DIY-Replacing Rear View Mirror/Hardwire Radar Detector
 

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT responsible for any damage you may do to your car.

DISCONNECT THE BATTERY!!

Pull the rubber molding down around the door frame
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=844

Pull the top of the A-pillar trim towards the center of the car. You will see this:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=845

These green clips need to come off:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=846

Rotate 90-degrees with a pliers, and work them out. They can be tough.
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http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=848

Remove the 2 screws holding the visor in place
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=849

Using two flat-head screw drivers, push in the slots to pop the clips holding the visor mount in place. You do NOT need to push hard!
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=850

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=851

Repeat on other side.

Remove the light
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=852

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=853

This is the adapter you'll need. I bought it off eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/290195434507...S:3160&vxp=mtr
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=854

Remove OEM mirror by twisting the base 90-degrees, then sliding down.

Remove OEM clip
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=855

Replace with clip from kit
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=856

Slide in piece
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Put base on, and attach with screws
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Pull down the head liner. NOTE, there is a white clip visible once the light comes down. Use your fingers to carefully detach it.

Look in the headliner. Thanks to ft86club member tonystewart pointing out, there is already a wire harness available. It is held in with blue tape.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=860

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=861

There are 3 wires.
Blue: (+) Reverse
White: (+) Positive
Black: (-) Negative
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=862

Connect your wires for your mirror and/or radar detector according to the installation manual
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=863

Tuck the wires back up, and re-install all the stuff you took down. Once done, slide your mirror on and tighten the screw.

I used a short wire cover that was cut even shorter to hide the wires
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=864

Finished product
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...&pictureid=866

You can avoid pulling the headliner if you wire the radar to the mirror-side plug. You can then reach the harness with your hand through the map-light opening. Has the advantage of keeping the factory wiring intact.

Yeah, I guess that could make it easier :thumbup:

Outstanding effort,thank you

what are those wire junctions called? and where can i get em?

Red T-Taps. Make sure they are RED. Autoparts stores should have them. Otherwise here is an eBay page I quickly pulled up:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-3M-951-T-...item2c65b1d789

Please help me understand... I found the "extra" harness (probably for the BRZ auto-dimming mirror?) and I found the 3 wires you described. I checked for voltage on them. I got 0 on blue, 0 on white, and 0.06V on the black wire. I was touching off on one of the body bolts inside of the door for ground. I checked the lamp wires and found 12V, so I had a good ground. I did this with the key both ON (RUN) and OFF.

I am wiring in a Valentine 1. My understanding is that I am looking for switched 12V to tap into, right? Did you find 12V on that "extra" harness?

Thanks.

The BLACK wire is ground (-)
The WHITE wire is 12V (+) switched
The BLUE wire is 12V (+) for reverse

For your V1, use the Black (-) and White (+). :thumbup:

Nice write-up. I hard-wired my V1 to the fuse box; I got a little add-a-fuse thing that uses an empty slot in the fuse box. I ran the wire from the right side of the mirror, tucked it into the front edge of the headliner, and ran it down behind the A-pillar trim. You don't have to remove the weatherstripping: just squeeze the trim at the top near the headliner and it will pop off. I didn't disconnect it from the green clip; I was able to get the bottom of the trim away from the dash, leaving more than enough room for running the wire behind it. I made sure to run the wire behind the existing bundle of wires to avoid fouling the air bag.

I prefer this solution to cutting wires. The only modification I had to do was to drill a hole in the fuse box cover so that the add-a-fuse could poke through.

I'm going to need to read up on how to do this for my radar detector. I really hate the cord always being in front of the shifter and my line of sight.

I'm buying a Savvy for my daughters V1 setup, just run one wire across the roof line and down the drivers A pillar to the OBD Port

Instead of hardwiring the radar detector just use the 12v jack that hidden in the glovebox. It's on the top right hand side in the FR-S. no cutting or splicing wires

For me, there was really no benefit to doing that. My cord barely reached and was pulling the detector, it's still in your line of site and looks sloppy, and I can't close the glove box.

Oh wow! Awesome write up!

Here are pictures of how I installed mine.

Oh OK, now I understand what you did.

BTW, for anyone who did hardwire it, how did you ground it? I see the ground wire, but the harnesses I've seen have a screw hook for the ground.

There are 3 wires in the harness:
Blue: (+) Reverse
White: (+) Positive
Black: (-) Negative

So for a radar detector, use the Black for your ground, White for your positive. There is no need to ground to the chassis of the car.

I understand that part of it, it's that the hardwire harnesses I've seen for sale just come with a bolt loop to ground to the chasis. Does anyone know of an adapter or another harness that can just tie into the wire?

Are you referring to something like this:

Passport 8500 Hard Wire

In that link, there is a red push-on connector and a black ring terminal. The black ring terminal just needs to be cut off and attached to the black wire in the factory harness.

Does that still answer your question?

That's exactly what I'm talking about. As someone who hasn't really done electrical work before, what's the best way to attach it to the ground wire? Can I hook the cut wire up to a T-Tap?

I would add a push-on connector like the positive wire in the hard wire kit. Look at the picture below. I used the red T-taps on the factory wires, and red Push-On connectors on the aftermarket side. These connectors can be found at local auto parts stores.

If you can't find the connectors, let me know. We may be able to work something out for me to send you some.

The bolt that holds the fuse box to the body serves as a ground. I crimped a large eyelet to the ground wire for the V1 hardwire adapter, and put the bolt through it. Worked like a charm. Need pics?

Alright thanks, I'll have to run out to radio shack or napa when the kit comes in. Just to clarify, do the wires you're running this off only go to the homellink mirror?

Those wires in the picture go to the mirror AND radar detector. I didn't take a picture of the rest of the wiring. So I think you're wondering if there's enough power up there to power both things? Answer: YES

I wanted to add to this thread. I had my valentine 1 hardwired into my 04 STi utilizing the oem compass mirror harness. I happened to have the mirror sitting around so I hacked off the harness coming from the mirror, and put quick disconnects on the newly exposed wires.

I then took the hardwire kit for my valentine 1 and put quick disconnects on the exposed wires here as well.

I then found the wires that were hot and ground and hooked those up correctly on the harness, and plugged it into the car.

So when I traded my STi for the BRZ I pulled the harness back out and had it sitting around waiting to see if it would work in the new car. So today I went out to check it out and, yep for me this install was plug and play.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...626_182459.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...626_182506.jpg


So yep I was able to plug it all in and tuck the wires. Took me all of maybe 10 minutes.


for reference the blue is switched power on the factory 04 compass mirror harness and black is ground.

Hypothetically speaking, if I were to accidentally cut through the three wires while trying to expose them for the t-taps, is there any problems with just covering them up with electrical tape where the white plug used to be... hypothetically speaking of course.

Well, for using T-Taps, you actually don't need to strip the insulation back. Just put the T-Tap around the wire, and squeeze together with pliers until they snap. They will penetrate the insulation on their own.

But yes, hypothetically speaking, you can just tape off the ends of the wires. INDIVIDUALLY please. :party0030:

Yes, definitely individually. I wasn't trying to strip the individual insulation off, just the rubber tubing that surrounded all three of them together. Which brings me to my next point, I'm hooked up with the ground wire to black and the other to white and yet nothing. Anyone have suggestions? I'm about to just cut my losses, tuck this stuff back up in the headliner, and move on to just wiring it to the fuse box which seems a little more idiot proof (which I apparently desperately need).

I think I'm going to do an install of this nature but instead of a radar detector I'm going to mount front and rear DVR cameras.

Stupid question, but did you turn the key to the ON position to test it? It will only turn on in that position.

Otherwise, if black is connected to black, and red to white, then you could have blown a fuse trying to install it. :(

Turns out in my rush to finish (and the dark, I'm an idiot) I went black and blue, not white. Realized this morning, hooked up my detector to the cig lighter and it's not working. Hopefully all I did was fry the radar detector. This installation is not going to go down as my finest hour, but oh well, life goes on.

Well, the BLUE wire is nothing until you put the car in reverse. Then it becomes +12V. So doing that shouldn't have messed anything up. Did you check the wiring for the radar detector to see if there is a fuse in there? Or better yet, what detector is it?

It's a beltronics v940, can't find a small enough screw driver to get it open right now, but I've tried it in two cars and it is definitely the detector that's wrong.

Took the detector apart, don't see any fuse, but the pins attaching the plug to the board, and the screen to the board have a brown liquid around them. I think I just chalk it up to stupidity and move on to just doing it in the glove box outlet and through the pillar like some others have.

My Install
 

Followed the directions here to tap into the existing wiring behind the light. I have a Beltronics 955: http://www.beltronics.com/store/vector-955.html and got the direct wire kit: http://www.beltronics.com/store/dire...tplug-red.html.

Snipped the + and - off the ends of the direct wire kit, and used vampire taps to connect them to the corresponding + and - on the factory harness.

The direct wire kit comes with an inline fuse, make SURE if you wire your detector you put a fuse inline on the + lead to avoid having to buy a new detector if you screw up the wiring.

I've already replaced the factory deck with a Pioneer P4400BH, so I wasn't using the factory bluetooth mic any more. Decided that I'd get out the dremmel tool and a zip tie to mount the direct wire kit onto the faceplate of the factory bluetooth mic.

Here's some photos:


https://www.whataboutbob.org/downloa...-50-18_595.jpg

https://www.whataboutbob.org/downloa...-50-37_990.jpg

:party0030:

Thanks for posting!

Just hooked up my Valentine. I didnt have a white wire, it was grey (see photo). Also, the vampire tap that comes with the V1 kit is too big for these wires so I used posi taps to hook it up.

Thanks for all the useful info! i just finished hardwiring my radar detector for my FR-S. VERY easy to do because of all the postings. Bought red the T-Tap connectors (telephone-tap connectors) for 18-22 gauge wiring from Radio Shack and used the t-taps to connect to the wires of the extra harness found above the map-light. Black was ground and White (looked more like grey) for +. Used the hard wire kit with built-in fuse I had ordered from my radar detector's web site. Threaded the wiring between the headliner and windshield with my fingers and connected to the radar connector. I found the hardest part was finding the extra harness itself (Found it reaching past the bluetooth mic secured with blue tape enveloped in grey foam). Disconnecting the map-light made it less cumbersome. It only took 5-10 minutes to complete. Thanks again to everyone for posting how to do this!

update: It's been over 2 years since the install and no problems with the t-tap connectors whatsoever.

Just a heads up as I didn't see any info about this. T-Taps are not recommended by most people with electrical knowledge as they are unreliable and can fail in the long run (google it for more info). I was originally planning to T-tap it but I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to strip and solder the wire on directly and just electrical tape it for piece of mind.

To anyone who's not getting power on the existing harness in the FR-S. I was having this problem too.

After checking all vacant spots in the fuse box for a possible missing fuse for the harness I consulted with :bow:Lil Abner and he raised the possibility that I might have blown a fuse testing the connector for power.

... and that's where the problem was! I blew a fuse testing the connector:bonk:. This is the same fuse that controls"Main body ECU and outside rear view mirrors". It slipped under the radar (no pun intended) because I almost never have to check the side mirrors.

The fuse is in the box under the dash. Be prepared to do some yoga to get there. In any case is a 10Amp fuse (no. 1 on page 279 in the manual)

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I have been chasing my tail on this for some time now and i see many people ask and this is the first and correct answer to the problem!!