so i was removing the cover on the bottom of the passenger side dash. and to my suprise was greeted by something well...... you will have to see your self.

 

now this is actually in the dash. it is an ignition cylinder. i dotn know what its for or what it does. but it is actually wired into something. now i did find a place where a hole was (picture below) what i think it might be is that he had a push start at one point wired to the car. so its possable that this was so the car could see that the key was in the ignition and all he had to do was get in the car and push start it. so please give you opinion because im stumped.

 

Can't tell from your Avator photo, but i'm assuming you have a 90-92 with the VATs security system. That is a back door way of using the car and avoiding the VATs issues. (This is logically what was done) Take apart the column, get the VATs cylinder out, put the VATs key in it and stick it under the dash, put a regular non-vats cylinder ignition in the steering column. This way you can get hum-drum $2 copies of your key and still not deal with the VATs security issues. With out you giving us more details on the car it's hard to say for sure.

 

It appears to be where someone has bypassed the VATS system on your vehicle. VATS is the "vehicle anti theft system" which is pretty much a resistor. The little black and silver dot on your key (or in your case the one under the dash) is the resistor I'm referring to. If the computer doesn't see the correct resistance from that key it will not engage the starter, or injectors.

They may have bypassed it for two reasons.

1: The original key/ignition malfunctioned and this was the fix they ended up with.

2: The vehicle had/has a remote start system installed, and it is necessary for the computer to think that the correct key is in the ignition, before it will crank and run.
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Wow, I started answering him, and he had no responses, and in 2 minutes time, already someone beat me to it.

 

yeah that was another option that i was thinking about. its a smart way of doing it. it was just kind of an "out of the blue" situation. what kind of information do you need from me. ill tell you all i know lol. oh and its an 89 formula.

 

thats what was needed to be known to just about confirm it without tracing wires. 89 got VATS, so i would definally assume that it's to bypass the security system. Pull the key in there and if the security light on the dash stays on as you still try to start the car, or the car magically dies or won't start, then it's confirmed that it's a VATS bypass.

 

hey thanks guys i tried removing the key but it didnt budge. so i unpluged the wires coming from it and there was nothing. so ill just keep it there and leave it alone.

 

if you do want the key out the lock cylinder is probably switched to the on position locking the key in the cylinder.
just hold the cylinder and turn the key just like if it was in the column