hey guys, i just hardwired my 8500 and i thought it might be handy to others who wanna make the install really clean. its really easy and hopefully this vid will help:

right click and save target as (http://12.210.95.218/radar1final.mov)

its on the server in my basement so the transfer isn't awesome, but....i would definately recomend this to anyone who has enough skill with a screwdriver to pry some plastic off the roof of their car. its really nice to not have to worry about the lighter cord anymore. enjoy!

Great movie. What did you use for switched power? It looked like a wire that connected to the light housing (as opposed to the sun roof power).

thanks. yea you just take the purple/white stripe wire and brown wire (power and ground respectivly) that go into the light housing. just clip the wires from the phone cord into those and it should work:) that way the detector will turn on and off with the ignition

how'z about a couple of .jpg pix of the setup. A 13MB .mov file is a tad too long for the likes of me, stuck using a dialup modem connection.

sure i'll take some pics later on today and post em. ya 13MB would take a bit of time for a dial up...

I have a question to clarify --

What is running into the courtesy light? What is running into the center light?

I can't understand from the video how you need to deal with the wiring to both lights.

Also, I hard-wired mine into one of the center light sources, and whenever the light is on, the voltage drops too low for the light and the detector and shuts off the radar decector.

My detector works with the ignition off or on.

Any sugestions on adjusting my wiring would be appreciated.

JO

excellent tutorial man...THANKS
Kevin

Originally posted by Johno
I have a question to clarify --

What is running into the courtesy light? What is running into the center light?

I can't understand from the video how you need to deal with the wiring to both lights.

Ok, the phone cord goes from the radar detector behind the visor and into the courtesy light. i just bunched up the extra cable there behind that light. the end of the phone cord is tapped into two wires going into the center light. i'll go take that picture now and hopefully it'll help.

Also, I hard-wired mine into one of the center light sources, and whenever the light is on, the voltage drops too low for the light and the detector and shuts off the radar decector. My detector works with the ignition off or on. Any sugestions on adjusting my wiring would be appreciated.

umm, which wires did you connect the phone cord to? that might be what's causing the problem. check out this place (http://www.bmw-m.net/TechProc/v1.htm) for a write up.

hope that helps

ok, just went to take some pics. the ones of the wires are kinda blurry but i think you can get it...

this is the phone cord going up behind the visor
pic 1 (http://12.210.95.218/DSC02166.JPG)

this is the phone cord going into the courtesy light
pic 2 (http://12.210.95.218/DSC02167.JPG)

so here are the blue wire clips with electrical tape around em. you can kinda see the purple/white wire and the other brown wire.
pic 3 (http://12.210.95.218/DSC02170.JPG)

the other black wire is the phone cord.

I truly regret being so dense, but I hope you will be patient with my failure to grasp this.

I read the materials and sdaw the pictures and I still can't figure out why there is talk of a visor conection and a center lamp conection.

And what is a "phone cord?"

I took the standard-issue lighter cord that came with my Bel and cut off the lighter plug, and I spliced into wires in the center lamp. I just poked around until I found one that was hot.

I really want to do it right, but I am getting completely stuck on the apparent use of two power sources.

Thanks for any clarification you an help with.

best,

john

no prob johno. i just used a regular telephone cord to connect my radar detector to the center lights. and there is no connection in the visor light, i just used it to run the telephone cord from the detector to the center light.

hope that helps...

i get it! the cord goes into the visor lamo hole, but attaches at the center light!?!?

So why a phone cord instead of the line that came with the detector? Does your detector actually use a phone jack instead of one of those round plugs?

i used a phone cord because it was the same connector type. this will work for a passport 8500 and a V1 i believe, but i'm not sure about bel's. you might have a different connector (sounds like it). also the cord that came with the 8500 was all coiled up and wouldn't fit where a phone cord could.

glad you got it:D

fred, thanks for the vid
i have a question
maybe i am not getting this right.... but wouldn't there be power only when the visor light is turned on??