What is this thing?
 

I'm a fairly new owner and also overly curious how things work.


I see on top of the dash, forward near the windshield, passenger (right) side, there's a small, raised dome-shaped "button". I can't quite tell if it's molded into the dash, or a separate part that might be removable. (In a symmetric position on the driver's side, there's a circular depression.) What the heck is it? (I thought maybe it's a daylight sensor for the headlights, but I'm pretty convinced now that it isn't.)


And if it's not the daylight sensor, where the heck is the daylight sensor?


(I've probably got a few more silly questions coming!)

Passenger side is a sensor which tells the headlamps to turn on or off when the headlamp switch is in the auto position.


Driver's side, depression in same area simple means there's nothing there, on that side.

Thanks for that. It does make sense, but I had convinced myself it wasn't that, by covering it. I'll play with it again.

You'll have to do better than that to trick it, try black electrical tape and watch what happens :lol:

Or..... you could try and read the owners manual. It has info you really should know about your car.
Yes even your original question is covered in there.

Yup, it's in 2017 86 Owner's Manual at the top of p.174.

I don't know why they bother printing the thing. They should just do what everyone else does and just leave a card with a web address in place of the manual.

It's definitely a legal thing, but they did provide it with scions, you could go onto the scion owners portal thing and get the entire owners manual online. No doubt subaru and toyota do the same now.

I want a printed manual, thank you very much.

You might, but a searchable PDF would really make it easier for people

"What is this thing?"


https://media.giphy.com/media/elPYgmQ506HK0/giphy.gif

Good luck in the middle of nowhere when your phone dies and you absolutely need to check something in the manual.

Also, manuals have an index and page numbers. It's actually super easy to glance at the back, find the thing you need, and then go to the correct page number. That's probably even quicker than searching a PDF.

Or you could, you know, read the manual before and learn about your car so you don't run into a situation where you don't know where something is or what something does. But that's just me....

When I bought the car they needed a couple of days to prep it. I took the manual home and read it through. When I picked up the car I was able to set everything up how I wanted before I even left the lot.