Alright, well about a week ago, I won a bid on fleabay for $66 shipped on a (private sale) used Passport 8500 w/red led's. The unit was supposedly 2 years old (purchased in 2008) and was working fine during its last use. I was pumped at what I thought was a decent deal on a good detector.
Today the package arrived and I took it out of the box. The detector looked decent for 2 years of wear, although the power cord was missing the grommet to hold the wires steady in the cigarette lighter adapter. I made a trip to radioshack to get a new one, and tried the detector out to see if it worked.
The unit powered on, and then flashed 13.9 to 14.7 volts at me. I held both buttons down to program the unit, and it began cycling through the options... without me touching any of the buttons! I was able to get things situated with the programming (I think, most things were left at factory default) and set the mode for highway. And then the real issue started...
The detector began going from highway, to auto, to city, all on its own. I had it in the windshield mount, and I was not touching anything. It continued to do this the entire 30 miles to Radioshack.
I got the smart powercord fixed and hooked things up once again in my car. It continued to have issues, till I got back onto the highway. Then it remained in Highway mode almost till I got back home. It cycled on its own a couple of times, but not nearly as often as it had been before.
Once I got home, I took a closer look at the detector itself. It appears that the city button does not have a spring in it anymore. The "Dim" button will click when pushed, and won't change anything on its own without that "click". The "City" button, however, will change modes with me just barely brushing it. And there is no click at all to the "City" button.
The detector does work though, as I picked up a Ka band signal in town (might have been false) from over a 1/2 mile in a congested city street area. Might have been a false signal though.
I don't think this is something I can fix (unless others have done it themselves), so what are my options? Describe the problem to Escort and see what they say? Will they even consider refurbishing it for me, since its a used detector? How much should I be ready to pay if I do send it in? And is there any chance someone who knew what the were doing could replace the button??
Thanks in advance guys! I'm not really upset, as I did'nt expect it to be perfect, seeing as it *is* used.
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