Quote:
Originally Posted by themossman
I encourage you to share how you tapped into the fuse box...I'm sure others would be interested.
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Sure.
The fuse box on this car is super easy to get to.
- Open the drivers door.
- Look at the dash. The panel that faces the door when you open it pops right off, the fusebox is inside.
- Grab the bottom of the panel and pull. Three clips hold the cover, and the cover pops right off. The inside of the cover has a chart of all of the fuses. The two accessory ones are right in the middle.
- There are 5 spots labeled as spare locations in the fusebox. I checked them with a multi-meter. Unfortunately, 2 of them are not live at all. The other 3 are on all the time, which is not ideal for a radar detector. So, the spare locations will not work. You want the detector to come on when the car is on, and go off when the ignition is off so it won't drain the battery.
I had a couple of piggyback fuses in my garage, so I installed one of them into the existing accessory fuse slot for the hot wire. (One of the two in the middle) You can get them at autozone or at radioshack for about $3.
The fuse box has a upper and lower screw on the outside of the box that are both grounded. My radar detector a had loop already installed on the ground wire, so I just unscrewed the top existing screw, put the loop on it, and screwed in back in.
I will post some pics, but it was dark in my garage, so they aren't very clear. If you guys want, I can go and take some more.
(This is an easy install. Seriously..... It just took me longer to post this than to do the work...)
BTW-
2 Interesting things. The dash ABL connector is right above the fusebox behind the panel. It is ready to go, just not plugged in. I had my multimeter out, and verified that the connector works with the ABL dimmer switch. (Where are our vendors with aftermarket kits for the dash lighting. It should be plug and play!!)
When you open the cover to the fusebox, the Onstar fuse is there. There was some question about how to disable it. I didn't try it out, but I believe this would be the place.