Direct wire radar detector
 

Given the the CLA is near the cupholders in this car, I am going to want to direct wire my radar detector Has anyone cracked into the cabin fuse panel on the vehicle yet? Wondering 3 things: 1) Are the fuses micro sized and which position would be a logical one to piggyback off of and is also switched with the ignition of the car? Any ideal locations for a grounding wire as well? 2) Is there clearance in the panel box to use an "add a circuit" so I'm not splicing any wires? 3) Any space behind the panels and trim to neatly fish a wire up to the a detector placed near the driver side visor? thanks.

There's a 12v plug in the glove box that is switched with the ignition, that will be the one i use. I'll be wiring mine this weekend and will try to get pix.

i'm also hardwiring my passport wednesday.. glovebox seems to be a winner, i'm also having a viper alarm installed

I've got a Valentine 1 I'll be hard-wiring, with a remote display. I prefer to go the add-a-fuse route (similar to [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Littelfuse-FHA200BP-ATO-Add-A-Circuit-Kit/dp/B0002BGELQ/ref=pd_sim_auto_1?tag=acleint-20]this[/ame]), rather than cutting existing wires.

I hardwired my escort redline yesterday, it turned out to be very easy to use the glove box power. Visor mounted, its pretty tough to see from outside the vehicle. I wired the remote to be next to the passenger seat near my shifter so i can mute it without moving my arm very far. I didn't take anything apart for that, i just tucked the cables under the plastic and velcro'd it to the side of the center console.
http://i.imgur.com/dsVQO.jpg

First, take the glove box out and the little plastic panel off the side of the door jam. There's a clip on the right side that disconnects the actuator and lets it fold all the way down, then you can take it off completely to get it out of the way.

Once its out of the way it'l look something like this.
http://i.imgur.com/X5NWP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/j9eMi.jpg

There are ~4 Phillips head screws you can take off which will let the whole thing hang, it was caught up on something in the center, but i was able to reach behind the power plug and wire it no problem so I didn't mess with it. I hardwired the radar detector, and just plugged in my dash cam and ran the wires behind. I had a little clip to sap power off the 12v+ line, then I just screwed the ground to the chassis using one of the pre-drilled holes they have back there with nothing on them.

Next, take off the pillar cover, it has an airbag behind it so you'll want to be careful, I was able to pop it off without too much trouble, it has a weird bendy green clip that will hold it on in the event the airbag deploys, use a pair of needle nose pliers and turn it 90 degrees to release it.
http://i.imgur.com/ihRSM.jpg

Next, take the visor off, you'll need to undo 2 screws. The other side not shown just clips on, use a small Flathead to push the clips in on both sides and release it. Once you do that the headliner is easily bent down a little to slide cables under.
http://i.imgur.com/OLvvh.jpg

Here you can see my dash cam.
http://i.imgur.com/Blv1y.jpg

Once all the wires are run put everything back together. The power port in the glove box is switched with the ignition, so I didn't even have to do anything fancy.

Has anyone tried to tap into the center light wire when hardwiring?

I was curious about the A-pillar removal myself. Planning on doing a hard wire radar detector setup, but I will use the foot well fuse panel for power so as to keep the glove box 12v DC free.

i used a "t-tap" connector, http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...beVB2NDGZBTHgl

What kind of dashcam is that? Are you happy with it overall?

Its a Blackvue DR400G-HD. It works pretty well, but the fit and finish could be much better. As a dash cam for continuous use it seems to work pretty well, it does continuous recording with gps/gforce data but don't expect it to be a go pro replacement. The firmware is a little quirky, and you have to reformat the SD card often to keep it from having errors, but for the money, not a bad investment I think.

I, too, just used the switched power port behind the glovebox. See page 26 of the document available here. You should be able to do this in under ten minutes. Good luck.

any of these cop proof for us canadians?

There are 2 at the moment i believe, the bel sti and the escort redline. Both are ~$450. You'll want to get it out of sight though. Google is your friend.

you don't have to deal with splicing/circuits if you use the glove box cig lighter.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i2bEoTbjpA"]Brz radar detector install - YouTube[/ame]