I was at Best Buy planning to purchase the new Escort Passport 8500 X50 radar detector. I was just chatting with the sales associates and told them I was going to "hardwire" it into my car so I don't have to use the cigarette lighter cord and have it dangling down from my dash. The guy from Best Buy said that you cannot do that with the Escort because the cigarette lighter cord has some sort of special funtions. I am calling B.S. on that, but figured I would ask you guys first and see if anyone has hardwired the new Escort 8500 X50 in their f-body. Thanks!

Jeff

 

Umm as far as i know i think you can... The 'smart cord' as they put it just has a little mute button on it and flashed red when it goes off.. so i don't see how that could prevent you from doing that.

 

I don't see why not... it may take a little injunity, but anything can be hardwired to your car if you really want it to be.

 

Yes you can. I have an 8500 and have it hardwired. If you look at the phone jack that plugs into the detector there are 4 wires. The middle two are power the outer two are for the mute function if you're using the smartcord.

All I did was use a voltmeter and check which of the middle two wires was positive and which one was negative. I then cut one end off a black phone cord and wired the two middle wires to the fusebox. I tested it with a meter to make sure it was correct and matched the oem cord before plugging it in.

Or if you don't want to rig up a cord like that Escort sell a hard wire cord for it for something like $15.