Hard wiring a radar detector in your vehicle will help to avoid clutter on the dash and around the instrument panel. While most radar detectors come with an adapter to plug them into a cigarette lighter or accessory power outlet, many times the location of the radar detector will be a concern for theft.
Instructions
1. Disconnect the battery in the vehicle using a socket and ratchet to ensure nothing gets shorted out during the installation.
2. Decide on a location for your radar detector. You will want to be able to see it easily while at the same time ensuring it is stable and secure.
3. Locate a power source for the radar detector and determine if you will need more wire to reach it or if the provided cord will reach the source. While it may require a little more work and extending the wires, a switched power source in the fuse box of the vehicle is typically ideal.
4. Decide what kind if fitting will be required to connect to the power source. In most vehicles, there will be a switched power source with a male blade terminal in the fuse box. This is the recommended spot for picking up power.
5. Run the cord for it as far toward the source as you can, hiding it along the way under trim work, the headliner, or the dash. You will need to remove the lighter adapter from the cord.
6. Unscrew the retaining screws on the lighter adapter if it has them; otherwise, you can pry the halves apart carefully with a straight screw driver to expose the wires inside. Note and mark with electrical tape which wire runs to the center of the adapter as this will be your power lead.
7. Cut the wires loose from the adapter and strip the insulation off the end of the wires 1/4 to 5/8 of an inch back. Select a correctly sized butt end connector and connect the power lead to the red wire. Leave the ground for now.
8. Insert the striped portion of wire into the metal connector tube and crimp the tube closed with a crimping tool. Repeat this on the red extension wire you have already cut.
9. Select the correct sized female blade connector and install it on the opposite end of the red wire. Now connect the connector at the fuse box and conceal the wire under the dash.
10. Locate a ground source on the vehicle. The ground needs to be solid and easy to get to. A chassis ground is the best, so if you can locate a bolt or screw that is connected to the chassis of the vehicle, use it.
11. Connect a butt end connector to the ground wire coming from the radar detector and then to a long length of black wire just as you did with the red wire. Run the wire to your ground and cut it to length with wire cutters. Attach a correctly sized ring connector to the wire and then to the bolt or screw you will be using to ground the circuit.
12. Hide this wire behind the trim, headliner or dash. Wrap any connections that might be exposed to heat, weather, moisture or vibration with black electrical tape to protect them.
13. Replace any trim you may have taken off during the installation and reconnect the battery. You can now test the radar detector function by turning on the key and powering on the unit. If all of your connections are good, the unit should power up and function as it did plugged into the lighter socket.
Tags: radar detector, power source, bolt screw, butt connector, connect power