[lcasale]

I'm leasing my car and didn't want to use a mirror tap to hardwire my radar detector. Instead I routed a wire from the trunk tapping into the rear cigarette outlet fuse. I really wanted the detector to switch on ignition but that doesn't really seem possible anymore. Thanks to Zooks527 and his Time to Sleep thread I able to find out more about auxiliary timings. For the most part if I turn the ignition off, lock the car and leave the auxiliary power is cut in 3 minutes (12 minutes if you're sitting in your car with comfort access) which works for me.

So for the install I bought an ATC add-a-fuse from Auto Zone along with some low amperage fuses.



In the 2016 m235i the third from the top fuse is for the rear cigarette outlet fuse and that's what I decided to tap into.


From there I folded down the rear driver side seat and pulled back on the outer cushion to route the black 16 AWG wire I had behind it. I never had to remove the cushion since it gave enough give to snake the wire through.


After the wire was through I tucked it away between the leather and side and then hid it underneath the plastic trim along button up to the driver side footwell.



To remove the footwell panel I first disconnected the battery since it's right by an airbag.

IMPORTANT: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHOULD YOU CLOSE THE TRUNK WHILE THE BATTERY IS DISCONNECTED. YOU'LL HAVE TO JUMP YOUR CAR TO GAIN BACK ACCESS. I LEARNED THE HARD WAY

Using a 10mm socket I removed the two nuts holding onto the top footwell panel. Once the nuts were removed i pulled down on the front of the panel pulling the clips out. It wasn't obvious at first but the back right side of the panel hooks in so I had to pull it toward the driver seat instead of straight down. Be careful when pulling the panel out because there's a speaker and light connected. I'm going to be storing excess wire here as well as using one of the bolts for the negative connection.


I had my Escort Direct Wire SmartCord from my last car that gives me a nice place to mute the detector. I routed the mute button to sit next to the cup holders for now.


Then I routed the detector cable behind the weather strip along the A pillar, behind the top of the A pillar and tucked it in the headliner along the windshield.



Then I made all the connections to make sure everything worked and then put back the footwell panel. Here's the final product!

[dansu]

Looks pretty clean. I'm curious though why you didn't want to use a mirror tap. Seems like that would have been a lot easier to remove after your lease is up. You can get one with pins that insert into the mirror connector so no insulation piercing required.

Also, you might want to take another look at how you routed the wire across the A-pillar since the wire is now crossing the curtain airbag exit path. If you pull the a-pillar trim off, you can route the wire behind the airbag so there's no chance of interference.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by dansu

Looks pretty clean. I'm curious though why you didn't want to use a mirror tap. Seems like that would have been a lot easier to remove after your lease is up. You can get one with pins that insert into the mirror connector so no insulation piercing required.

Also, you might want to take another look at how you routed the wire across the A-pillar since the wire is now crossing the curtain airbag exit path. If you pull the a-pillar trim off, you can route the wire behind the airbag so there's no chance of interference.

I've used a mirror tap on every lease I've had and just turned it in with the wire still installed. Running wires past the airbags concerns me too.

[lcasale]

Originally Posted by dansu

Looks pretty clean. I'm curious though why you didn't want to use a mirror tap. Seems like that would have been a lot easier to remove after your lease is up. You can get one with pins that insert into the mirror connector so no insulation piercing required.

Also, you might want to take another look at how you routed the wire across the A-pillar since the wire is now crossing the curtain airbag exit path. If you pull the a-pillar trim off, you can route the wire behind the airbag so there's no chance of interference.

I really like having the mute button close by without having to reach up to the detector itself. Before the hard wire I kept reaching for the mute button by my knee (which is where I had it on my last car) out of habit. I'll take off the A pillar trim and make sure it's not in the way of the air bag. Thanks for the tip!