Just bought myself a new val 1. I'm looking for some pointers on where to guide the power wire and what to hook it up to under the dash. The point of this is to not have a wire in my face connected to my 12v outlet on the dash. Anyone done this before, and if so, how did you do it? I'm looking forward to tinkering...and hopefully fewer tickets.

 

bump

 

I've got the Escort 8500. I got the hard wire kit and ran it to the passenger side. You can remove the A-pillar plastic cover real easy and route the wire tucked in above the headliner and down the A-pillar. I then used a fuse adder, which allows you to plug a fuse in and has a bare wire to splice in the power line to the radar detector. You can get that at autozone, advanced auto parts, etc. Look in your owners manual there is open working fuse sockets in the fuse box located on the door side of the passenger foot well. Then I used the Escort version from the link below to mount on to the stem for the mirror. Very nice OEM appearance. No visible wires, no suction cups on windshield, and mounts high in center of windsheild for best performance from detector. These cars use mini fuses when you go looking for the parts. Just take the fuse box panel cover off in the passenger footwell and familiarize yourself with what you are looking at. And that A-Pillar comes of fairly easy, don't worry no screws or nothing just pull.

http://www.countryjoycrafts.com/350Z/valentinemount.htm

 

hey thanks for the reply man. just a few more questions. my kit seems to have come with a self splicing wire clamp that then connects to the detectors wire. i may just go your route and get another fuse as this seems to be a pretty easy way to go. just in case, is there a 12v wire down there on the passenger side that can be spliced into without screwing anything else up. i would take a look at this my self but my dad took my car to the freaking airport ( i had his truck for moving)...

 

I don't know of a 12v wire down there. I'm sure there is one, but there are so many wires down there and then there is the problem of the fuse rating. By adding the fuse your not piggy backing on to anothers power source that might have too high a fuse rating. Its just so nice and easy to do the add a fuse.

 

Never got around to hard-wiring my V1 into our car, but after owning it for now more than 7 years, I can tell you that it will be the best money you ever spent on a radar detector. I used to drive all day as part of my job, the V1 paid for itself at least 10x over that I could figure...

 

thats great to here about the V1. very excited to see how well it works. i think i will just add a fuse the that box. thanks guys.

 

Hard wiring in a radar detector is soooo easy. Just go to your local auto parts store and get an "Add-A-Fuse". It looks like this... If it doesn't come with a fuse, get some to go with it as you will need one for it to work. Or at least I did.



Pull back the headliner a bit and tuck your wire in. Run it on the passenger side and down the side pilar to the fuse box in the passenger side kick panel.

Connect your wires to the add-a-fuse, install the fuse, attach your ground wire, plug your add-a-fuse into one of the 2 empty sockets you see me pluged in to. One turns on with accy, the other with ignition. I grounded to the bolt below the fuse box. After installing, you won't be able to get the fuse box cover back on. Just be sure to replace the kick panel cover!





Yes, I do have 2 hookups. My radar detector and my Vector FX2.

 

thanks for all the pics man. i got my car back so i can get to work on this finally. seems very straight forward.

 

Good pics Dennis!

 

Do you have any shots of the ground wire?

 

Scroll back up and look at the pic of the fuse box. You'll see a bolt at the bottom of it with a black wire running out of it. That's one of my grounds.

 

crap, so how do you get power from the fuse box if no where in texas that i can find sells an "add a fuse", or even knows what it is for that matter. piggy backing off some other 12v source is starting to sound like a good ol lazy idea to me.

 

They sell them at ADvance Auto Parts in the fuse section. I've bought two there at two different stores. Remember get the mini version, just like in the pictures. They aren't behind the counter, they are out with the fuses, wire, etc.

 

The local auto parts store here has them. Could be Autozone but it just went up and I forget the name.

If your local store carries the Littelfuse brand, then they should have these. Probably hidden on the bottom of the fuse rack as thats where mine was. The correct name for this brand is Add-A-Circuit. Add-a-fuse I think is a different brand. The part number you want is FHM200. It may have a BP at the end of it. This is the mini fuse version. They are not cheap either. $8 or $9 bucks I think? If you still can't find it you could always mail order as there are sites around that carry them, or you could paypal me the cost plus shipping and I could grab one for ya and drop it in the mail.

 

Thanks

 

I wonder if I could hook this up to the bird feeder?

 

 

check here if you're curious to what i'd like to zap!

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showth...4447&p=5593480

 

I recently bought my V1. So far so good, much better range over the Beltronics 955 I previously had.