Finished V1 Hardwire

[Avantadrive]

All in all, pretty straightforward. The B6's knee bolster comes off waaaaaay easier than the B5's, which is really handy. The a-pillar, however, was about 5 times more difficult/time consuming to remove and about 3,000,000 times more difficult to reinstall. Personally, I'd rather have a swift kick to the nuts than ever have to tamper with that piece again.

Also debadged the ride, which went easy, and looks great (when the car's clean!) Big day for the Avant!

• The install process

[ErikNYC]

you really did not need to remove the a-pillar. I was able to run the v-1 wire on the edge of the trim and glass with no problem. I used a bent peice of something-or-other to stuff it in there.

[Big D]

[518 Jersey03_T]

Mounting it that high up...does it cut into the performance...as to v1 says mount in the center of the windshield. Laser will have a hard time esp from the rear...and it is that much further away from the height of your front plate (where laser is aimed)? anyone know?

[Avantadrive]

[Avantadrive]

Minolta DiMage Xi

[Avantadrive]

I've been using the V1 for over 3 years, and I've always had it mounted up there on whatever car I've used. I've had no problems with detection whatsoever. V1 only suggests that it be mounted in the center of the windshield, but they say anywhere is fine as long as it has good 360 degree clearance. In fact, where I have it (on the top of the windshield) is likely better because it definitely clears passengers' heads as well as the rear of the car. If it were in the center, it would likely be obstructed by rear passengers/the rear of the car in general. Also, with laser your pretty much screwed anyway, although I've had a save or two with it, and position won't matter there either

[Dustin A4]

With todays technology you would think they could get a better design.

I am thinking wireless kit in the front grill and one in the rear window. Then a remote the size of about 1/2 credit card on the dash.

All of this mirco technology and we still have radar detectors that look like they are from the the 80's.

[protonzel]

I didn't want to mess around with the a-pillar, so I did some exploring in the dome light/sunroof module and found there just so happens to be a 12V switched terminal to connect to on the circuit board! Well it's not so much a circuit board, it's more like a "bus" board. The connector I'm talking about is a spade plug, so it's easy to slide on a crimp-style connector. Then I just ran a short phone wire from inside the assembly out by the rear view mirror (kinda like how the wire is routed for the auto-dim/compass), and viola! Easy power source. I will have to break out the digicam to show how I did it. There's not too much holding up the light/sunroof module, just 2 philips screws and a few clips.



Photo is from Sohcrates's Map Light tech install article. THe one labeled +12V is where to connect the red lead from the valentine dongle. If you look close at the picture, there is another spade directly next to the +12V (labeled in the pic as "DO NOT USE"). It seemed to be a ground connection at first, but a second look with my meter made me think it's not a very good ground. I wound up just attaching the ground lead to one of the two screws that holds the whole maplight/sunroof module in place, since that screws into the chassis. That +12V connection is switched, meaning it turns off when you shut off the ignition (perfect, right?)

Hope this helps someone, sometime.

• How to remove Map Light/Sunroof module

[Raistlin]