Whats this thing on my dash?

ive noticed this thing on my car (96 toyota curren ST207 (pretty much a 96 celica)) since i got it but have always wondered what it is and what it does. It looks to me like a sensor of some kind, but to my knowledge and experience, it does nothing. Heres a picture.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e161/brownbox101/IMG_1890.jpg
To many this will be a dumb question, but im clueless :lol:

Not familiar with New Zealand equiped cars, do you have auto on lights? How about auto on wipers? --Yes, I realize it is a 90s car, lol.

i dont think it has either of those :(

sensor for automatic headlights or daytime running lights.

oh right so how do I get it to work and what does it do?

If it is a sensor for turning out headlights, there should be a setting on your headlight switch that says auto. The sensor should turn on your headlights when it gets dark and have your daytime running lights on during the day. Again this is only if it turns out to be a sensor. I'm not sure entirely because sensors are usually found on newer cars.

No auto settings on my lights or wipers. Guess it remains a mystery

That's why I said I realize it's a 90s car....Don't think those features trickeled down to main stream non luxo cars yet in the 90s.

I'm thinking it's just a button that hides a bolt or something. see if you can pry it off just to see what's under neath--- if you are that curious. I've seen them on many different cars from the 90s just never really bothered to be curious enough to ask.

From what I can tell and how Toyota typically did things back in the late 80's to late 90's that looks like a solar sensor for your climate control system.

I checked my 94-98 ST206/207 Curren catalog for Japan and it looks like that in the diagram for the solar sensor thermistor (part number 88625-20450).

Hope that helps, I can post the diagram if you'd like.

Jeff

Cheers for that. Any idea what solar heat has to do with the climate control system?