B8 – Radar Detector Integration

01/08/2016 B8, DIY

Just finished installing my Escort 8500 X50 in my S4 and snapped some pictures. The idea with the dome light hookup came from ELEVENS’s thread in the Q5 forum. Instead of buying and modifying a cable from Escort, I decided to make a custom harness from scratch.

1. Tools I used
* Torx T25 screwdriverto open dome light
* Knife to cut shield on wiring in car
* Some pliers to cut/crimp cables
* Solder iron and solder to make harness
* Hair dryer for heat shrink tube
* Multimeter to verify my wire harness

2. Materials I used
* 16-14 Gauge T-Taps (Kragen)
* Assorted Heat Shrink Tubing (Kragen)
* 2 pieces of wire
* Clipped off end from a phone cord, with RJ11 connector

3. Soldering prep
* Crimpted two connectors to the two pieces of wire
* Slide heat shrink tubing over the wires (I did each individual wire(pink) , and a bigger (blue) over the whole thing

4. Solder
* Solder the wires together
* black = +12V, red = ground

5. Heat shrink
* Using the blow dryer, shrink first the pink individual tube, then the blue one

6. Open Dome Area
* Open the sun glass compartment
* Unscrew the single Torx T25 screw
* Carefully pop the entire assembly out

7. Install T-Taps
* using the knife, I cut some of the fuzzy shield around the wires leading up to the HomeLink controller
* I tapped into the brown (ground) and white/black (+12V switched) cables
* I had to use the knife to carefully make cuts into the cables, as the T-Taps did not cut through

8. Plug in and route harness
* Plugged in the harness and routed it through the dome light assembly
* Try plugging in the radar detector, when you turn on the ignition, it should fire up
* If it doesn’t work, try switching the two wires, maybe you got the polarity wrong

9. Close it all up
* reinstall the dome light
* I still need to find my visor clip, the suction cups are unreliable
* done (and yes, I need to clean my windshield)