He definitely went above and beyond on that

 

Good to know. If you're doing this tap, I rather just tap into the mirror. This seems like so close, yet still so far. It really isn't that much work to wire under the rear seats. The wires tuck pretty well under the sill. I'll update the write up once my 25 gets here.

 

The issue was that the installer couldn’t find a switched power line to tap in the mirror housing in my 2025MY. He had no issues doing the mirror tap in my ‘22 G.

I would think there has to be a switched power supply in the mirror housing in the 2025, but perhaps the addition of cameras/driver’s assist setup hinders the install on the 25+ MY.
With the built-in Dashcam, I believe it’s supposed to take photos if an impact is detected when the vehicle is parked…so maybe there is constant power run to mirror…or maybe the 48volt setup is throwing things off….🤷🏼‍♂️

 

Do you know where your installer was able to find the switched power in your `22 G? I just got mine this weekend and will be looking for a way to tap the mirror for my V1 Gen2.

 

Right in the mirror, there are a few install threads on here for Gs prior to ‘25 models.

 

how is the fitcam wired ? Do you have both front and rear recording and does it shut off when car is off? Apologies asking too many questions at once

 

I only used the front camera for fitcam but for some models they offer rear camera too.

it plugs into the white plug on the right. I tried to tap there with radar detector and best I can tell is all of those wires are on all the time as the radar detector was on even with car off and locked.

The fitcam does seem to turn off or at least not record constantly, but I’ve found it also randomly turns on when parked, so I think it has power all the time but it doesn’t record constantly.

 

I too was not successful in finding switched power up near the rear view mirror. I ended up just leveraging the battery saver mode on the Uniden R8 that automatically turns it off after the device senses not moving for about an hour. I really hopes someone can find a switched source closer to the rear view mirror.

 

There is a thread in the W463 forum that I found that is how to tap into switched power for the W463A. I am linking that post below and adding my experience with adding my V1 to my 2022 G63 below so that anyone searching in this forum can find this information too.

Original Thread in W463 Forum

I just want to say Thank You to @johndong888 for the great write up five years ago. I thought I would add a few items to this thread since I have been trying to install my V1 G2 radar detector in the G63 and wanted to try easier routes first. I have to admit, the G63 had proved to be a bit of a pain vs vehicles from VAG that I have been used to doing it on.

The first thing I tried was to do a mirror tap. Fact is, after testing all the lines I could not find one that supported the switched power in any of the bundles. I even took down the overhead console to try to find one. Not only that but the large bundle that may actually have one was too tight to fit even the smallest Mirror Tap into it. I do wish there was a color code for the wires somewhere on the internet, that was the trick I found in my Cayenne to locate the switched power, it was a specific color wire (Red and Blue if I remember).

Secondly I purchased the Valentine1 SAVVY device which plugs into the OBDII port under the dashboard. Routed the cable from that up the A-pillar over to the mirror and it worked great...until Mercedes Me started throwing an error. The error was "Mercedes Me Services Limited, Vehicle Functions for Malfunction Detection Restricted". I had issues in the past with SAVVY in the Cayenne with it triggering the alarm randomly but the new SAVVY did not list MB as being incompatible. Unfortunately it is. I ran around town for about a week with it like this and there were no issues and the V1 worked fine but I didn't like having to clear the error so I ordered the Radarmount 15' hardwire harness to attempt the above.

Now, the harness came in but the ground wire was only about 8-10" long so there was no way I could get it to the official grounding point in the front fusebox. The ground wire is an 18 gauge so I was planning to extend the wire and run it back to the front box. Since I have not extended a wire in a vehicle before and even though it isn't exactly rocket science, I decided to test if any of the bolts in the second row could work as a ground. Lo and behold I found a strong one in the bolt that secures the seat belt to the vehicle. The other bolts were not solid enough of a ground to work, this was the only one that was reliable. I removed it, saw it went into the unpainted portions of the body/frame so that was positive. The ground wire from the harness was able to stretch to it while keeping the wiring harness fuse inside the fusebox.

So I tapped the same fuse as many have used above. modified the grounds spade (cut it a bit and then widened it to fit around the large bolt) slid it under the metal bracket and around the bolt and tightened it hard (it is a seatbelt bolt so you have to ensure it is VERY tight). From there I ran the single cable straight up behind the hard plastic molding to the side of the seat and then over to the door weather seal. That hides the cord perfectly and ran it along the ceiling, tucked between the headlining and the front passenger seatbelt panel, back into the front passenger door weather stripping, over to the top of the A-pillar and into the roof lining at the windshield.

This now allows for mounting either in the open area of the windscreen that allows for radar to be stronger or down the rearview mirror to a mirror mount. I bought the blend mount with the extra link that someone else posted about and, while tight, it does fit well and places the detector in the optimal position for my use under the mirror, fully knowing the signal strength will be much weaker there. I will try it there for a while before I decide if I need to move it up to the proper opening to the right of the mirror at the top of the windscreen. If I do move it there I plan to use the visor clip mount and tuck it under the headliner so the V1 is very tight against the roof.

Here is a pic of the bolt I used for the ground. Hope this helps anyone else who is looking to only install a radar detector and does not want to go through extending wires or tapping into the front fuse box.

 

Great write-up.

When I ran a V1, I used the visor clip and clipped it on the passenger visor. There wasn't enough room to clip it to the headliner.

It works fine with that angle through the opening in the windshield. I didn't often have a passenger, so the only issue is they can't flip the visor with the V1 in place.

 

Yeah, I dd notice the stock visor clip may not fit well into the headliner. If I go down that path I will probably cut the visor clip down and may need to bend it a bit to make it fit.

I don't like it in that position because you cannot move the visor fully back against the windshield. I also looked at putting the detector on the visor as you mentioned but it is the same issue. If the detection range of the V1 really takes a hit to where it is unusable then I will venture that way, so far, at least with the local radar equipped speed signs in my town it works at about 50% of what it did in my Cayenne without IR glass. Not great but definitely workable for my driving 90% of the time.

 

Thank you for this write-up. Which version of BlendMount did you purchase and where did you obtain the extra link that allows BlendMount to work with the G wagon mirror?

 

Got both the mount and the extra link off of the blend mount site. Here are the part numbers and what they look like. It is pretty tight to install but just have some patience with tightening the fasteners and you will be great.

 

Thank you so much!

 

do you happen to know which fuse he used?