tightie

hey,
i found a thread on here before about hardwiring the v1.. i did it to my old car too..

i found the green/yellow wire, i tapped it and i had the ground.. the v1 wouldn't power up.
i dont know why.

i tried the green/yellow wire in two different locations too, there was one where the sunroof switch was and one where the main wiring were..

i can't figure out whats wrong.. anyone have any ideas?

thanks in advance,
josh

C's Bimmer

Are you sure you tapped into the wire all the way? It took me a while to tap into mine. I really had to "clamp" down hard on the wire tap before I got any power. Regardless, that's the wire you need to tap, so you have it right. Also, hate to sound stupid here, but your car was turned on when you tried it, right?

tightie

lol yeah it was turned on, i had a question. did you tap it in the main wires or did you do it from where the sunroof button was?
sorry if i sound confusing.

pukka

You can verify voltage by using a multimeter w/sharp tip probes - red probe to the hot wire and black to a ground.

Also verify the 6-wire cord is working. If I remember correctly, you can't use a standard 4-wire phone cord which makes it pretty difficult to replace (unless you order it from Valentine Research).

C's Bimmer

I tapped it where the sunroof buttons are (The area is known mainly as the Overhead Courtesy Light Panel). I like it here, because I have my V1 mounted high, out of sight and have all the wires neatly tucked away so it's nice and clean.

However, this is another reason why it was such a pain to tap. Trying to get leverage up in there with the amount of slack you get off that wire is minimal and a true pain. Your arms get tired before you can get at it.

C's Bimmer

Josh - I assume you have the wire tap kit that came with your V1, right?

tightie

i mounted my v1 in the same spot last time.. im gonna try and mount it again tonight when i get off work.. but jsut to double check, once i open the panel.. the same wire that goes into the sunroof button, im gonna use the wire tapper from there.. (ill be fine?)

and yeah, its the wire tap kit from v1.

thanks for your help

C's Bimmer

Yep, it's that same green/yellow wire. I had to get pliers out to tap it. Squeezing it with my fingers couldn't get it through.

MidnightRider

Yeah - I just did mine also. The problem is most likely that the wire tap did not pentrate the insulation of either the green/yellow wire or the red V1 wire. Make sure both wires are firmly seated in the grooves of the metal wire tap piece. A firm squeeze with the pliers is needed to assure the connection is complete. Also make sure you firmly affix the ground wire to a metal source. One more suggestion is to double check the fuse is not fried from prior attempts to power up. I just did the install on my 08 550 so it is fresh on my mind. Good luck!

ramyar

Forgive the obvious question, but did you hook up the ground/neg wire as well? I had the same exact issue and it was driving me CRAZY! Thinking I messed up tapping the hot wire, or that I tapped the wrong one, or it didn't penetrate well. Then I realized, derrr, I have the hot wire hooked up fine but forgot to grounded the darn thing --- and this is my THIRD install... lol! I used an unpainted screw and wrapped the ground/neg around that.