the switch.

Given the fact that the vehicle is probably headed to China by now to make new cars out of, the switch will just have to remain strange and unknown.




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