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I am looking for a way to get 12v up near the rear view mirror on my new Q7. Running a wire from below the dash was easy 20 years ago and tapping into the rear view mirror itself on my Honda Pilot was pretty straight forward.
I have kept the detector mounted up by the mirror and it came on when I turned the ignition on. This way I don't forget and even though I don't drive that fast there are places around that go from 45 to 25 and the reminder is helpful.
The fit and finish is so good on the Q7 that I am at a loss to figure out how to tap into something. The detector uses very little current and I don't want an ugly cord coming down to the 12v outlet.
I intend to do the same install that I did on my other vehicle and use a BlendMount and Mirror tap. Without having the car and the lack of information, it will have to wait.
I don't have an answer for the Q7 but your 20-year reference brought me back to hardwiring a V-1 in my 2002 allroad. Attach the red power wire to one of the extra power studs down by the clutch, ground the black to any bolt, then just tuck the wire into the A-pillar and headliner with a plastic putty knife. So easy back then.
On my 2012 Q7, I was able to carefully remove the plastic piece that covers the rain sensor on rearview mirror mount (be careful not to torque the mirror as it will completely come off the windshield mount). Inside, I was able to find an ignition switched wire to power the radar detector.
I was not able to find any ignition-switched sources under the dash or around the fuse panels. Sure would be nice if there were ignition-switched sources around the fuse panels, as I have a power pack that I'd like to have charging only when the ignition is on (kept in the back). To solve this in the 2012, I got a module that cuts out when the voltage drops below 12.5 volts and wired it into the fuse panel in the back. It's powered all the time, but cuts off the load when the voltage drops, so essentially accomplishes the goal.
Not sure how this will work with the new Q7, but I'll be finding out in about a month when mine comes.
Easiest way with a V1 is buying their power plug that goes into the OBD plug and then you bring a wire up the pillar and across the top of the windshield. Works great and also when you are driving below 30 it mutes the alarms.
Other way I've done it in the past is getting an "add-a-fuse" which basically doing into the fuse panel (usually at the end of the dash), finding a fuse that turns off when the ign is off and then adding the "add-a-fuse" to that power supply.
Thanks Sodar for the reference to Mirror Tap. That made things much easier.
I got the wiring done and I wanted to share some pictures that may help the next person who tries this.
Here is the rain sensor cover. You can see that you need to spread the top to unhook it from the sensor itself.
Here is the mirror mount cover. Note that the piece on the right is not the right orientation for mating with the left piece but you can see how the left piece clips in.
I probed the wiring for power that was controlled by the ignition switch. There are 3 wires that go to the rear view mirror. The yellow is hot and the brown is ground. I had to fiddle around a bit to get a snug fit of the Mirror Tap probes into the connector.
Here is the Mirror Tap connected to the rear view mirror connector. I hooked it up with the plastic mirror mount plastic off but having done it once I could do it again with only removing the rain sensor cover.
I went with an after market "super suction cup" mount to tuck the detector up to the right of the rain sensor.
I hope this helps. Thanks to all who offered suggestions.
03-25-2016, 10:07 AM
Radar detector wiring
