Write-Up: Radar/Laser detector relocation and hidden wire

Every single car I've had, I always found some way to re-route the radar detector wire so it wouldn't be just dangling there in front of the stereo or the vents. It just looks a lot cleaner if you have the wire going through somewhere else. Get it out of the way. Well after buying my new Cobra for my Riv, I had to figure out a way to do that. Well to my surprise it had never been this easy or ever looked this good or simpler to turn on as it was with this car.
The pictures basically illustrate what I've done. This isn't an attempt to do a Write-up because I'm not going to go through it step by step. It's actually pretty simple.
As I'm poking around on the site looking at what others have done to their interiors, I've seen quite a few pictures of those wires just hanging there in the middle of the dash down to the power outlet or the cigarette lighter.
Anyways, here it goes, very simple. Just cut a couple of wires and a few drops of solder, it's done.



First locate you radar detector in the position you want it, as you can see I've placed mine right beside the mirror, for various reasons. It's close to the power supply I am using, It's very visible to the driver, and it's practically out of sight of any "curious" that might be peaking into my Riv as its parked, so I don't have to worry about having to pull it off the dash every time I park the car. It's a good location for the 360 degrees radar detactors like this one because even if you have someone sitting in the middle of the rear seat it will go right over they're head and pick up whatever signal behind you.





Second, you want to cut the wire just long enough to reach from the back of the mirror to the radar detector.






Third, you unplug the power plug from the back of the mirror, now with a multimeter you have to locate where you have positive, negative with the ignition "ON".
Solder the 2 ends in the right places (you might want to test it first to make sure you have the right ones.)





In this (cropped) picture I'm trying to show where to solder, but still it's not very clear. The best thing to do is use a voltmeter.





It should only turn on when you ignition is ON and turn off when you turn the ignition OFF. This will alleviate the stress of trying to remember if you forgot the stupid thing on or not.





Plug it back in and your done. No more worrying about anything, including the cops around the corner.







Hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you for this. I just hardwired up my Bel 895/955 with my old Passport X50 smartcord. That red wire on the plug is the power (pos) and the one next to it, I think its black is the ground (neg)

Is the mirror the same if you don't have the compass integrated in it like yours?

I think the mirror still has power, it should if you have the auto-dimming function.

Cool write-up, I hadn't considered using the mirror's power. Very convenient. Great placement!

What does a cop say if you have a fuzz buster AND you still get pulled over?

Probably something along the lines of "Here's your ticket" and/or "Give me that damn box!".

I think it is only illegal in 2 states in the US. I think one of them is virginia. The other I have no idea.

Well, if you were pulled over for supposed speeding and a cop sees a radar detector - I think it's pretty obvious you're not getting out of it. If you have a radar detector that means you're assumably a regular speeder (If not you like wasting money). I would take that to mean any possible way of getting out of a speeding ticket is gone once they see your detector.

Here's a way:

anyone got the pics??? just got a new escort 8500x50 i have sitting in the window with the wirehanging in front of the radio lol

Just picked a Cobra unit up at a yardsale today. I figured for 5 bucks I can't go wrong. It's an XRS 969 (12 band radar & laser). Going to test it out for a bit and see how I like it. If it's staying I'll do this mod and post some pictures up.

Do they even make complete "remote" radar/laser detectors anymore?


But in the early days of detectors, several manufacturers had the detector in the grill of the car, and a simple small remote display you could mount anywhere, like an old CD changer control.

That would be ideal, then you could mount it where the ashtray is under the flip up console door

Al

What about one of these?

http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-iRAD-105-Detector-Android-Devices/dp/B004RQD604

Then you could have an android headunit give you all of the feedback. Not to mention throwing the torque app in there.

All done. Not the best pictures but they get the point across. Thar far 2 right pins are ground and 12v ignition respectively. Just use a bit of speaker wire to extend the cable if yours goes all curly like mine. You can then run the speaker wire down the piece of plastic that hides the mirror wires. As always, test with a volt meter just to be sure. I am not responsible for blown fuses, fires, whatever.

This thread is sweet