Car: 2009 BMW 135i M Sport
Idea: Wire Dré's radar detector to a switch in the dash to avoid the need to use the cigarette lighter sock
Approach: The US spec model of the 135i with the Sport and M Sport package has 2 non-functional buttons just to the right of the headlight knob. It seems as though buttons are blanks but if you take the switch apart you can cut the end off of a pen and stuff it in the back of the button to make it fully functional again. We were thinking we could find the power wire associated with this button and piggy back off of it to power the radar detector, using a screw close by for a ground.
Process: Dré removed the panels to get to the switch housing. Most of these have no screws. There is 1 Torx T-20 screw under the headlight switch, maybe 2. Everything else just needs to be pried off. As the plastic flexes and creaks under pressure you'll swear it is about to snap in half. Usually at about that point it breaks loose loudly causing an immediate reaction of frantically looking for broken plastic clips. If you're lucky there won't be any. In our case there was a couple heavily deformed plastic pieces but nothing was totally snapped off. That's just a byproduct of working on a Snap Tite car. Remember those car models they used to sell at Wal-Mart? Those were the business when I was a kid. Follow the jump to read more
