I hard wired my Passport X50 because I don't like cigarette adapters. I ran the wire down the A-pillar behind the air bag.

Step 1 is to buy the direct wire cord for $10. I removed the fuse link as I was using a fuse tap. I soldered the fuse tap and a ground ring terminal to the...

I did this over the weekend. Very simple, had to buy new torx driver and the fuse tap, but that was it. I bought the fuse tap at Pep Boys for $9.00 and it came with 4 extra fuses. The A pillar portion is by far the toughest part. Just be patient and dont force anything back into place. And FYI, I used fuse #7 in my 09 E92.
The install is virtually invisible.
Thanks

Great DIY, just walked through this today and got it done in 25 minutes. Would have been faster, but my fuse box is different!! and I took off the panel in the footwell looking for the fuse box, DUH!

Thanks for the great help!

Thanks for the DIY! I used Fuse #28 same as Homelink, worked like a charm.

this was a very helpful writeup, the only difficult part was putting back the trim. one issue that i had is that one of those plastic clips fell in the dash area where the wiring goes down in, but i cant seem to fish it out. is there any way to get to that area? it is annoying the crap out of me that there is a plastic clip floating around in my right dash area.

does the fuse tap have to be in a slot that already has a fuse in it, or can it be in an empty slot

i did this exact same hardwire but with a valentine1, used fuse #8 (lighter) on my E92. worked like a charm.. getting the a pillar trim back on was kinda frustrating but it worked.

i found that the best place to mount the detector is just to the left of the rear view mirror. works great!

anyone know how to fish out the abyss that those clips fell into?

Has anyone used this method on the E93? Are there any major differences with vert?

I'll answer my own question. There are some very slight differences but all-in-all this DIY was a great guide for my 2010 E93.

I started by running the wire from the rear view mirror, across the top, down the A-Pillar and to the fuse box.

The A-pillar trim is slightly different since there is no torx screw to remove. There are only two plastic push clips and the slots at the bottom. Start at the top, next to the glass and pull slowly towards the center of the car. Also, there is no airbag or foam on the inside of the trim to worry about.

The instructions say to "Plug the fuse blade into an empty slot". I tried all of the empty slots in the range 1-10 but only one provided power but it was always on. Slot 8 is keyed with the ingition so I removed the 20A fuse and replaced it with the fuse tap and a 10A fuse.

Did you consider doing it the other way, by tapping into the power that runs into the lights area? I tried pulling down that trim a bit once, and got afriad I might break it, and figured that mod would only work with cars that have sunroof controls.

This is the DIY I'm referring to: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97545

Running it this way has one advantage for E93's that I can think of for the Valentine 1, which is that the Direct-Wire Power Adapter can be tucked in the fuse area I assume, whereas up in the headliner I don't think there's any room in our cars.

I installed my v1 today and it took less than thirty minutes. The most important tool is a good plastic, tapered antenna install tool. I never removed the trim. I followed the windshield / headliner to the A piller. Then used the trim joint, at the top of the A piller, to slip the wire around to the door gasket / seal. Followed the seal to the spot shown in picture 12. The entire cabin wire run was done with no trim removed. Just a tool to slip the wire behind the trim. Once inside this side panel the wire goes up over the glove box and drops right down into the fuse box area, behind the glove box.

Thank you very much for the fuse tap method. Nothing could be easier or less invasive, no wires cut, vamped or touched. I used slot 8 as well. This is the first DIY that didn't cost me more in repairs than money saved. This forum is great.

For people installing V1's with the fuse tap, are you "cutting out" the inline fuse?

no.

So you essentially have two fuses? The inline then the one in the fuse tap?

Do you have a picture of the "good plastic, tapered antenna install tool" ?

Just used this DIY on my E90 yesterday. Worked great and looks super clean. Thanks for the help

I did this today! I also slid the wire behind the A pillar trim instead of removing the A pillar. It was easy enough. It's flexible. I first traced it across the top of the A pillar trim where the headliner meets it and then down the A pillar. I hid it behind the rubber gasket then behind and into the glove compartment. A half hour and I was done. I got a 10 amp fuse for the top slot of the buss fuse adapter and put the 20 amp fuse from socket 8 (cigarette lighter) into the lower slot, as directed by the instructions. A plastic bike tire iron helped me slip the wire behind the rubber.

My only question is where the heck to put the remote button for the Escort Redline?

While you may think it can't see laser, there are plenty of times I've seen em. I'd rather have a fighting chance.

Just finished this (although for a Valentine One), thank you for the write up. It helped me get the A-pillar cover off properly.

I used a fuse tap off of Fuse #7 (08 E90). Used the same ground with a large eyelet.

just ordered the wire it was 8 bucks and you have to get the mini fuse

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Escort-Passp...item5ad1d25560

Really appreciate the post--thanks so much!