What's this black button for?

[VX KAT]

Solved the mystery of the "black button"....when I had my fog lights installed, shop found that it was an after market alarm, (Brand was Automate, ever heard of it?), siren's gone, chopped wire at harness, cut wire to LED. Who would go through trouble of taking apart dash (which guy told me was a pain), chop out the alarm system?....Previous owner wanted to keep it before he traded it in? Guy also noted that several screws were missing to various parts in the dash....sounds like somebody took a shortcut when reassembling dash.

OEM Keyless remote arrives tomorrow, hope the OEM system still works!

[alanbradley]

Solved the mystery of the "black button"....when I had my fog lights installed, shop found that it was an after market alarm, (Brand was Automate, ever heard of it?), siren's gone, chopped wire at harness, cut wire to LED. Who would go through trouble of taking apart dash (which guy told me was a pain), chop out the alarm system?....Previous owner wanted to keep it before he traded it in? Guy also noted that several screws were missing to various parts in the dash....sounds like somebody took a shortcut when reassembling dash.

That all sounds very familiar. I had to have the aftermarket alarm removed when it started to smoke. It cost me £60 and there was a LOT of wire to remove as someone had tried to fit a remote start at the same time. Later I found the same type of alarm for sale on e-Bay for £30...

Of course, on removal the car didn't run properly and it was discovered that every single wire between the steering column and the rest of the car had been cut and then bodged, that the engine was probably running with the wrong earth and that - in many ways - the car had been thoroughly ****** over at some point in its life. Got it (almost) all sorted though and the difference it made was huge!

A