Hello. My cigerrette lighter in my car doesn't work, and I want to install a radar detecter. My qestion is it possible to splice into the the wire and not use the cog. lighter but rather hook it up to the battery with an inline fuse and maybe a toggle switch to turn it on and off if I cant do so manually on the detecter itself. But, in the wires, is there a poss. and neg.? Or is it a bunch of complex strands of wire? I have never spliced into something that hooks up to a cig. lighter before, so this is the reason for my question. Thanks in advance!


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop lighs in the front and rear lights, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

When i had mine hooked up, i hade it hooked to the cruise control spot in my fuse box. ( i have no cruise). The power cable supplied with the detector has a pos and neg, (if its like the one that was with mine) just find out which one is which, and ground the neg, then hook up a connector on the end of the positive and slide it in the spot for the fuse of ur choice. an inline fuse on the power wire would not be a bad idea either. Mine was mounted under my rear view mirror with a custom bracket, and i ran the wire under the headliner by the wind shield and down the a pillar....looked like it was supposed to be there.

All the radar's that I am seeing has not positive or negetive, just a cig. lighter input, thats why I asked about splicing into it. What kind of radar did you have that had a pos. and neg.? Or can you give me some ideas on radars that are set up like this? Good idea about the fuse box though. I am mainly looking at a cobrathat I found at radio shack. It is like 300 bucks and I dont want all that money to go to waste by me cutting up the wires haha!


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop lighs in the front and rear lights, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

when u look at the wire, are there 2 "sides" to the wire....if so, then u have a pos and neg...if not, just cut the end off the adapter part, crimp or somehow attach the proper connector to fit the slot on the fuse box and ur in business. an inline fuse would be good too...ur gonna have to cut ur wire for the detector either way

good point bout the 2 wires and whether it would have a pos or neg. Welp, off to radioshack I go! Thanks for the advice,one last question though, I have cruise but it doesnt work, so I am going to try to set it up like yours. What kind of connector did you use for the fuse box? Or did you use OE stuff, but spliced ino it aswell?


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop lighs in the front and rear lights, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

any type of male style plug connector...pull a fuse outta ur fuse box and get a connector that matches or is very close to that it wont fit in both sides of the fuse relay though, so fidn out what side is positive and u are set....should be easy ...the wire went from the detector to the box, no splicing into any other wire....if i have pics i would post. but im at work so i can't



Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:11 PM

Thanks ALOT MAN! I will give it all a try! Pics would be great just for some more reference, but I am pretty sure I have got it.


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop lighs in the front and rear lights, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

any update??

It's usually NOT a good idea to cut the plugs from things that plug into your lighter. Often there will be a transformer in the plug itself that might drop 12V down to 3.5 volts or 5 volts. Be careful.

Thats true....I've never had a problem thought. i have always installed in line fuses, and besides once that i can remember, the fuse has never even blown.

I have been running my radar detector hard wired into the fuse box for at least 5 years with nor problems at all. I have it wired to a fuse that goes on an off with the car. As soon as I turn the car on its on and when turn the car off, it cuts off.

this is true, but I really wanna stress that you should be ABSOLUTELY SURE that your device is looking for 12V. If you were to do the same with something like a satellite radio you'd be seeing blue smoke and dollar bills flying away.

OK, I am going to purchase the radar today, and try to install it. I will take pics and let you know how it goes. Sorry it has took me so long to reply, I have been busy at work. I will ask around to see about droping the voltage any lower than 12 volts. That is pretty scary!


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop lighs in the front and rear lights, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

well, I did it!!!!! works great. I took apart the big thing that goes into the cig. lighter, there was 2 wires in there, a white one and a red one. I didnt do the in-line fuse though because I was in too big of a hurry to have it installed. I spliced it to the 2 wires that go to my cig lighter since the one I had didnt work anyway. It is keeping good power, and it is a cobra 797 radar. Pretty high speed! Thanks for the help! By the way, I am trying to up-load the pictures of my work, but it say's they are too big, I have tried re-sizing them, but that dosnt seem to work, they are a j-peg file? I will try to get my wife to help me later.


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop lighs in the front and rear lights, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

the cig lighter is already fused, so no worries.