ok, i hard wired my radar detector to the power leads for the front dome lights... question is, if my radar detector is off while the car is off, will any power be drawn, and is it possible my battery will go dead? thanks in advance.

 

How can your detector drain any power if no power is running to it?

 

i dont know if the detector still draws power if it is off, my guess is probably not. The power i wired into is before the dome light switch, so it is unswitched. I remember leaving my dome light on once, and them automatically shutting off after a certain amount of time. Do you think the same would apply to me leaving my radar detector on? if i remember correctly. the detector has its own auto power off feature.

 

If the detector is off it will not draw power. Even if it is on, I would think (would have to check the specs to confirm) it would take a LONG time for a radar detector to drain the car battery.
Don't think so. How would a radar detector know it's supposed to turn off? It's not like it knows if the car is running. The only possible way is if the power source you used times out if the car is not running.

 

I've left my detector on for long periods of time with the car off. It would take over a week at least for it to drain the battery. My new detector automatically shuts off anyways after a 30 mins of no activity. You shouldn't have any problems.
Can you send us some pics to view?

 

yeah, supposedly my radar detector shuts off after 1 hour of no activity, and when i left it on in class today, i came out to my car and the detector was off. I dont think it was the auto power off feature of the detector that did it because when i hit the unlock button, the detector turned on. It was the auto dome light off feature. Ill post some pics tomorrow.

 

So if you were on a road trip and went more than an hour without running into radar, it would turn off?

 

If the detector is off...I don't think it will be drawing any power

Mind if I ask what kind of radar detector you bought?

 

the detector i got is the Beltronics Vector 995. My girlfriend bought it for me (hehe) i have it hard-wired into the power leads from my map light.