Re: Anyone hardwired the Passport 9500i? Alternatives?
I did a Passport 8500 which should be the same as the 9500.
I used Escort's hardwire cable and ran the wire around the window frame from the rear view mirror area down to the front left side of the window and them along the crack at the edge of the dashboard and down the door frame into the area where the fuse box is located. It is very easy to stuff it securely into the window frame under the rubber. I think I used a little piece of plastic as a wedge to hold it in near the top.
It was necessary to (very carefully) strip the outer insulation and select just the two power wires to stuff next to the dashboard. I cut the other two wires out. The full black bundle of 4 wires will not fit in this crack. (This is an all leather interior.)
I had to use a piece of black electric tape to hide the cable in a short section of door frame where there was no place to stuff it. It is not visible unless you crawl around and look for it with the door open.
At the fuse box, you need to find an unused circuit that is powered only with ignition on. You can use a spade connector and pressfit it into the fuse socket.
The Escort cable comes with a fuse; USE IT!! and be sure you know how to use a voltmeter and know what you are doing when you connect this up.
It was a bigger pain to find a grounding point for the other wire. Porsches are too well built and bare grounds are just not allowed to be seen... I finally found a screw fastener up behind the clutch area with enough thread that I could get a nut on top of to tighten the ground wire on. I think this was a fastener that just holds the sound insulation in. Don't be tempted by all that nice bare metal on the steering linkage...
The detector is mounted just below the mirror, where it is visible to me but not too obvious from behind. The wire comes out of the window frame and is attached with a black cable tie to the rear view mirror post with just enough extra wire so it can be connected -- and easily disconnected if I want to remove the detector.
Hope this helps. A photo wouldn't do much good, as everything is hidden. All you see is the detector just below the mirror with a black cable dropping down off the mirror post.
