My 2008 TL-S has this connector screwed beneath the steering column.

I was always curious as to what is is; does anyone happen to know?

On occasion when it gets knocked out of place, my horn does a quick double-chirp when turning the key to the "on" position.

I bought the car used, but from my understanding it may have briefly been a dealer manager vehicle. Could it be some sort of aftermarket alarm?

 

Not factory for sure. Going to have to get up under there and trace some wires.

 

Not OEM.
Follow the wires and let us know what kinda box you find connected to it.

 

Thanks. I'll try to find a chance to look underneath and see what it is.

 

Yesterday I finally had a chance to open the kick panel and dashboard under cover to take a closer look.

The connector was wired to a device that was zip-tied to a brace underneath the steering column. The device says "Min" and "Max" with a dial that can be adjusted with a Philips head screwdriver, and has a single wire that appears to be an antenna.

The device has one cable that seems to have been cut/severed, while a few other wires are attached to or "clipped" onto wires going into a separate port.

I'm not very familiar with vehicle electronics and wiring. Any ideas as to what this is, and if it is okay to leave it there?

 

Still doesn't give us any specifics. If you are really that concerned, cut the zip-tie and see if you can find a manufacturer, part number, or literally ANY specifics.

Or if it's not bothering you that much, simply ignore it.

 

If your car is running fine, I wouldn't touch it.

Or...
You could turn it up to the max and see what happens...

 

Haha, I was already having issues with the alarm going off randomly in the middle of the night; maybe turning it to max would increase the horn volume and make everyone in the neighborhood hate me even more.

I found out what it is. Should've done this earlier, but just Googled some keywords "vehicle device under dash min max adjustment", and the first two links just happened to be other vehicle forum threads from users that had the same device installed.

Basically it is one of those KARR security systems you often see as a dealer add-on. It seems that it allows the dealer to track the vehicle when it is around the lot, and also has a valet mode with shock sensor to detect how the vehicle was driven.

But others reported that since the alarm's wires are spliced into the OEM wiring (including to the ignition, horn, and lock switches) there's no way to remove it cleanly.

Since several cables are severed and the light was never blinking I assume was never operating properly, so I guess I'll just have to leave it be for now.

It's been a wild goose chase in looking at door switches, rain leaking onto MICU, faulty hood latches, etc. to determine the cause of my alarm issue, but now I wonder if this was the culprit, since it still is wired to the horn.

 

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...rm-dealership/

 

So what happens if you just dial it down to MIN?

 

Most likely the dial is for adjusting the shock sensitivity on the aftermarket alarm.

 

I didn't try to adjust the sensitivity, but so far ever since opening up the kick panel and checking for loose cables, the alarm hasn't gone off randomly (*knock on wood*).

So I'll just chalk it up to some wires having been loose, but if it starts going off again then I'll open it up and see about dialing that down.

Thanks everyone!

 

Or just remove it

 

With all those wires, if it isn't causing an issue, I personally wouldn't mess with it.

 

my remote start would ghost start. I just followed wires to harnesses etc. Wasn't as bad as you think to remove it