... so my radar detector (Escort Passport 8500) stays on all the time, and I guess will drain my battery. Any wat to fix this such that there is no power to the cig lighter after I turn the engine off?

 

Get your favorite beverage, do a search on "switched power" then sit back and enjoy an evening of reading about switched power.

 

Everybody has their own favourite way of doing it. I ran a cable along the top of the windscreen and down the A pillar to the fusebox, where I tapped into the heated seats fuse which is switched and has a hefty 25A rating. There's also a decent ground screw behind there. Other people dig into the centre console to find the phone wires. Apparently there is also a good switched wire somewhere in the sunroof area, but you'll also need to find a ground wire there. Took me about an hour and a half to do, and about twice as long to research beforehand!

 

You can connect your detector to your radios switched power or connect the positive lead of the cigarette lighter. The wiring diagram is on a label affixed to the radio.