Valentine 1 Hardwire – 2007 Acura TL-S

There are two electronic items I can’t recommend enough. One is a Blackberry and the other is a Valentine 1. The Valentine 1 is a holy grail of radar detectors. I’ve tried several and never felt more comfortable than when using a V1. They are quite pricy, but if it saves me from one ticket it pays for itself. The way I drive, if they charged it’s weight in gold, I’d still buy it.

This post is likely useless to most of you but perhaps someone will get lucky Googling this in the future. Here is a step by step for hardwiring the V1 into a 07 Acura TL-S. One of the most daunting things for people who know nothing about cars is hardwiring electronics. Here goes.

Step 1: Pop of the Side Curtain Airbag button on the driver side A-Pillar using a standard flat screwdriver.

Step 2: Using a standard screw driver pry open the A-Pillar cover. The cover just clips in so you can’t really hurt anything. Just don’t stick the screw driver too far in or you could rupture the airbag (that would be bad).

Step 3: Choose a spot and mount the actual detector. I chose right next to the rear view mirror on the passenger side. It’s important to mount a detector high, but under the tint band. While X, K, and Ka are all forms of radar and penetrate tint, laser is light and has a hard time penetrating tint.

Step 4: Attach the wire and start pushing it into the gap between the roof and the windshield. It may feel a little lose, so in some spots I simply wrapped electrical tape around it to make the wire thicker. That way it’s a more snug fit and less likely to fall out.

Step 5: When you get to the A-Pillar on the driver side, push the wire into there, but avoid crossing over the airbag. The curtain airbag is only in the very top and there is plenty of space to run the wire alongside it. Having a wire running in front of it and then being an accident wouldn’t be good.

Step 6: Cut of the end of the hardwire kit that comes with the Valentine 1. Basically, take the red wire, splice of the end, strip it a bit. Then remove fuse number 24 and stick both the wire and the fuse in together.

I first used a different fuse, but then decided to use the Rear Passenger window. The two benefits of that are it is activated by key, meaning I don’t have to remember to turn of the detector when I leave the car. Also, since it runs of the passenger window (not the driver), I can disconnect power to the V1 simply by using the window lock. This can be useful at times.

Step 7: Ground the hardwire kit (the black wire) onto the same bolt that holds down the trunk release. Basically in most electronics, you can simply ground by attaching something to the frame, or in this case, unpainted exposed metal.

If you don’t want to do a remote display then you are all done.

Step 8: (Optional) Take a piece of sheet metal, ½” by 1 ½” and bend it into an L. Wedge that in between the two panels as shown and use some mounting tape to attach the remote display.

Step 9: (Mandatory) Speed.