Hello,

I am having some issue with hard wiring my Valentine 1 radar detector. Instead of using the vampire clamp directly on the wire of my car, I deceded to use a fuse tap (http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/b...h-rp/5080114-P), and draw the power from the radio fuse slot (the one with the music sign). After inserting two 15 amp fuses into the tap, I put it back to the radio fuse slot. I then used the vampire clamp on the wire coming out of the fuse tap, and connected the power cord and ground. When I turned the car on, the radio and radar detectors start to work as expected.

However, when I turned the car off, the radar detector won’t turn off. I even sat in the car for a good minute, and that thing is still on. The radio is turned off right after I shut the car off, so I thought the power should be out. What’s going on here?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Daniel

 

I hard wired my escort maybe a year back. I remember doing voltmeter testing on the fuse box on several things and almost all of them had power to them when the car was off. I'm pretty sure I tapped the cigarette lighter, because I believe the radio may also be powered constantly. I would get a voltmeter and test what fuse turns on and off with your evo and tap into the one that turns off.

 

Tag power and ground @ the 12V outlet (cigarette lighter).

Use a military splice and some 3m super33 and you'll be good for a long time

 

Thanks so much for the help! I have successfully resolved the problem!

After testing the radio, rear fog light and several other fuses, I am convinced they are all powered even after shutting the car off. I have no idea why they are. Maybe someone could shed some light on that in the future. The cigarette lighter is the one that actually turn off. So make sure you use that one.

A side note on the fuse tap. Since the radar detectors only use <2 amp of current (valentine on actually has a 2 amp fuse build in the hard wire connector), it is important to install a 2 amp fuse along with the original fuse that you took out. For example, if you want to tap into the radio fuse (15 amp) slot, you need to put the original 15 amp fuse and a 2 amp fuse into the fuse tap, followed by inserting the fuse tap into the radio fuse slot.

Thanks again for the help