There is a red switch under my steering wheel of my 88 formula and I have absolutely no idea what it does. If anyone knows it would be greatly appreciated
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DON'T TOUCH IT !!!! That switch is for the very rare option "Intergalactic Disintigrator" that will doom the earth to nuclear winter at it's very touch !!!!!!

Or , it's part of an aftermarket alarm system , , or perhaps a previous owner's wiring kludge to fix some problem or other on the cheap ....

Or not .....

 

It looks professionally installed in there and i can tell where the old owner did work because its junk. Is it possible that he had a mechanic put aftermarket auto start on it?

 

Sure , when it comes to aftermarket work anything is possible . The only real way to know for sure is to take a few of the plastic covers off and follow it's wires . If it's an alarm or remote start (many times one in the same unit) the wires will connect to a little black box that will look not original to the rest of the factory wiring under there .

And if it DOES connect to the Intergalactic Disintegrator , , , , well , , It was nice knowin ya !

 

There was no 'switch under the steering wheel' installed by the factory. Whatever you have has been placed there by others; it's unlikely anyone here would know specifically what it is or what it does/did. As above, it will be up to you to trace out the wiring piece-by-piece, determine what's been modified (using the diagrams in the FSM), and then decide how to proceed in restoring the wiring back to original condition.

 

I'd bet it's an alarm.

My '88 has a very nicely installed switch under the steering wheel on the lower dash panel. Small silver toggle switch with an LED next to it. I've never dug into it, but I think it was probably unplugged by the seller of the car.

I have a key fob for it too. The product was called "Code Alarm." I should dig into it someday. Don't need an alarm, but it is there.

I wouldn't be surprised if the wiring is behind the panel on the bottom of the dash on the passenger side. Just a guess, but that panel was loose when I bought the car. I'm reluctant to take things apart since those old plastics can be rather brittle.

 

No way for us to know, not factory. You have to take stuff apart to figure it out