(Not to steal any thunder from ThePerchik, his method is genious but this is quite a bit different. His is more complicated and for mounting high, this is for mounting low and this is truly for beginners!)

I decided that I was sick and tired of having my radar detector plugged into my cig lighter and having the wire come out by the passengers feet and up to the plug, so I devoted a little time to hard wiring it (with the help of some knowledgable scionlifers).

I started by doing a little research as to what would be a good power source. I figure that I use the cig lighter now, why not keep using it. After all, with the tC, it turns on with the car and off with the car.

So heres what I used:

-Multimeter (for testing)
-T-Taps (make life easy)
-Wire Cutter (just to get rid of the shielding on the wire to test it and tap it)
-Pliers (to squeeze the t-taps)

So to start, first thing is to clip off the cigarette plug on the radar detector wire. Leave a bit of wire left over for testing however (about 6 inches of wire still attached to the plug). Plug that plug into the cig lighter and turn the ignition on. Use the handy multimeter to figure out which of the 2 wires is positive and which is negative (the ground) (in my case red is positive and white was the ground). This step is important as to not blow up your radar detector. No cutting corners!

Next, simply take off the center console which is held on by a few clips. First take off the upper section of the console that has the radio door/hvac/etc, and then take off the bottom console section where the stick is. Just pull up on it (you will have to take off the shift **** (this is for a manual, i'm not familiar with autos)). You will be able to see where the cig lighter is plugged into, and just trace that wire to find a nice open spot where you can seperate the wires a bit (maybe get rid of some tape there). In the tC, the black wire here is the positive and the white wire is the negative (the ground) (again, test if you want to be more sure, thats how I found out). Use a t-tap and a pliers to tap into the wire and connect the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative (if you're not familiar with t-taps, go buy a package at radioshack for $2 and there are instructions on the back for how to use them, very easy). Now that you have your wires taped into the positive and the negative, simply run the wire neatly up behind your radio and up and out next to the center vents and to your radar detector (which should be mounted on the lower part of the windshield according to tests). Make sure to test the unit and the cig outlet, and put the whole dash/console back together.

So this works really well, the detector starts up and shuts down with the car and really couldn't be any easier. This doesn't only have to be for a radar detector either, it can really be for anything that uses a 12V, such as an external satellite radio or ipod stuff, etc.

Any questions or if I was unclear, let me know. I'm happy to post pictures, I just didn't think of taking them when I did this. Hope this can be helpful for someone! The pros are laughing after reading this, but hey, I always look for DIYs to be dumbed down a bit to help the guys who've never done this kinda thing or are afraid to. Enjoy!

 

excellent write up! I would like to see pics of the finished product.

 

I'll take some pics, but here is one I already took of the wires that I taped into just to avoid confusion:

 

nice write-up! i never thought of somtehing as easy as that, but ill have to give it a try! how much wiring ends up being shown next to the detector? can you take a pic?

 

Here is a picture of how I ran my wire. I guess one could be creative and run it along the side of the car (behind the dash) and down along the windshield so its not visible, but I don't care too much:

 

bah, you should've just run the wire down the front airvent. would've looked cleaner imo

 

Yep, probably, but I didn't feel like it. I got used to having the wire there, the whole point was just to free up the cig lighter. One day when i get off my lazy butt, maybe i'll run it there, for now, i'm happy

 

good man then

 

 

Just a tip, if someone doesn't want to cut off the end of their caigarette lighter adapter from the radar detector (or Sirius), go to PepBoys or Autozone or wherever and buy one of those 2-into-1 lighter adapter kits, This gives you the female end of the lighter with wires already attatched to it that you can splice into your 12v accessory, OR, you can go a bit more getto and run wires right from the male plug, wrap a wire around the ground (the outside of the plug) and tape one or solder one onto the tip of the plug, tape it all up nice so it can't short and there you have it!

 

hmm.. i might have to try the 2-into-1 adapter... anyone have any experience using this method?

 

Well I've been using that method for years with no problems. Thats how I do Sirius hardwired installs. I hate cutting off the ends...

 

you could also just get a female cigarette lighter plug for like $2 so you wont have to cut the end off

edit: whups didnt notice some one already suggestged.

ive played with the splitter before, depending which one you get, the one i had 2 seperate lines for + and - for each plug thus getting 2 female plugs.

 

So I rewired the power cable through the vent like neothin recommended. Looks a lot nicer now imo. Another option would have been to run it up the side and along the windshield, but I didn't have enough line to do so.

Lots of options for doing this install and its not too hard! :D

 

Or you can take the leap and dremel a hol ein the dash, lol. Realistically, the best idea would be to lift up the dash and slip the wire between the dash and the windshield. Worst case you can make a small notch for it to get through. And you wont really be making a permanent mod since the notch will be all the way at the bottom.

 

Yea, definitely. Its cool to be creative with this kind of thing as there are limitless options. Had the wire been longer, I would have just run it behind the dash and along the windshield nice and low so it isn't visible, but its not that important to me to splice in a new wire.

 

i just got done this, i tapped into the upper part of the cig lighter though, gave me more room to play with. but it looks and works great! thanks for the write-up!

 

No problem. I'm glad this helped someone out! I have since put in a better radar detector and rewired the power cord through the vent rather than behind the console. It looks better and sits better.

 

yeah i ran mine through the vent as well, looks like its supposed to be there. i love having the cigarette lighter itself back in the hole, all of my friends get a really confused look when they get into my car. haha

 

Either of you care to post a picture of how it looks with the wire going through the vent?