Hard wire to fuse box
 

I have a Beltronics RX65 Radar detector which I want to hardwire to the fuse box of my 997 C2S coupe. I bought a direct wire cord which has a negative ground loop and metal end on the wire which splits off from the ground. The wire also has it's own fuse.
I know very little about fuse boxes and hard wiring, so forgive me if my questions are simplistic.

Can I attach the ground to the screw on the fuse box or are these screws too small and not grounded. If so where should I attach this loop?

I am assuming the other metal piece would go into the fuse box. Which fuse should I pull out? I was thinking the tiptronic one since I have a manual. Or should I use any open slot? When I pull out the fuse it has two metal prongs, but my wire has only one. Do I plug it into the top part of the slot or bottom?

That's what forums are for....questions and answers :cheers:

The ground/negative wire (normally black) can be connected under ANY screw that makes contact with a grounded piece of metal. The battery (-) terminal connects to chassis, so anything connected to chassis will be at battery (-). If you look under the dashboard, you will see other places where wires have been attached to ground; you can simply undo that screw and add your wire/connection to the same point.

You want a SWITCHED accessory fuse; otherwise you run the risk of leaving your detector on and draining the battery. If you connect it to a switched accesssory fuse (any amperage rating....detectors only draw an amp or so), as soon as you shut off the car, the detector shuts off.
Check your owner's manual, you should see a switched accessory location or two (standard for Porsches).
As for connecting to that fuse location, you have several options:
http://www.accessafuse.com/testimonials.htm
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

You can also do a search of the forums here on rennlist; this has been asked/done on almost every model of Porsche at one time or another.

These posts may help as well:
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-forum/228360-diy-v1-switched-power-hardwire-installation-for-the-997-a.html
https://rennlist.com/forums/997-forum/188934-v1-w-concealed-display-hardwire-instructions.html

I had the exact same issue - everything worked when the radar was powered directly from the 12V socket but nothing from the hardwired fuse and ground bolt.

Couldn't measure whether I was getting power at the socket end (mine is Valentine 1) because I couldn't fit the multimeter probes' ends into the socket.

After hours of swapping cables etc. I decided to swap the +ve and -ve end. And it worked. The red cable was -ve and brown was +ve in my case :-(

More very annoying as it took me hours and the whole weekend to figure this out!!!

Check out this thread, it may help...

I don't remember where I got my ground.... I definitly did NOT screw it into those little mount screws. Generally, never use a screw that is securing anything plastic because you don't know what is behind there... the screw could be going into a plastic plug thingy. IIRC, I pulled the carpet between the door and fuse box and found a big screw for something or other that was clearly bolted into metal.

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...er-outlet.html

Peace
Bruce in Philly

I hard wired a radar detector yesterday. I tested empty slots in the fuse block and found one that was switched 7.5 A I think that it was Row C Column 5. My wiring kit had a male spade on the positive wire which I pushed into the receiver for the fuse spade (the lower of the two fuse spade receptacles). First though, I routed the wire into the fuse box from the back through an open hole in the upper right/forward corner, took some effort and a set of surgical hemostats that I keep in my tool box. I then routed the wire down to the open spot on Row C tucking it between fuses . It was very neat and clean. The ground I used was the stud that mounts the fuse block itself. This was on the left/aft side of the fuse block. I routed wire upward behind the door seal and onto the top of the dash where the radar detector is located. All very clean and removable in about 10 minutes. Excess wire was bundled, tie wrapped and tucked in between existing bundles.

Figured out most of this by reading several others' posts. I love Rennlist!

Radar detectors still work where you guys live? There is no defence up here! Unfortunately I have had cops stop me and instead of asking me for my license they have asked me for my radar detector.....lol
Other than that they are too lazy to patrol......cameras do their work now for the most part.

I haven't had a radar detector for a decade or more but I seem to have grown a lead foot when I connected my C2S with the hills and curves of North Carolina. I got got the Escort Max II Platinum that connects through my phone (bluetooth) to Escort's data base of red light cameras, speed cameras, plus the real-time input of other users. In a month or two I'll have a better idea of it's efficacy.

As an FYI fuses 2 to 8 on row C are ignition switched via the T15 relay so if you want a switched supply for something low load, tapping into one of those is one way to go. Fuses 9 and 10 are permanent live I think.

As already mentioned it’s important to find a good earthing point. Anything attached to the chassis should be fine for a low load but make sure it is something screwed into the chassis or one of the harness earth points.

If if anyone is interested I re-wired the footwell accessory socket so that it switches with the ignition rather than be permanent live. I posted my diy here: https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...ry-socket.html

Hello, I tried to do this mod as it sounded very straight forward but I accidentally put the fuse tap into the d7 fuse. I quickly switched the tap to c7 but now I am having a CEL with the system saying their is a system fault, pasm failure, and spoiler failure. What should I do? i replaced the fuse into d7 and on an OBDII app that i have it is throwing a p0503 code which is vehicle speed sensor a erratic/high. Please help!