How to hardwire a Valentine 1 Radar Locator on a BMW E90.

Do I have to cut, splice, or solder onto any wires? NO, not with my method.
Will I damage or scratch my vehicle? No, again. Not with my method.
Will my V1 cut off when I use my sunroof? No
Will this...

That's the method I used, works very well and avoids cutting into any wires which could have warranty implications.

Has anyone experienced problems with sunroof operation and the V1 restarting? I just ordered a V1 and will be installing when I get it. Just wanted to confirm that it won't affect operation when opening/closing the sunroof.

Thanks

Bueller...Bueller?

Where did you get your direct wire cord? The one you used looks like it has a fuse built in.

I just tried this and got an SOS error no hard wire for me, what do I do now?

another possible method, fuse tap hardwired.

i did this but opening the sunroof actually cuts power to the V1, tilting the sunroof restarts the V1. seems like the fuse tap is the better way to do this

My friend did this for me on my e92 a few weeks back. Works flawlessly!

Regarding the sunroof issue:
Make sure you ground it to the a good bolt. When we had the voltage meter the power read ~14volts, whenever the sunroof was used it dropped down to 7-8 or even lower, which effected the v1 turning it on and off.

So...
- Make sure the ground is secure, I think we used the larger bolt that was close to the left side, further in.
- Check the voltage on a bunch of the wires, we tapped into 1 of the larger ones and it worked fine.

damn Mine had the error

I just used this method to wire in my radar detector.
I have always put my detectors in this location as a personal preference.

It works.

I used the green wire w/ white strip, but rather than jam in the soldered wire and rely on a flaky mechanical connection and run the risk of shorting an adjacent pin, I stripped off some of the insulation on the wire higher up and spiced in there.

I also included an inline fuse to protect the unit from surges.

For grounding I used the torx screw on the sunroof motor mounting bracket.

The detector works, and the sunroof still works.

The one problem is that while closing the sunroof, the detector gets a power drain and reboots itself. This only happens while closing the sunroof. I'm ok with that.

update

I moved the ground from the torx screw to the 10mm bolt as per itsxtian's post and now the power problem while closing the sunroof is gone. Glad I tried it.

*nice*

After I did this, the valentine worked, but the sunroof was altered. Raising the back end of the roof now happens in several steps, in response to hitting the switch in the way that used to put it up all at once... and as for opening the roof, that is, sliding it back, it starts to work...dropping the back edge, but then, on various tests, either does nothing more, or will only move back ~ 2 inches at a time, until ~ half open, then will do no more.

What have I done? I took off the detector wires, and it made no difference. Left them off so I can go to dealer and have them fix it...unless someone can suggest something easy that I should be looking at.

Thanks

Try holding down the sunroof button for ~30 seconds - the roof needs to go through a complete open and close cycle. Once complete everything should be reset. Nice trick I recently learned from the dealer.

Thanks for the write up. Major respect. It helped me out a lot.

nice review!

Nice writeup, Thanks... I need to hook this up before I get in trouble

And would the wire I tap into be the same for a 2008 92? anyone know?

Thanks for the photos - very helpful.

Instead of the "piggybacking", however, I recommend just tapping into the green/white wire with the blue vampire clamp provided with the V1.

took less than 1 hour.

I used the above link on my E93, and it literally did take no more than 30 minutes to complete.

What's better, I didn't even pull out the A pillar casing. I was able to run it to the side of it, shoving the thin wire to the side of it.

Had a great buddy help me out on the install, and was able to step me through the process very quickly. That's quite helpful as well.

At first, I was skeptical to use the above link, as I was a big proponent of using the connection near the rearview mirror. But in reality, it takes too much longer. Also, running the instal directly to the fuse box means you'll not have to worry about the fuses, ckt breakers, etc

just my .02

I just did this, but a little more ghetto, with garbage bag ties instead of zip ties (at parents house lol) and it boots up fine. I didnt try and operate the sunroof yet but I'll see what that does. I have a whistler PRO78 , not a V1.

Thanks for the fantastic DIY! Just used it to hardwire my Passport 9500iX; and everything works (detector, lights, sunroof)! Thanks again

Thanks! Did it today,it took me about 15min to install it, works great,thanks again for the great diy

can I just use the pinch connector that came with the V1??? the ignition wire is the green w/ white stripe right? Ill do this tomorrow