Can anyone tell me what this is?

Demandzm · January 21, 2022

I bought this truck a few months ago. There was a toggle switch on the dash under the steering wheel that didnt seem to do anything. I finally got around to disassemble the dash today only to discover that the switch switched a ground that had been cut. That wasnt the only thing that was cut either. Their are two fused splices in the ignition harness and two wires that goes to this little silver thing above the ashtray. My bosses truck has the same thing in the same spot so I thought it was stock. I will likely never know what was going on with the toggle switch and ignition harness, but that other thing is going to bug me. Any ideas what it could be?

Demandzm · January 21, 2022

After looking into it a little more I'm even more confused. I thought it was a sensor of some kind. But it is just contacts. The middle piece of metal is connected to the grey wire and the ring is connected to the black wire. It's only 22 guage wire, so it cant pass that much current. I've been searching for hours and cant find anything.

shakenfake · January 21, 2022

Looks like some sort of microphone or after market part for sure

Demandzm · January 21, 2022

40 minutes ago, shakenfake said:

Looks like some sort of microphone or after market part for sure

A microphone or some form of sensor was what I thought it was at first.

David89GMC · January 22, 2022

DVD players need to be connected to ground in order to play when the engine is running. That toggle switch might have been used to enable a DVD video to play while driving.

Other than that, there's no way for us to know what the previous owner thought they were doing.

Demandzm · January 22, 2022

39 minutes ago, David89GMC said:

DVD players need to be connected to ground in order to play when the engine is running. That toggle switch might have been used to enable a DVD video to play while driving.

Other than that, there's no way for us to know what the previous owner thought they were doing.

I know nobody but the previous owner could tell me what the switch was for. I was hoping someone would recognize what that thing is in the picture. I find it odd that an aftermarket product is in 2 trucks I use frequently, but I cant find any trace of online.

silveradosid · January 23, 2022

it is a sensor for a tracking device. we have the same in our trucks. each driver has a sensor that you touch to that round sensor and the tracking device and our company knows which driver was driving

Demandzm · January 23, 2022

7 minutes ago, silveradosid said:

it is a sensor for a tracking device. we have the same in our trucks. each driver has a sensor that you touch to that round sensor and the tracking device and our company knows which driver was driving

Neat. I wonder why they didnt take it out with the rest of the system.

davester · January 24, 2022

Probably not that expensive, and the interior looks better with that device there vs a 1/2"+ sized hole in the middle of the dash, reducing the perceived value of the truck by more than the cost of the device for the next truck...

ABQ-Jammer · August 18, 2022

It almost looks like a security device I had on my GMC Sonoma pickup, but mine was under the dash. You inserted a magnetic disk into it for a few seconds, or the truck wouldn't start. This could be a similar port for something like that, though the mesh does kinda look like a microphone. I was initially thinking some sort of cutoff switch, until I looked at the picture.