Anybody confirmed a good source for 12v switched power near the dome light/mirror area to connect my radar detector wiring? Please let me know the location and wire color and/or pin-out that works in the I-Pace.

Thanks.

 

Hard wired a radardetector before. Used the passenger rear seat fuse box, fuse # F12 is on a delayed switch relay. I used this cable from Amazon but had to extend the ground a bit. Mounting was in the driver lower left windshield to allow access to volume and muting for my Escort Max II. Then ran the wire down the door frame and in between the carpet and plastic panel until at the rear seat and into the fuse box area. The screw holding the fuse box harness is a grounding point.

You pull the fuse from F12, insert into the new harness slot (one of the three is compatible with the fuse box), then it gives you an easy tap on the fuse box (note the fuses are both 5A, thus compatible.)

 

Pick of fuse layout

 

What was your wire route to the upper right windshield area?

 

I had a 10 foot phone type connector power cord. It would not reach up to the mirror without adding an extension or getting a longer cord, you likely need a 15 foot one to reach. I ran in the trim and then put to the lower left of the heads up display. I have a Valentine1, so it is very good at picking up radar front to back, but was more concerned about the front for the in city driving. Back comes into play on open highway more in California. Once I found the switched 12V, routing the wire only took about 30mins to slip it under the trim and hide it completely.

The back seat pops up if you pull it, has four snap type anchors.

 

Many thanks. It's all in.

I put a ground lug on the bolt next to the fuse box (10mm head) and left a spare ground wire capped off. The positive side of the F12 fuse is to the top, and I pulled this fuse and drilled a small hole in that tab, and then wound small stranded wire through the hole and around the tab once before replacing it in its slot. Then I ran solid wire under the seat and along the entire right side bottom trim up the right door (pop off the one side panel) and then under the liner to the window and then up the right side windshield. You need trim tools (a few bucks at harbor freight) for much of this to avoid any trim damage. At one end I connected this wiring to the stranded wire from F12 positive and the newly added ground wire under the seat. At the other end I used a small junction connection to join the solid stranded wire to the two strand phone wire that connects to the Escort. Stuffed all the extra wire up in the headliner. All is now good.

 

Nice work McGuyver

 

Thank you for all of the detail on this job!

 

There is a much cleaner solution. Pop the two halves off of the rear view mirror arm. Rotate the mirror base counter clockwise ⅛ turn to remove it. Unhook the connector from the mirror. Pull down on the black electronics cover above the mirror. It will unsnap. Attach the positive radar detector wire to the brown/green wire on the mirror cable. Attach negative to the black wire on the same cable. I just pulled the insulation apart on the wire after scoring it with a utility knife, wrapped the new wire around the original, and soldered the connection. If your radar detector uses an RJ4 telephone cable, then the red wire is positive and the green wire is negative.

 

I looked for, but did not find any appropriate switched 12v in the ceiling unit that leads to the mirror, so I did not go this route. Is your 12v switched? Pics?

 

The tan/green wire on the end of the mirror wiring harness is time delay switched. That is what you probably didn't catch. It goes off a few minutes after the car is turned off. The line is used to power the garage door opener buttons, which the car leaves on for a few minutes after shutdown. Works perfect with the radar detector.

 

Thanks so much for this info! I had already figured out how to remove the lower plastic and could see the wiring I needed, but couldn't determine how to get the upper plastic or the mirror itself loose. Your post solved this for me....Although on my LHD car I had to turn the mirror clockwise.

Will post pictures later today

 

After three hours on the Web and two hours in the car (not to mention 3 cocktails and many swear words), I got my Escort installed. I've included photos that may give you a heads-up on what is required. Some notes: The tan/green wire referenced above did not provide 12v, at least not on this car. Perhaps there is a difference between 2018, 2019, aND 2020 VERSIONS.

On my 2019, the black (negative) and tan (or brown) and green wire (positive) was right next to the black wire. On the other side of the tan and green wire was a green (and yellow?) wire - that is the one that provided 12 v. So my positive and negative leads for the mirror tap leads were separated by one wire. After getting the "inserts" (connectors) in place, I coated everything with an electrical insulation compound. This should I believe provide more structural rigidity.

Then I reassembled everything. Getting the mirror back on was very hard. If you have lots of upper body strength, you'll no doubt do better than I did. You can't see what you're doing, you can't get good leverage, and it's a crap shoot. Concentrate on getting the prongs on the mirror mount perpendicular to the ceiling mount, insert it 60 degrees clockwise from normal, then push up as hard as you can and turn counter-clockwise (as view from below) to get it to lock in place. It took me 10 attempts (and two more cocktails).