Hard Wire Radar Detector

Hey everyone, I'm new to the site. I have the passport 8500 and a '99 alero. Where is the best place to hard wire it to? I currently have it mounted on the windshield with the suction cups and its plugged into the cigarette lighter but it looks tacky.

Yeay another Chicagoen,welcome to the site/family.

As for the radar detector, arnt they illegal..?

[eag182]

Depends on his state. Dc/ VA its illegal, thats all I know. you could make a stylish housing for it a place it on the dash near the drivers door. I don't know about hardwiring it anywhere else because the sensor needs to be up there, you know?

[bnight04]

best place to put it is up top left corner, IMO

then just run the wire threw the fuse box, under the steering column, behind the middle where your stereo's at, and into the cig lighter.

you cant even see the wire then.

Thanks for the advice guys. I really appreciate it. Once I get back to the states I'll post some pics of my car for everyone to see.

^ where you at now?

[Silentalero]

run the wire to the front of your dash, pull that front panel off, its where i put mine, or like i did in my acura, put it up top by the mirror and put the wire along the top and down the side and wire it into the fuse box to the ACC on the drivers side.


Btw welcome to the site and NO a radar dectector is NOT illegal, its the radar jammers that are illegal.

jus so everyone knows, i'm in the army reserve and I've been deployed to iraq for the past yr. I'm on my way back home and should be there in a couple weeks.

If you hard wire it to one of the fuses won't you melt the fuse since ur pulling more amperage than what the fuse is rated at?

Also, which color wires are what on the ciggarette lighter? Which is power, ground, etc.?

[mike2002]

it is illegal to have somthing besides your rear view mirror mounted on your windshield, thats where most (and me) have there detector mounted

they do make a little stand that double back tapes to your dash so it never attaches to the windshield, but i dont think you will have any problems with cops...ive seen some dorks mount it right in the middle of the windshield though....that might get you pulled over

keep it pretty low, i never even notice my cord when its low, and being lower is better for picking up laser, since they aim it at your liscence plate. although if you got nailed by laser theres like a 95% chance your screwed anyways.

[BLK03GXS]

Mike i second the lazer thing.. stupid pigs... issed:
haha oh well
Mines hard wired, to switches just to the right of my shifter. i sourced power from the main positive from the fuse box under the hood, and added a seperate fuse to it to run my switchpanel.
Mines windsheild mounted, cops dont care, some times when i get pulled they ask if it "worked" and i laugh at them.

The question is do you want it to be switchable? or on when the cars on?
When i first hard wired mine it was to the secondary lighter on my 03, but it was on ALL the time lol
I like it much better to a switch, its nice cus i can still leave it on when im parked and need the extra heads up on where the 5 oh is...

I actually have mine mounted in the middle of my windshield. I've been pulled over twice <_< and both times they asked me if it warned me about em. The funny thing is, it did go off but I didn't even pay attention to it cuz my last one always went off cuz of flase alarms.

I actually don't care about it turning off when the car goes off since I always turn it off manually anyway. I'm considering the fuse panel but which fuse and do I need to use a bigger fuse? As you can tell I'm not too good at electronics, I'm a body man myself! B)

[AGT]

Originally posted by mike2002@Mar 20 2005, 10:55 AM
it is illegal to have somthing besides your rear view mirror mounted on your windshield, thats where most (and me) have there detector mounted

they do make a little stand that double back tapes to your dash so it never attaches to the windshield, but i dont think you will have any problems with cops...ive seen some dorks mount it right in the middle of the windshield though....that might get you pulled over

keep it pretty low, i never even notice my cord when its low, and being lower is better for picking up laser, since they aim it at your liscence plate. although if you got nailed by laser theres like a 95% chance your screwed anyways.

depending on state. OK is pretty laid back. most people drive 80 but you do 85-90 they wanna know why. I have gotten out of 85-65 before due to me being low on gas

[Silentalero]

clean and no wires


btw you can add it, your not adding more to the line, all your doing is creating another out for the fuse to pop, but make sure you put it on the side facing the back of the car on the fuse holder becasue the front half of the fuse is the hot side.