Nick Robinson

How do i go about doing this? Can i splice the 12 volt adapator and bring it right onto the battery? How do i get the cable to the bat?
thanks

psu max

you dont wanna be tapping the power straight from your battery, otherwise the radar would always be hot and youd have to remember to turn it off or unplug each time you shut off your car

im not sure if there is a definitive best way of doing it, but what i did was tap the power from one of the ignition wires ... check to see its hot when the car is on and shuts off when you turn the car off (oh yeah dont forget an inline fuse to be safe)
ground it anywhere you like and you are done

hope this helps

felix_xiii

If you wanna take the easy way out (ghetto?), instead of splicing into an ignition wire, run the wires to your fuse box and jam the wire in your windshield wiper fuse (or something that gets power after ignition). You could always run a switch in there too so you can turn it off if it gets old. Thats my 2 cents...

Nick Robinson

Ok wheres the fuse box? Is that under the hood there, with writing like "Wipers" and the like? Its a black box? How do i get the wires there? i have power cables that go to my amp, and i can get to them next to the gas paddel. Maybe i could splice into that? If so, how? And how do i get the wiring down there?

felix_xiii

Okay you're looking at the relay box in your engine bay. Nevermind that. The fuse box is located under the dash on the drivers side (at least it is in my second gen, and most every other car). So i dunno run the wire under your dash or through your ac vents or something down to the fuse box.

MaineI30

Dude if I were you I'd power it from the lighter wire. Pull back the console around the gearshift. There is a pair of wires leading up to the lighter. Use a quick-tap or t-tap (so the lighter still works) to tap the wires and send them into your detector. Make sure to test the wires before you're connecting them to make sure you've got polarity correct (+/-)

Then conceal the wires however you want.

/aac

psu max

the fuse box should be right above your left new
its located a little up from where the hood release is

you shouldnt be able to miss it, its the only thing thing on the lower half of the dash with a little hole in it ...

by the way did u wire up your amp yourself?
cuz if u did, its the same basic idea as wiring the amp to go on with the radio

let me kno if u got any more q's

Kashoggio

iTrader: (11)

Nick, do what I did. Its easy and best looking. You kow your map light, take it out and remove one of the bulbs. Then cut your radar detector cable in and solder the wires to the = and - or the switch for that side of the light. Now you have a on and off switch and no wire hanging.

Nick Robinson

What do i use for wire? Can i just cut off the top of the 12 volot adaptor and use that?

MaineI30

cut the ligher-plug end off then use those wires (pull them apart a little)

/aac

DA-MAX

iTrader: (10)

I'm kinda trying the procedure below and I just removed the whole light fixture and am trying to run the radar detector off the two wires that come from the cars power source to the lights and ends in a harness, so I clipped off the harness and tried to attach the radar detector wires(white and red) to the two wires that go back to the car's power source.....nothing happen, am I doing something wrong??

psu max

heres a quick question, is your radar detector power cable coiled or is it straight?

if its coiled you may have gotten ur + and - mixed up

if its not ... make sure you are goin hot to hot and ground to ground .... just use a volt meter to check which wire is hot

ps i like the idea about splicing it into the map light, but dont you gotta remember to turn it off after u use it or else ur battery is gonna die ... right?

DA-MAX

iTrader: (10)

first I split open the main radar detector wire and stripped back the red(power) and white(ground?), then attached the red to the map light power wire and the white to the map light ground wire. plugged the stock harness back in and...............no go, hmmmmm whats going on, any ideas?? heres a pic that might help, if you can understand it-->

Jon91SE

just splice it in with your windsheild wiper fuse or any other fuse that will go on when the car is on, that way the radar will jsut go on when you turn your car on. fairly easy

psu max

sorry dude, thats one confusin pic ....

anyways i didnt catch this before, or u mite have said and i forgot, but can u still turn on ur light or not?
if u can turn the light on but not the radar then u got ur radar wires mixed up,
but if u cut out ur light completely, then i have no ideas

also wuts that harness for??? just outta curiosity

Kashoggio

iTrader: (11)

ok I dont have much time to talk so: The battery does not die when or f you forget to to switch the map light on. I have done this many times and I have no problems. Now as far as the install. This is what I did. I sliced the power cord from the radar. Then I spliced the + wire from the left map light. This wire is actually coming from the switch to the bulb flangs. Now I soldered the positive wire from the radar and the switch. Then I soldered the - wire to the metal housing of the map light assembly. If you notice this houseing is grounded . Thats about it. Now your power switch is the left map light switch and NO the left side light will not work. the right one will but not the left one. No biggie. if you have any ?? just email me and I will get back to you as possible.
Mike

DA-MAX

iTrader: (10)

and it looks a whole lot better since there is no power wire dangling around anymore. all I needed was a new 20a fuse since the 10a for the "room lights" couldn't handle it, but eveything is working fine. I left mine on accidentally too, today for about 2 hrs. and no probs eventhough my battery is a zillion yeras old.....really nice and the VA and DC cops shouldn't harrass me that much anymore when it was in the lower windshield!!

psu max

congrats, but only 1 word of warning ... im no electrician, but those fuses are supposed to be certain amp fuses ...
i think you should be able to get away with the same type of fuse if u run setup the radar in parallel with the lights as opposed to in series ???

i have this very dim recall from my physics classes (all of which i almost failed) about this kinda stuff ...

if im wrong please, someone correct me

Kashoggio

iTrader: (11)

hmm if you did everything i said, you wouldnt have to change your fuse. I havent blown one fuse yet.