Rep Power: 0

Ok, im pissed off right now. I just took some time on my sat to hard wire my radar detector to my AC outlet. I ran a wire up from the radar to where the mirror is, across (under) the roof, down the pillar, under the steering collum, and behind the 12V AC. Split that wire, and put in a switch, grounded the switch, wired (and yes no wires are crossed over), and then put everything back together. Started up the car, radar turned on with the car, went to flip the switch to make sure it works, and sure enough the radar went off. Flipped the switch, and nothing, flip, flip,flip, car on/car off, still nothing, think i may have blown a fuse BUT WHY! its a pilot 12v switch, rated for cars, and i have no idea why this happend, and if i replace the fuse, its just gonna happen again!!! what can i do?!

 
Rep Power: 338

did you reverse the pos and neg wires by mistake? the white stripe isnt always ground, isnt always positive....

 
Rep Power: 0

did yellow as + and black as - and grounded the switch to the ground bolt behind the 12v AC adapter...

 
Rep Power: 307

Well. . . unless you've got a different car than the rest of us, it should be DC power in your car.

(Just couldn't resist that one. . . lol)

Okay. . .

1. Should always have spare fuses laying around, anyway. . . so I'd go buy some. They're pretty cheap.

2. It's possible the switch is a dud. I've actually seen this happen a time or two before. Try wiring it temporarily without the switch inline and see if it still doesn't power-up. If not, then you might have somehow toasted the RD. (This is, of course, after checking the fuse for that power line.)

3. Bad ground. Not likely, but just make sure everything really is screwed-down tightly.

Hopefully it's one of these scenarios. . . would suck *** if somehow your RD is really fried.

 
Rep Power: 0

DC/AC, yea... they both will kill me in the end. Well I replaced the fuse last night, and POP it went again, the fuse keeps blowing. I am gonna rip the wiring out today, and start over. Currently with the RD unplugged, the fuse does not blow. Hummm... well after i rewire AGAIN, i will post what I did, maybe I should do a DIY, i will grab the camera, and take some pics of hardwiring the RD.

 
Rep Power: 328

Before you rip it all apart try replacing just the switch.

 
Rep Power: 0

true, i do have a extra 12 v switch, but only 2 fuses left.. hummm... decisions.....

 
Rep Power: 338

this is a classic problem of reversing the + and - battery terminals, id triplecheck, i really really would.

 
Rep Power: 0

ok i had both + and - to the switch... DUHHHHH.... omg.... i shall never show my face again...... for those who don't know what im talking about the switch is supposed to have + in and + out on it as well as the ground.... argh......