Ok Ok ok... I've read the many reviews on how to hardwire the passport 8500 but i noticed that they all involve me buying the $30 kit from escort...yeah right. I don't believe in paying for stuff so what i did was look at the cord that was already provided for the escort. Its funny but it looked like regular telephone wire to me with something attached to the end (the mute button and lights). So i grabbed a telephone wire and held it up the the passport wire...guess what. SAME THING. 4 wires, one red, green, black, yellow. Hmmmm. In another persons hardwire install i read that the green wire was ground and the red one was power, So from there i knew what i knew what went where. What i did was run the telephone wire through the A pillar on the drivers side, and behind the headliner on top right above the mirror. I also had to run the wire under the carpet and behind the deck near where you ECU is. (BTW i mounted the passport just under the mirror so no tint would obstruct its site). From there i decided that i'd wire the unit into my cigarette lighter. Nobody's allowed to smoke in my car so it would never be used. So i removed the actual plug part of the cigarette lighter from the dash and noticed that on the back of the plug that brings power to the lighter there were 2 wires going into the back of the 2 sockets. One wire was orange and black, the other just black. By process of assumption i figured the colored wire was power (it was). So Corresponding with those wires, as a test i plugged in the red wire from the phone line into the front socket that had the orange and black (power) wire going to it. (all of this is with the cigarette lighter attachment off). I plugged the green ground wire from the phone line into the other socket (the one that has the black wire going to the back of it) and turned on the car. Sure enough the passport came on. Sweet. From there I took apart the cigarette ligher attachment (theres 1 screw on the bottom of it). After taking that screw out one prong fell out (which i planed to use as the hookup point for the final install of the phone line/passport power cord). The other prong (negative) didn't come out so easily. I had to use plyers and vice grips to break it out. Once i had both i attached the 2 wires from the phone line (you won't need the yellow or the black at all) to the 2 prongs, i plugged the prongs back into the corresponding parts sockets in the plug that powers the cig. lighter. After that i also hardwired my power inverter to the same spot the same way for my playstation 2. After i was done i tucked all the wires back into the dash and put the shifter cover back on. I then took the cig. lighter socket (the thing the lighter actually goes into when you want to heat it) and i put it back in the hole. This makes it look like normal even though it no longer works. And there you have it. I'd have pics but my damn digi cam's been on back order 4ever. Oh Well soon hopefully. E-mail me with any Questions.

 

Good luck using the mute key now, and why did you disconnect power. What if you need to charge a cell phone.

 

I've heard that the passport has an auto mute function (i'm gonna read the directions later. So far i've never had to charge my cell in my car, and if i did i have the power inverter hardwired so i can always use that and the house plug.