Bought a used Accord and found 2 tiny switches under the steering column...
 

Okay first of all, good evening everyone. I hope your day is going well.

I read the rules and I have not seen anything in regards to posting something like this so I hope I am not violating any unspoken rules. If I am, please PM me and let me know.

I recently bought an '04 Accord EX-L V6 from an auto dealership. Before I bought, I wanted to make sure I did as much research on this as I could so I knew if I was getting ripped off or not.

Transaction complete, car purchased and it's in my driveway. After toying around with it and checking this and that I went under the steering column. Since it came with an alarm and an auto start feature which currently doesn't work, I wanted to push buttons, figure it out, and get it working again.

I pop my head under the steering column and find two very tiny silver toggle switches. One with a red cap, and one without. Now me, being 24 years old, having seen "The Fast and the Furious" and a wild imagination, along with hearing stories from my cousins who live in areas where you hear people doing crazy stuff to their cars am thinking, "OMGWTFBBQ?"

I pull the bottom panel off and start fishing around for where they are connected to but alas, they end up being cleanly cut and I cannot continue on to find out where they lead to, and what the purpose is of those switches.

Here's what I know:

I pulled the vin number of the vehicle before I bought it and found out it was sold at an auction in southern California (L.A. Anyone?). Police auction, dealer auction, repo auction, I have no idea.
I've heard stories of people fixing their cars so that they can cut the power to their tail lights to avoid the authorities if they must escape for various reasons. (I'm inclined to believe this one may apply to one of those damned switches since if you look at the back end of my car strait on, the tint in the rear window is so dark, you cannot see through it even if a 10,000 candle spot lamp were shining right back at you in the face. I don't even think this is legal where I live...I'll have to ask.)
AND, it seemed the dealer was in a hurry to get it off their lot. (Did they know something I don't?)

Any suggestions on finding out wtf these switches originally were for? And who -NOT- to take it to if I need to know? I want to get the alarm system working and install a nice stereo system in it since what is currently in it sucks major $#% and do not want to get in trouble for what has already been modified.

I appreciate any help anyone can offer. I live in the greater Seattle area.

Elysium

Re: Bought a used Accord and found 2 tiny switches under the steering column... (Elysium)
 

you say the wires are cleanly cut and pulled away from the two switches?

What type of alarm/car starter is it?

EDIT: you might also try posting this in the audio/alarm section-there are alot of knowlegable people over there heres the link https://honda-tech.com/zeroforum/27 GL https://honda-tech.com/forums/images/smilies/emthup.gif

I wouldn't worry too much about it really.

When I bought my car I was in a similar situation, mine had at one point an aftermarket alarm (i guess a shop or a person) installed it and did a horrible job and did an even worse job of removing it.

I had 4 speaker wires dangling near my interior fuse box, a Clifford alarm siren still bolted into my fender, HORRIBLE wiring for the radio, random ass ground points everywhere in the rear (I guess for subs) not to mention random shit in the dash (a ball point pen, a fireball candy wrapper, etc).

My guess is it was at one point for either an alarm or lights (thats what those usually are used for) NOS is usually a push button and not a switch.

You're probably ok, I would just pull those switches out and get a new panel.

Re: Bought a used Accord and found 2 tiny switches under the steering column... (skingfreak)
 

The alarm is a Marksman Autopage 850 from what I can tell. There is a flat wiring harness that has been unpluged from the unit, when I plug it in, all my lights start blinking. Yes -every- light.

Re: (TheMuffinMan)
 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TheMuffinMan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">NOS is usually a push button and not a switch.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, and check to see if that random plate of metal bottomed out on the passenger side too.

Nitrous in most decent applications is an arming switch and it activates when WOT

Re: (Patman)
 

They may have been a kill switch for the remote start and the valet switch for the alarm. Some off brand companies used to use 2 switches like that. I know audovox did, but Im not sure about autopage.

Re: (robsaccord)
 

My car has an alarm siren on the top of the left fender, and a mysterious little red button dangling by wires down by the hood release. I still don't know what the hell that button did.