[Mike]

Originally Posted at VWVortex by Christina [hotdaymnitzbao]:

ok guys. i did this yesterday in pouring rain. took some awful pictures... but hope this is helpful for everyone

STEP 1... take the side panel off... the panel that has all the fuses and stuff.

STEP 2... unscrew the bottom of the dash off. i think there were 3
screws... it's the cover that's below the cover that has the parking
break release handle. look for the thing i circled in red. that's where
u wanna attach the wires

STEP 3... attach the wires as shown in the manual.... tie and tape up all the loose wires to prevent the wires from coming undone

STEP 4... attach the detector.... tuck in the wires along the top and the A pillar then down through the fuse area

and DONE! now the detector is installed with no wires showing!!!

this took about 45-60 mins to do. not very difficult....

 

[Mike]

interesting, how do you rate the product. Has it been useful to you..... I know i have a heavy foot and my V8 doens't comply with it.

From what I understand, and I've done quite a bit of research on it, the Valentine One is one of the top two radar detectors on the market.

The direct competition is the Escort Passport 8500.

Depending on where you find the comparison, either one of the two is rated #1.

Features about the V1 that I like:
- Arrows display location of radar signal
- Bogey counter

Features of the Passport 8500 that I like:
- Less expensive
- Less false positives

I found this on another site:

Both the V1 and the 8500 are top notch detectors, the best you can get.

The 8500 is less prone to falsing, is a little smaller, and has an audio-out jack (an extra cost option on the V1). The 8500 may have a slight edge is RADAR sensitivity.

The V1 has the arrows - and to me that is the must-have. Once you have driven with a V1, you will not want to go back to just a beeping detector.

Without the arrows you have to slow down when the detector beeps and stay slow until you are getting no signal - you have no idea where the cop is. With the arrows you will "see" they are behind you, know when you go by them, etc.

The counter (8500 has something similar) is great too - several times there had been back-to-back traps that a set to fool those with lesser detectors. You go back the first trap and speed back up, you detector is still beeping buy you "know" you are safe since you just went past trap #1. Wrong!

You can get 8500s at a discount fairly easily, not a deep discount but a decent one. You can sometimes get refurb/open box V1s from Valentine with a little bit off as well.

I don't know if Escort will have an upgrade plan for the 8500, but the V1 does.

 

[Mike]

Re: Step-By-Step Mounting of the Valentine One Radar Detecto

Originally Posted at VWVortex by Christina [hotdaymnitzbao]:

ok guys. i did this yesterday in pouring rain. took some awful pictures... but hope this is helpful for everyone

STEP 1... take the side panel off... the panel that has all the fuses and stuff.
STEP 2... unscrew the bottom of the dash off. i think there were 3
screws... it's the cover that's below the cover that has the parking
break release handle. look for the thing i circled in red. that's where
u wanna attach the wirest....

Mike,
This looks GREAT!! I have a couple of questions?
1.) How did you get the panel off under the dash. I found the screws, but it did not want to drop down.
2.) What is this plug? Is it switched by the ign key? Do you know if it has a lot of current carrying capacity (I want to add a two way radio and looking for power)
Thanks and Happy New Year.

Hey Chess -

I'll start by saying that Christina let me post this over here, so I don't know for sure how she got that panel removed.

Here's some more information from Christina:

tappinginto the fuses would be kinda ghetto ... no? plus it might fall off easier and was harder to do. under the dash was just easier for me.

i tapped the wire to brake release sensor for the tranny... which is exposed when u open the lower dash.

and the little black box (with the red and white wire) that i connected was the power distributer for the V1.

From Spockcat:

I don't know about the driver's side fuse box but in the passenger's side fusebox there are several open slots that can be easily accessed, both on all the time and on with the key only. Radio Shack sells fuse taps which fit into one side of the fuse slot and leave you with a spade lug which you can plug in to.
Since this is not exposed I don't see how it is ghetto.

And:

I used fuse taps from Radio Shack, p/n 270-1218. The top two rows of the passenger side fuses are hot all the time. The bottom two rows are switched with the key.

Hope that helps!

 

[Mike]

From what I know, it would be a tad bit harder to try and tap into the overhead console than the fuse box.

 

[Mike]

If any of you happen to tap into the overhead console for power, please consider taking photos along the way and possibly writing a short how-to for the rest of us. I'd love to see how it's done, and I'm sure I am not alone.

:lol: :lol:

 

[Mike]

Thanks Uncle Bob!!