Hardwiring a Valentine 1 Radar Detector and Concealed Display

Hardwiring a Valentine 1 Radar Detector
Written By: Bob_98SR5

Tools Needed:
10mm ratchet
Philips head screwdriver
Flat-bladed screwdriver
Drill with small bit
Plastic doo-dad (sorry, I forgot the name of this piece)
Cable ties

Valentine 1-supplied Hardware
Power cords (2)
Wire tap
Power connector with ground
Valentine 1 Owner's Manual (pdf)

Obligatory Disclaimer
I am providing this write up for illustrative purposes only. Perform at your own risk. Any mods (including this one) you perform on your vehicle is your responsibility. Furthermore, commercial use of this write up is prohibited---all images and text are property of 4Runners.org. Linking or copying any portion of this write up will result in legal action.

Summary: Since my 1998 4Runner only has a single 12V outlet, I wanted to hard wire my Valentine 1 radar detector into my 4runner. I also purchased the stealth "Concealed Display" unit since I've had morons mooch off my past radar detector driving on the I-5 going to and from LA to the Bay Area.

The folks at Valentine Research really deserve alot of credit for putting together a quality product. The wiring kit and other hardware is top notch. Oh and did I mention that the Valentine 1 is the best radar detector out there? Yeah, I know that's my subjective opinion but how can you beat a radar detector that gives front/rear protection, tells you how many radars are tracking you AND from what direction they are coming from?

Getting to Work: Removing the Bottom Panel
There are four 10mm bolts that you need to unscrew to actually remove the bottom panel to access the wiring. Give yourself alot of space by pushing your seat back all the way and opening your door wide open too. Remove the bolts at these give locations and store the bolts in a safe place. Here is a scanned pic that I modified from the Toyota RS3000 alarm install manual (pdf document):

Which Wire to Tap?
Unhook the ignition wire bundle connection and then used the Valentine 1-supplied wire tap to tap a 12V accessory wire. The wire I tapped was black and yellow in color (yours maybe different). Try using the wiring database at the12volt.com and finding out the correct color of yours. As a final check, use a multimeter:

Once you are done with this, you the attach the V1-supplied power connector to the wire tap and then you insert one end of the power cord into the appropriate power connector port and the other end up to some place in your interior.

Where to Run the Power Cord into the Interior?
If you want the stealth look like I wanted, you really only have two choices: A) run the cord up the A-pillar and to the front headliner or B) run the cord up the dash panel.

Option A allows you to run the power cord down from the front part of the headliner into your V1. You could then use the visor clip to mount the V1 on the visor. However, choosing option A was the least desirable option for me for two reasons: 1) I didn't want to attempt to remove the infamous screws in the grab handle on the A-pillar (anyone whose attempted this knows what I'm talking about) and 2) I like to use my visor.

Option B allows you to run the power cord up under the dash panel and onto the front of the dash. From there, you can use the suction mount to mount the V1 on your window. I chose option B because it was less work to run the cord up through the front of the dash panel and also, it would allow me to still use the visor.

Unfortunately, I did not take a pic of the power cord up through the inside of the dash panel but from this pic you can see that I routed the cord through the vent holes. Use a screwdriver to pry down the plastic and then feed the power cord through the holes and on the dash itself:

Attaching the Concealed Display
The Concealed Display can be mounted on the supplied 12V adapter, but since this whole exercise was done to free up the single 12V adapter as well as maintaining a "stealth" look, this was not an option for me.

Attaching the Concealed Display is simple as pie (what the heck does that mean anyways?). Attach the Concealed Display unit's power cord into the power connector you just installed above and route the power cord into your interior. What I did was to gently pull out the bottom of the black instrument cluster panel and feed it up through there. Here's a pic:

Mounting the Concealed Display
You really can mount this anywhere but I thought the best location would be on top of the steering column cover. The supplied plastic "velcro" itself unfortunately is too strong for the adhesive to handle. After a few days of trying on different adhesives, I decided to make a more permanent mount on top of the steering column cover:

To remove this, you have to remove 3 Phillips head screws from the steering wheel column. The first one is underneath (easy to see and remove) and the other two are located on the front side of the steering wheel. To access these last two front screws, turn the steering wheel one way and unscrew. Repeat for the other one. After removing the three screws, just unsnap both parts off.

Creating a Semi-Permanent Mount
I purchased this two part, plastic doo-dad (I forgot what it's called) but its similar to a plaster wall anchor. Basically, you drill a hole the same diameter as the bottom female part, insert it into the drilled hole, and then insert the male part into the female part. This creates outward pressure on the female part and firmly affixes it.

The head of the male part (shut up, guys) is flat and thus, the velcro itself needed to be trimmed to accomodate the head. I took a Xacto knife and trimmed the edges in a hole shape. Then I inserted the male part into a hole I drilled in the velcro and then affixed it into the female part:

Later, using an old plastic modeler's trick, I took a hot screwdriver and melted the bottom of it flat so as to create a more permanent mount:

Finishing Up
Cable tie all the excess power cord up (there will be a lot of it). Re-attach the steering column covers and the bottom panel. You are set to try it out. Here's what the semi-permanent Concealed Display Unit looks like before re-attaching:

Now since the Concealed Unit is mounted with this plastic velcro, you can remove the unit and stow it away when you aren't using it. Best of all, when you remove the unit from the velcro, the velcro piece does not come off with it. This always happens to me with any velcro adhesive product in the warmer seasons.

The Valentine 1 and Concealed Display in Action:

Here's the V1 unit in action on the mean streets of LA...one bogey up ahead:

And here's a close up of the Concealed Unit. Note: the V1's LED display on the unit itself will NOT show if the Concealed Display Unit is plugged in:

Learning Points and Other Notes:
This is relatively straight forward and is easier than it looks. It is just time consuming, especially if you are unfamiliar with removing the panels and the wiring.

The only tricky part is routing the V1 power cord. As I said, if you take the Option A route, have fun taking the A-pillar grab handle screws off. If you don't care about a long cord running from your leg area up to the visor (and you don't want to use the visor), so be it.

Questions or feedback? Email me and I'll try to get back to you. If this article helped you save time, money or just made things more convenient for you, please consider donating to keep this site alive.