False full burst Laser alarms

[Mr. Bojangles]

Hello gentlemen.

This is my first post on the forum and it is about a full burst false laser alarms and a great variation between two escort passports 9500i.

I have recently purchased two 9500i, one is mounted on a 2007 subaru impreza wrx and the other is on a subaru b4 3.0r. The detectors were purchased in the US and are currently used in Israel.

The wrx detector is constantly screaming out false laser alerts in full burst, not even a little hint at the beginning.

To check up on things I mounted the second detector and tried it out at the same locations, no alerts were issued.

I then mounted both detectors together side by side and at the same locations the wrx detector kept on alerting false laser alerts and the b4 detector kept silence.

I sent the false alerting detector back to the US and under warranty had it replaced with a new one.

The situation remains as was, false full burst laser alerts at the same locations.

I get various laser alerts all over the country.
One night on a highway I was driving alone on the road and I see up ahead a police car and a cop siting and aiming a laser gun at me,I was then in the legal speed limits but then the detector remained silent,not a sound,I guess he saw the cops and decided to use the right to remain silent.....lol

Another thing I noticed is that on a highway with orange lights as soon as I reach 200km/h the detector starts screaming full burst laser alerts.

With KA bands the detectors is helpful.

I have to admit it is quite frightening these full burst alerts.

Does anyone know of this problem and maybe advise me on the subject?

Is there any software/firmware upgrade for this detector.

Is there anything I can do to get the detector to detect?

Thank you.

[statusquo]

My 9500i always gave me a false laser on the same rural farm road, same direction, within the same 2-3 hour afternoon window, and no other traffic. Even more strange was when I had my old 8500, it gave me a false X-band in the same area.

There was this one lone house on a hilltop straight down the farm road and I don't know if it was something from the house or just the way the sunlight was at that time of day. Always did it though. I believe weather can cause some funky stuff and I think Valentine mentions something about that on his site.

Who knows? I eventually marked it out on the 9500i and disabled X-band on the 8500.

Haven't tried it with the new 9500ix yet.


sq

[jim1969]

welcome to the wonderful leaky subaru electrical system. I had the same issue with my 2005 Legacy GT with my 9500i. You have to contact Escort and send them the unit and ask for the laser circuit falsing fix. Explain to them that you get falses under hard acceleration. They have to add some shielding (that probably decreases sensitivity ) but it's the only way to live with the thing.

[TSi+WRX]

Welcome to RD.net.

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Laser alerts, on the Escorts, are always full-blast.

The reason for this is that any laser alert should be regarded as the utmost threat - with nominal "lock" of your vehicle distance and speed occurring at less than a 1/2 second ( but not-uncommonly, also a lot longer of a delay - but this is discussion for another thread/question ), it should *always* be treated as a real and valid threat, and your tactical reactions to such alerts should be hardwired!

But, of course, this does no good, if the threats are repeatedly false, and thus de-conditions you to question the validity of your detector's alerts.

I've never experienced this issue myself, however, it is, indeed, quite common on modern Subarus.

It seems that our electrical system is a rather noisy one.

Hopefully, this post can help you a bit:

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...er-alerts.html

Give that thread a detailed read, and you'll be very well-versed with everything you can possibly do.

---

After you've read through the entire thread:

Work through your problem from an "easiest to get at -to- toughest/most involved" manner, first.

Before you do anything, be sure that your mounting is as solid as possible - sometimes, with enough physical vibration, sunlight passing through the never-perfect windshield glass (with small scratches catching "glints" of sunlight) can cause a laser-false. This can also happen if, for example, you only notice such falsing when you go WOT - when it's brightly sunlit out. Securing the mounting, as well as potentially placing the detector's laser receiver closer to (or within) the upper-border tint-strip, can help.

If that doesn't do it, take the Nav screen out of the equation. Cover it up, temporarily, and see if that doesn't "cure" the issue. The refresh-rate of the screen has been known to be a trigger.

Next, see if it isn't your cigarette lighter plug that's the cause. Move power, temporarily, to the in-console auxiliary 12V power plug, and see if that doesn't cure things. If so, try cleaning out the cigarette lighter plug, and re-try.

If you're hardwired, re-check wiring.

If that doesn't do it, try the clip-on Ferrite choke, first, as that's easy to do and very inexpensive (as well as very, very small, physically).

If that doesn't do it, proceed then with the RF-filter that armscrafter cited in that thread .

If all else fails, you might just have either a unit that's slightly too sensitive, or, alternatively, your car might just be an "indeterminant" factor. In this case you might want to send the unit back to Escort for a checkup and "de-tune" - but know that it's currently thought that such a measure to address "oversensitivity" can cut laser reception sensitivity of the unit by nearly 1/3. jim1969 on LGT.com is a friend of mine, and his 9500i had to be "de-tuned" in this manner.

Oh, and before you tackle *any* of these measures, at all, be sure that you've taken your cell-phone and other ancillary accessories out of the equation as well. It's been known to trip detectors' laser alerts, too.

-----

In terms of your specific situation, it seems that one of your detectors is behaving erroneously, whereas the other is not, and is functioning properly.

Further compounding the issue for you, though, is that the 3.0R might be "less noisy," electronically, than your WRX. Again, individual-variance issue.

[TSi+WRX]

^ Looks like jim's already here! I gotta stop taking breaks when typing!

[jim1969]

Allan,
I had my 9500i upgraded. I need you to test something for me. pm me on the lgt boards.
jim

[TSi+WRX]

^ Will do.

[Mr. Bojangles]

Thank you gentlemen for your time and knowledge.

[TSi+WRX]

^ Always glad to help a fellow Scooby enthusiast!

Best of luck!

[erickonphoenix]

OMG, I forgot about the laser alerts under hard acceleration in the Scuby. That drove me freaking crazy. Talk about the worst possible time to get a laser alert.