Spart
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
I wanted to hardwire my radar detector but none of the methods I've seen on here were really satisfactory to me. Most people suggest tapping into the plug at the back of the mirror, but that seems ugly and prone to failure in my opinion.
I think the better solution is to trace those wires back under the headliner, tap into them appropriately, and run a wire down out of the headliner for a clean appearance.
What you'll need:
If you're doing a radar detector, you'll need a phone cord. Regular four conductor will do.
If you're doing a dash cam, you'll have to figure out what kind of wire you'll need and also figure out which pins/wires are the +12V and ground.
I highly recommend a digital multimeter, even a cheap $20 model, to check your work:
You'll want some red 22-18 AWG male spade connectors:
Some red 22-18 AWG t-taps, for example 3M 3MT-R-100:
Something to splice/strip wires:
Some plastic trim removal tools:
Some electrical tape:
And a torx T20 driver:
First things first, use that multimeter to verify that you have good power and ground that's switched with the ignition. As has been pointed out on this forum many times, the plug leading to the rear view mirror is a perfect source for this. Please note that although the power here is switched with the ignition, if your door is shut when you shut the ignition off, it won't cut power until you open it. Perfectly acceptable for what we're going to do.
Ford can always change things and what might be true for my 2017 GT Base Fastback might not be true for your 2015 GT Premium convertible. Whenever you read instructions like these online, keep that in mind and double-check to make sure your car has the same wiring as some random car on the internet.
I found +12V on the brown and yellow striped wire going into the mirror plug, and ground on the blue and black wire going into the mirror plug. It helps to have a bright light to identify the wires. Also, the probes on your multimeter likely won't be able to reach a conductor in the plug. I used a twist tie that I stripped the insulation from and cut into pieces, then stuck those in the pin holes on the plug. Be very careful not to short the pins when you do this.
Next, you need to remove the overhead dome light pod. It's simply held in place with two clips - one each on the driver and passenger side - and you should pull straight down.
Next, use that T20 driver to remove the inside clips that the sun visor snaps into on both the driver and passenger side of the dome light pod.
The headliner is snapped into the roof with two clips on either side of the dome light pod. Pull straight down until they both release.
You should have quite a bit of room to work with between the headliner and roof. Trace the wires for the mirror. They are snapped into the roof in two locations to the left of the dome light pod. I used a trim tool to dislodge these.
Now that you have enough slack to work on the wiring for the rear view mirror, remove the tape wrapped around the wires and confirm that you can find the +12V and ground wires you confirmed earlier with the multimeter:
Tap into the wires using your t-taps:
At this point I like to do a sanity check and confirm I have +12V and ground at the taps.
If you're hard wiring a radar detector, you'll want to cut off one end of your telephone cord and strip back the outer insulation to reveal the inner wires. Beltronics and Escort detectors are powered by the inner two conductors on the plug. Looking at the plug from the conductor side, the left conductor is the ground and the right conductor is +12V. If you look at your phone cord, you'll probably see that the color of the wires gong to the conductors of the plug is a mirror image on each end of the plug. One end will probably go yellow-green-red-black from left to right and the other will probably go black-red-green-yellow.
Since the Beltornics/Escort detectors use the center-left conductor for ground and the center-right conductor for +12V, I like to match the plug end I don't cut off to this as much as I can, I use red for +12V and green for ground, like so:
If you have a Valentine detector, I believe they are wired the same way, but I've never owned one and that's just what I can gather from searching the internet. If you're not sure, use that multimeter to check where the power and ground are on your cigarette lighter adapter.
Again, if you're hardwiring a dash cam you'll have to do your own research on a power wire - models vary.
Crimp your spade terminals onto the phone cord and plug them in as appropriate:
Re-secure the wires in electrical tape, leave no part of the spade terminal exposed if you used the type I showed above in the supply list. There are fully insulated models you can buy, just make sure they're compatible with your t-taps. I would tape them up anyway just to prevent the connection from vibrating loose.
Snap the wire back into place and make sure to leave enough wire hanging for your detector (or whatever.) You can secure any extra inside the headliner with a zip tie.
Button everything up - assembly is just these steps in reverse - and enjoy your clean install. :cheers:
I think the better solution is to trace those wires back under the headliner, tap into them appropriately, and run a wire down out of the headliner for a clean appearance.
What you'll need:
If you're doing a radar detector, you'll need a phone cord. Regular four conductor will do.
If you're doing a dash cam, you'll have to figure out what kind of wire you'll need and also figure out which pins/wires are the +12V and ground.
I highly recommend a digital multimeter, even a cheap $20 model, to check your work:
You'll want some red 22-18 AWG male spade connectors:
Some red 22-18 AWG t-taps, for example 3M 3MT-R-100:
Something to splice/strip wires:
Some plastic trim removal tools:
Some electrical tape:
And a torx T20 driver:
First things first, use that multimeter to verify that you have good power and ground that's switched with the ignition. As has been pointed out on this forum many times, the plug leading to the rear view mirror is a perfect source for this. Please note that although the power here is switched with the ignition, if your door is shut when you shut the ignition off, it won't cut power until you open it. Perfectly acceptable for what we're going to do.
Ford can always change things and what might be true for my 2017 GT Base Fastback might not be true for your 2015 GT Premium convertible. Whenever you read instructions like these online, keep that in mind and double-check to make sure your car has the same wiring as some random car on the internet.
I found +12V on the brown and yellow striped wire going into the mirror plug, and ground on the blue and black wire going into the mirror plug. It helps to have a bright light to identify the wires. Also, the probes on your multimeter likely won't be able to reach a conductor in the plug. I used a twist tie that I stripped the insulation from and cut into pieces, then stuck those in the pin holes on the plug. Be very careful not to short the pins when you do this.
Next, you need to remove the overhead dome light pod. It's simply held in place with two clips - one each on the driver and passenger side - and you should pull straight down.
Next, use that T20 driver to remove the inside clips that the sun visor snaps into on both the driver and passenger side of the dome light pod.
The headliner is snapped into the roof with two clips on either side of the dome light pod. Pull straight down until they both release.
You should have quite a bit of room to work with between the headliner and roof. Trace the wires for the mirror. They are snapped into the roof in two locations to the left of the dome light pod. I used a trim tool to dislodge these.
Now that you have enough slack to work on the wiring for the rear view mirror, remove the tape wrapped around the wires and confirm that you can find the +12V and ground wires you confirmed earlier with the multimeter:
Tap into the wires using your t-taps:
At this point I like to do a sanity check and confirm I have +12V and ground at the taps.
If you're hard wiring a radar detector, you'll want to cut off one end of your telephone cord and strip back the outer insulation to reveal the inner wires. Beltronics and Escort detectors are powered by the inner two conductors on the plug. Looking at the plug from the conductor side, the left conductor is the ground and the right conductor is +12V. If you look at your phone cord, you'll probably see that the color of the wires gong to the conductors of the plug is a mirror image on each end of the plug. One end will probably go yellow-green-red-black from left to right and the other will probably go black-red-green-yellow.
Since the Beltornics/Escort detectors use the center-left conductor for ground and the center-right conductor for +12V, I like to match the plug end I don't cut off to this as much as I can, I use red for +12V and green for ground, like so:
If you have a Valentine detector, I believe they are wired the same way, but I've never owned one and that's just what I can gather from searching the internet. If you're not sure, use that multimeter to check where the power and ground are on your cigarette lighter adapter.
Again, if you're hardwiring a dash cam you'll have to do your own research on a power wire - models vary.
Crimp your spade terminals onto the phone cord and plug them in as appropriate:
Re-secure the wires in electrical tape, leave no part of the spade terminal exposed if you used the type I showed above in the supply list. There are fully insulated models you can buy, just make sure they're compatible with your t-taps. I would tape them up anyway just to prevent the connection from vibrating loose.
Snap the wire back into place and make sure to leave enough wire hanging for your detector (or whatever.) You can secure any extra inside the headliner with a zip tie.
Button everything up - assembly is just these steps in reverse - and enjoy your clean install. :cheers:
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