I'm looking to buy me a radar dectector, and I'm leaning towards the Escort Passport 8500...primarily b/c the V1 is frickin' huge and I work on an Air Force base so I have to take it down all the time. My question is this: Does the cord for the Passport reach all the way over to our power outlet, and if so, how irritating is it? If not, are there aftermarket power cords available? Anybody hardwired the Passport? Also, I know Escort makes a cordless version, but I'm a little suspicious...how long do the batteries last, and how is its performance compared to the 8500?

 

It is faily easy to hard wire the passport. I used the Interior light. The number 1 wire (wht/blu) is hot. Connect a phone jack between this wire and ground (i.e. slice into the white/blue). Mount the phone jack as you see fit. The only thing you need then is a much shorter cord depending on where you mount the detector.

 

The fuse box is under the dash on the left side.. easy to run a wire up under the cowl and exit at the light. That is how my Escort works, always on with the ignition.

 

Has anyone tried the Bel 915? It is remote, like the SR1, but alot cheaper. I'm looking into getting one for $299.
installed. Any comments would be appreciated.
I LOVE MY RED S2K!!!!!!

 

Utah S2K,

I bought spade connectors and a phone cord. My plan was to replace the hot and ground wires on the phone cord with spade connectors and wire them to the fuse box and grounding screw.

In your message above, you say that the wht/blue wire is hot; on my smart cord, I have: black, red, green and yellow. Which wire is which? When you say #1, is that the left wire when you are holding plug like you are going to put it in your nose?

Any clarifications would help a lot!
Thanks.

 

I talked to the Tech Support at Escort, Inc. (do NOT go to escort.com if you are at work...hint: it is not a radar detector manufacturer). They were quite happy to explain that the red wire is hot and the green wire is ground. I will try this after work and see if it works.

 

I wanted to provide some details on installing the Passport without buying the $30 direct connect cord. The Passports use a curly cord to connect to the cigarette lighter, getting in the way. The connection at the radar detector is a standard telephone plug, which allows us to use a telephone cord to route power to it.

I bought a set of crimp-on male and female spade connectors for 16-18 gauge wire (.250 size connectors), and a standard, 12-ft black telephone cord at Radio Shack. Total price was $6.

Steps to hardwire the Passport
1) Decide where your radar detector will be mounted. Use this to determine the rough amount of cord you will need.
2) Cut off one end of the phone cord, leaving enough to reach from the fuse box under the dash, around the weather stripping to the desired detector placement. I think I cut off about 1.5ft.
3) Use wire strippers to carefully remove outer black cover from the last 6" of the cut end of the cord.
4) Separate the 4 strands, and strip the insulation from the last inch of the red and green. Cut off the exposed length of the other two strands, since they are not used.
5) Attach a female spade connector to the red wire and a male spade connector to the green wire. Since the wires are thin, I doubled each wire on itself a few times to give a little better connection inside each connector before crimping it on.
6) As shown in the photos in this thread (http://www.s2000online.com/forums/sh...?threadid=3213), attach the female connector (red wire) to the the 3rd open connector in the fuse box. Connect the male connector (green wire) to the gold colored ground screw.
7) Carefully push the phone cord under the weather stripping around the windshield to hide it from view. I used a bit of electrical tape to hold the cord under the dash neatly.
8) Plug in the detector to the phone cord plug and turn on power to your accessories. Your detector should light up and run through its startup tests. If it doesn't work, check that your connections are secure and that you have power to your other accessories.

That's it. It took me 15 minutes and $6, and it works well. Since the wires in the phone cord are very thin, this solution may not last forever; you can either repair the connections every 6 months or splurge on the direct connect cord from the OEM.

Hope somebody finds this useful.

[Edited by Tanqueray on 04-07-2001 at 12:35 AM]

 

I use a Beltronics Express LI, It works great with. I have used it for over 7 months and have not had any problems with it. You end up changing batteries, but you do not have to deal with cords and connections. $299 is about right for it.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tanqueray
[B]I wanted to provide some details on installing the Passport without buying the $30 direct connect cord.

 

Visor clip with the S2000 just doesn't work well in my opinion. The visor is probably the most useless part of the car. I use suction cups and put it next to the rear view mirror to see signal warnings to determine what is up ahead. Of course slowing down at the same time.