What switch is that: Hide and seek switch!

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

This morning I allocated some time to a securing the right side centre console fascia trim (just in front of handbrake) in my VZ wagon. While feeling around for any securing points (one match found which fixed it), to my surprise my finger made contact with a loose, rectangular object. I pulled it out and to an even bigger surprise found it was a push button switch attached to a fairly long sheathed wire, the top marked as a light in a circle with a slash through it. Curious, I pressed it, and the internal lights went out and remained out irrespective of whether they were set for on implicitly, on when door(s) are open or on individually (map lights). So I secured the trim panel correctly and, after giving a quizzical last look, tucked the mystery switch back under the trim where I found it.

Hmm. While my car is ex-CFA and had been fitted with grill lights and a wiring loom going through the engine firewall to the footwell, that's as far as I can trace their (very tidy) modifications: no dangling wires, no blanks or connectors and the switch and wiring appears an original fitment as it has white loom markers on it with GM. It occurred to me the "mystery switch" might have been a lights/siren "stop" and, once the modifications were nulled, the switch was returned to its defacto modus operandi of manually overriding of interior illumination? You learn something everyday poking fingers around a VZ...

[keeny]

some of the ex chasers in nsw have a switch to kill all the interior lighting so that they can have their engine running at night with no lights on so nobody can see them ready to chase someone down.

[Dz811]

some of the ex chasers in nsw have a switch to kill all the interior lighting so that they can have their engine running at night with no lights on so nobody can see them ready to chase someone down.

In a 3.6l exec. wagon? no offense to the chasers... or the OP for that matter, bu it's not an ideal "chase car"...

[-scyth-]

true, however, i used to use the vz wagons as a single responder on code 1's all the time. so they did well under the abuse i gave it.

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

LOL!
This pup aint no 'chaser' in any sense! But it's a damn fine chariot for choofing up the Hume and Princes Freeways. Despite being quite a head-turner, sadly, no chicks (or dames!) have joined me in the front seats yet: <sigh> by the time I catch up with them in age terms they've turned into hens.

[keeny]

sorry. chaser is just what people call them. is ex police vehicle better? lol or ex detective?

[Calaber]

I'm not aware what "CFA" stands for, but in NSW at least, Police vehicles were fitted with a kill switch for the interior lights as an OHS requirement. It had nothing to do with "lights on or off" during pursuits. It was to enable the police to kill the interior light so that it would not come on when they opened the doors at the scene of a job.

When Police arrive at a job. they can never be sure what they will confront. If the interior light illuminated automatically, they could be a target for someone with a firearm, so the switch enabled them to prevent being "lit-up" as they got out of the car.

This might sound a bit far-fetched but officer safety was the thinking behind the kill switch, in this State at least. I have no idea what other state forces did.

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

CFA = Country Fire Authority here in Victoria. Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) e.g. Melbourne have VE SIDI wagons and sedans.

This one, just an ordinary ex-Station / fleet car (in that colour)] and the Station (which I lived near to some years ago) assures me it definitely has not been involved in pursuits of any kind, but plenty of "run ahead" / escorts through the town and near areas and drives from Bendigo region to Fiskville (CFA Training Facility). Oh, and "collecting grub from Pizza Hut..."*guffaws*.

There are some quite interesting comments here, particularly in relation to what is termed a "kill switch". It does make sense in context (Police).

[Trent L]

Calaber has got it right. It was an OH&S issue. If your vehicle was from the CFA it may have originally come off the production line destined for police use, but went to another govt agency.

[Phyco]

It occurred to me the "mystery switch" might have been a lights/siren "stop" and, once the modifications were nulled, the switch was returned to its defacto modus operandi of manually overriding of interior illumination?

Holden VZ Commodore - 9C1 Pack

Interior light lockout switch (Centre console mounted button, isolates glovebox light, boot and interior dome and map reading lights)

Is what you have there, seems it was hidden after manufacturing for some reason.

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

A PC1 Pack, eh?
That's interesting. Very interesting. I cannot see any evidence of that switch having been physically mounted anywhere, so it's a "tuck and forget" thing, I suppose.
I've noted the car has humungous looking alternator and a calcium battery and these, I now learn, are part of PC1??
But, there are no glovebox or centre console lights on my VZ Wagon, though I'm looking to install these. I like little creature comforts and poking into a dark glovebox is scary... I think Holmart in Melbourne has parts, otherwise not sure if the wiring for each of these exists / is tucked away and "plug and play" or more involved work is needed. Enlightenment welcome.

[Calaber]

The factory actually designed a switch for this function which fitted into the small panel at the rear of the power window switches. If your car doesn't have the specific switch and you want to retain it with a factory appearance, you can purchase the switch and mounting facia and clip them into the console in place of the small square rubber tray.

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

Ah, so! Bingo! In one fell swoop you've solved the mystery!
I actually do have that little rubber tray at the back of the console, which I store some coins in for the coin monsters in town. When I removed it, I found evidence that something had been chewing around the plastic to, maybe, fit something else (maybe a mini-console for powering lights/sirens??). Now things are starting to gel! So I think originally that "hidden" switch was mounted where the rubber tray now is? And I presume from reading, a replacement fascia can be obtained in which to mount the "hidden" switch properly? Now, where can I obtain that, I wonder?? But then I'd have no ready-grab place to store a cuppla coins...

[VYMAD]

Sorry to hi-jack this thread, but still on topic, where does this switch run to, anyone know? Or would it go into the BCM? Would be ok to have if it was a simple wire-in somewhere.

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

Probably need to remove the centre console to extract its full length and trace the end connection. With the console in place, it's way too narrow and congested to otherwise determine where it goes.

[Torquative]

you'll find that different agencies and states mount lightbar and siren switches different ways. Ive seen them mounted everywhere from under the radio to a complete cup holder replacement on the VZ, I'll see if I can dig up the photo.

Our RFS (NSW version of CFA) VX, VY and VZ all had the cup holders all custom made into switch panels for light bar, strobe light, siren on/off and siren mode (yelp, wail) the VY even having the entire centre console (under the lid where you rest your arm and store your CD's) converted into a massive switch panel for a light bar trial when it could do anything from display a message police style to only activate certain led clusters front or rear or side, alley lights etc.

Its possible the switch was just never used being CFA and thus hidden away. Ours would have had that option too, but the buttons never existed in the already crowded switch panels. Its possible your car once had a custom switch cradle which is where it was once located. Its possible while decommissioning someone's put the wrong centre console back in and hidden the button because it no longer has a home. As mentioned it was a standard 9c1 pack option, which I'd say yours is a 9C1 pack car.

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

Sounds quite exciting and involved how they creatively set up so much with so little actual permanent damage to things like the console e.g. remember when ex-company cars were riddled with holes where mobile phone cradles and wires were mounted and loomed? I haven't seen any such hideously defiled cars for years. The centre console on this VZ is original; no evidence of it having been removed anywhere, just the little rubber tray at the rear, when removed, shows evidence inside of a tool having been used to nibble away to fit something else in there, but no visible wires for connection(s).

I have no idea what a PC1 is, but presume it might be a police pack, as the car has a 120amp generator and a very large plate under the front (covers oil sump and the diff business). One of my early posts on the forum made plain my irritation at losing digital display functions because Police Mode was engaged. So everything certainly does gel now.

[slidways]

I know uve tucked it back away now but any chance of getting a part number off it. As it would b very handy in my car while im at work

[Adds_05]

its 9C1, not PC1 mate

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

I know uve tucked it back away now but any chance of getting a part number off it. As it would b very handy in my car while im at work

There is no part number that I can see on this switch.
Maybe it will be listed under "Mystery Items", LOL!!

[Torquative]

just go to holden and ask for one, its called a blackout switch, although I think they only come in black as 9C1 packs had black interior trim

I'm pretty sure the wirings not there for it either unless you have a 9C1 pack

[Ausdiver99]

Why don't you take a drive to your local CFA and ask them?

[Little Red VZ Go-Kart]

^ Been there, done that. ^
Cap'n (of local Fire station) says it's a kill switch for interior lights and driving lights. "One switch cuts them all". Showed me a current OMEGA decked out but switch is on left side of drop-down cover under steering wheel. Not a spare place anywhere else for it.

Re colour: I can confirm the switch is black in terms of body and button and my Commodore is also black inside (so black that I need a torch to find my in...).

I'd actually now like to install centre console and glovebox lights, but don't know if there is a wire tucked away in some inaccessible place bedevilled by spiders where everything you want to install is "plug 'n play" — just touchy-feely for the wire, plug it in and ... ...