Radar detector hardwire

[oksailor]

Trying to hardwire my Escort but cannot find a good power supply to tap into.

Tapped into something that had to do with the alarm, that wasnt too good.

Can anyone give me some ideas?

 

[SAC-CA-Runner]

I did mine today in my 08 and I used the yellow wire from the compass mirror and a white/black stripe(ground) from the overhead console where the lights, homelink, and sunroof is. I tried a power wire from that same harness and it turned out it was for the tilt up part of the sunroof. So when I turned on the V1 it tilted up the sunroof! HAHA So I moved it to the rearview mirror yellow wire.

 

[oksailor]

thats a good idea. wish I had a V1. Unfortunately, my escort has the remote and the power wire is located near the remote. need to find something closer to the fuse panel

 

[004Gunner]

Just tap into the fuse panel. Splicing into another wire may create problems on warranty coverage and the fuse taps work great

 

[oksailor]

I am an idiot. How do I do that? I know where the fuse panel is, but how do I "tap" into it?

 

[004Gunner]

They make fuse taps and are sold at auto parts stores. I picked one up at autozone. It's just a big fuse block that plugs into one fuse slot. The block makes 2 slots out of the one and 2 fuses are inserted into the block. A red power wire comes off the block to connect to your device. Then you just mount your negative wire to anywhere that will provide a good ground. Check out the picture, they make these for mini blade fuses and standard blade fuses. I think you have minis.

Important: Whatever device you are hardwiring needs to be able to handle 12V DC. I.e. I had to connect this fuse tap to power a hidden cigarette lighter/power adapter I put under my dash because the device I was wiring could only handle 6V DC. So I had to keep the included power cord for the device and hide everything under the dash. It still gave the look I wanted and made it easier to convert it back to normal if needed though.

 

[oksailor]

thanks a million! Got it hard-wired this weekend. I actually mounted the remote in the accesory panel to the left of the steering wheel. will try to post a picture soon

 

[oksailor]

I tapped into my acc. fuse with a fuse splice and now my rear window will not go down. WTH? Will it make a difference if I flip the fuses? Will try that tomorrow I guess

 

[004Gunner]

I would check the fuses first. If those are ok then I would pull out the fuse tap and put back the original fuse just to rule out the fuse tap as a cause of the problem. Mine is tapped into my ACC fuse slot as well but I didn't have any problems.

 

[oksailor]

It magically started working again. Not sure what happened but I am glad I don't have to solve that mystery