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Hardwire radar detector to rear view mirror?

Cleaned up the dash today, hated the wires all over the dash. just spliced into the back side of the 12v outlet. very simple took 30 minutes.
dumbest placement of a 12v outlet i've ever seen
 

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smcgt said:
Alright, so I completed an install today using 20" PowerTap & the Blendmount. The upper plastic housing is pretty easy, but the lower is an absolute pain to remove!

Here is the upper plastic housing piece removed.

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Upper Plastic Housing Trim Piece
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Back of the upper trim piece. This is held on by plastic molded in clips.
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Lower Plastic Housing Piece (Those clips are a bear! I used a plastic trim removal tool.) Notice the 4 rectangular clip receiver holes)
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Here is a closeup of the passenger side metal clips for lower plastic housing
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The mirror harness is small, and removes easily
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If you flip over the harness, you can easily see the power wire (red w/stripe) in corner with black ground next to that. These are the two I tapped.
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Harness with pins tapped.
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COMPLETED INSTALL in next comment
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Is there a trick to getting the pins into the harness? I couldn’t get mine in and ended up breaking one of the smaller pins and the larger pins are just too big?
 
A note on removing the overhead light console... I followed the 2 step instructions in that PDF earlier in this thread, and immediately broke the two plastic hangers on the front (windshield) side by following "grasp the sides and pull down" step. Thankfully they seem to be redundant with the two bolts.

I believe the proper way is to remove the two bolts, then pull down on the BACK edge of the assembly, then push forward and pull down to release.

If you look carefully at photo 2, you can see the left retaining hanger is already broken off in the picture.
 
Ok...I am going to provide you some Copper knowledge. 1. Radar is rarely used by us anymore, most departments use laser. And if your detector goes off with laser its to late I have you. Laser is a very narrow beam. Radar is a cone. 2. If a copper sees a radar detector after stopping you, well any hope of a warning is pretty much gone. So don't waste your money, keep your speed at about 5-6 over or with flow of traffic and you are fine. Most of us don't pull you over until you are at least 10-15 over. Sure there is that rookie on nights that wants to stop everyone, and the Staties but most will let you slide.
 
Where I live, Ka band is KING and is the primary radar for local and State police. Laser is used on VERY nice days and never at night but the go to for them all is Ka. I agree that once you get targeted by laser you are done but it also reflects and triggers detectors and mine has gone off with plenty of time to slow down based on receiving reflections off other vehicles. Your statement that it is RARELY used is way exaggerated and Ka is the common choice among police across the US.
 
klaby said:
Ok...I am going to provide you some Copper knowledge. 1. Radar is rarely used by us anymore, most departments use laser. And if your detector goes off with laser its to late I have you. Laser is a very narrow beam. Radar is a cone. 2. If a copper sees a radar detector after stopping you, well any hope of a warning is pretty much gone. So don't waste your money, keep your speed at about 5-6 over or with flow of traffic and you are fine. Most of us don't pull you over until you are at least 10-15 over. Sure there is that rookie on nights that wants to stop everyone, and the Staties but most will let you slide.
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I disagree. Most depts do not use laser, they use radar. Laser takes much more effort, radar can simply be left “on” and an officer can more leisurely monitor your speed. I wish all departments used laser because laser, unlike radar can be very easily and legally (in the majority of states) be jammed (research AntiLaser Priority). Either way, always better to use a “rabbit” when driving (don’t be the lead car).
 
klaby said:
Ok...I am going to provide you some Copper knowledge. 1. Radar is rarely used by us anymore, most departments use laser. And if your detector goes off with laser its to late I have you. Laser is a very narrow beam. Radar is a cone. 2. If a copper sees a radar detector after stopping you, well any hope of a warning is pretty much gone. So don't waste your money, keep your speed at about 5-6 over or with flow of traffic and you are fine. Most of us don't pull you over until you are at least 10-15 over. Sure there is that rookie on nights that wants to stop everyone, and the Staties but most will let you slide.
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Flat out wrong on the "most departments use laser". It's quite the opposite. Radar is by far the most used method of traffic enforcement. Laser is just a fraction (nationwide percentage). There are some areas that heavily use laser, but it is still a fraction.

I do agree that once you detect laser, it's too late. If you detect it, that means you're getting a ticket.

Cheers,
 
NJ use KA band radar all the time. I def needed it more when I had a fast car, but still helps is areas where they drop limits quickly to trap you.
 
dsn112 said:
NJ use KA band radar all the time. I def needed it more when I had a fast car, but still helps is areas where they drop limits quickly to trap you.
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So NJ is a horrible place for traffic enforcement (among other things) since it uses everything. State troopers use Ka band (mostly) and laser scattered around (more heavily in south nj on the GSP). Locals use a combo of Ka (mostly), K (some) and believe it or not some still have X band (south nj). You can learn all you ever wanted to know about radar/laser and even see a map of what is used in your state by going to rdforum.org or by visiting my buddy vortex at vortexradar.com
 
Vortexradar is awesome! I have been watching their reviews and reading their test reports for years.
 
I used a MirrorTap Power Cord MTX-1020, RJ-11, 20" for my Escort and wired in behind the mirror housing box close to the windshield. Not the mirror itself like the older trucks, but the plastic housing box flush with the windshield behind the mirror. Then tapped into the pink/yellow for + power and black for - negative. The wiring area to tied into is actually attached to the roundish thing on the windshield (see pictures). To get inside the housing just use a plastic ply tool to pop down the housing way from the windshield. Then there is a 2nd plastic piece to ply apart directly behind the mirror. So there are 2 pieces of plastic to pop apart before you can remove the housing. Be careful not to break the tabs on the 2nd smaller piece and take your time. I did not have to remove the mirror itself at all. I ran the Mirror Tap wire through the hole where the mirror stem goes through and reassembled in reverse. Very clean with my RamMount radar Detector holder attach to the mirror stem. Yes a PITA, but works great when done.
 

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@RSK ...this works great for a radar detector but the problem with this installation technique is for when you decide to mount a dash cam and several dash cam users are installing the mirror tap. With a mirror tap, you cannot get PARKING MODE and that is one of the most important aspects of a dash cam. Most incidents occur in a parking lot and the way you powered it, you will never have that capability. It takes very little effort to hard wire it with a fuse tap into your fuse box...maybe an extra 15 minutes at most. I have both my radar detector and my dash cam running to the fuse box.
 
SecurityGuy - Are you say this wiring cause problems with the already car installed “Parking Assist” (parallel or normal parking) performed by the vehicle automatically or a problem when adding additional after market dash cams? I don’t plan to add any after market dash cam’s, so just confirming it doesn’t cause problems with the Park Assist Mode. Please confirm either way. Thx!
 
RSK said:
SecurityGuy - Are you say this wiring cause problems with the already car installed “Parking Assist” (parallel or normal parking) performed by the vehicle automatically or a problem when adding additional after market dash cams? I don’t plan to add any after market dash cam’s, so just confirming it doesn’t cause problems with the Park Assist Mode. Please confirm either way. Thx!
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If you’re not adding a dash cam, you’re fine, since this will power on & off with the truck.

Cheers,
 
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