Has anyone on the boards ever tried bringing power to their radar detector from the wires that power the lights on the rearview mirror. I have put off buying a radar detector because the chord adds so much clutter to an otherwise neat and organzied interior.

 

Just tuck the wire under the headliner, run it down the pillar, and pull it off an accessory wire from the ignition harness. It will be a 12awg orange wire. Make sure you put a fuse on the wire though, the only other fuse on that wire is a fusable link by the starter. You can attach the ground wire to any solid metal on the car. It's alot easier than it sounds, you could probably do it in under half an hour

Matt

 

Thats what I did with mine, but I wired it to the stereo power. I didn't want to mess with the ignition harness. The only thing you see when I pull the radar detector is the 4" plug, but that stuffs up on the visor.

 

some of the nicer radar detectors even use a phone cord for power... so if you run a nice thin black cord in more then one car, you can still swap detectors between them....

 

go with onebinky's suggestion. that is exactly what i have, and only took about 15 minutes to setup. by tapping into the ignition your detector will automatically switch on and off, with the car. having it on the roof by the mirror is good for anti theft too, harder to spot it there then on the dash.

 

You get better range the higher it is too

 

Does anyone have a pic of there radars?

 

hate to dig up the past....well.....no I don't......

Does anyone know the trick to taking pilar cover off WITHOUT breaking the tabs? I've tried and tried and can't seem to do it

 

I don't know if there is a good way to remove them. I think the panel is supposed to slide towards the rear of the car, but the plastic GM uses for the clips gets so frail with age that even on the easy to remove panels they still break sometimes. What I did after I broke mine was to drill a small 1/8" hole on each pillar right in the bend, and then put a trim screw through it. You can't even tell it's not factory It's also very easy if I ever need to drop them down again. If you do this, MAKE SURE you look where you're drilling, so you don't go through the roof panel or the front pillar.

Matt

 

Escort 8500 mounted on top of dashpad with velcro and hardwired to the iginition. You can remove the detector and leave only a 6" wire to tuck in on the right hand pod. Works for me.

 

I have my detector wired into the dash. I have the wire running through the defroster vent and into its own little fused link of the accessory lighter. I tied a knot in the wire so it wont slip through the defroster vent when i take it off.

 

I put a stereo jack into my dash and mount the detector on my radio grill--thin strips of velcro on recess perimeter of speaker---its a quick and neat jack plug in and easy to remove from its perch QUICKLY--Ontario has a law against them...
1988 Formula 350
13.93@99.32 mph

 

I extened my radar detector wire and ran it down the piller & under the headliner...looks nice and clean

 

I pulled the ash tray, made my own switch pannel w/four switches to mount in there. Ran the power for the radar down through the defroster holes in the dash to the switch pannel. I bought a cord w/changable connections from radioshack so if i upgrade or change radar detectors, i dont have to rewire, just change the end.

 

yeah, i just tucked it up under the headliner, and down the a-pillar into an ignition power source. works like a charm...

-brian

 

hmm for some reason my gay *** radar detector stopped working. I think im gonna buy a cordless one. Alot neater, and such.

 

Isn't there a limit to how high the detector can be mounted?

 

The higher it's mounted, the further it can grab it's signal. Just like with any other radar stuff You do want to make sure that where you mount it still allows the radar to have uninterupted 360 degree radius. I've had my radar detector mounted in 3 of my F-Bodies at the very top of the windshield above the rear view mirror, and a couple buddies did it in the same spot. Nothin' but good results

 

How would you run the wires on a vert.

 

For a vert, you'd have to place the wire through the dash, or just under the pad, like I have mine at current, because obviously you have no roof to run the wire thorugh.

 

Here i sorta halfassed the hiding, the wire runnin DROVE ME NUTZ

 

sure you do..


run it up the A pillar, and thru the inside of the top upper windshield trim piece... have it come out just behing the mirror.


you can then cleanly high mount the detector, and you cant see the cord when not in use.