motorola hands free car kit

I have found that it's better not to connect the green IGN wire on these units.  The reason is that when the car is switched off, the phone will also shut off.  Personally, I would not want to have my cell phone turn off simply because the engine is off.  I think this is just a carryover from the days of installed car phones which stayed in the car all the time.  If you want to try it out without disconnecting the wire that you already hooked up, the wiring harness should have a fuse that can be removed.

-Michael

red - permanent live

black - ground

blue/green - ignition

orange - radio mute

you would definitely be better off connecting the ign. wire as Motorola car kits are renowned for  draining the car battery, you can connect to perm. live , but beware the consequenses. You only have to change the settings in the phone menu, so the phone will not power down. The easiest way to find the mute is, eliminate the live cables with a circuit tester, get a fuse holder with 1amp or at most 2, with a small lenth of wire and just groung it to the radio casing trying each wire until you find the right one, I only having a limited knowledge of  U S vehicles, I'm not sure whether the radio has iso, quad lock or ford connectors, if there is a third plug on the back of the radio, not the power or speaker connectors, then the mute wire will probably be there, remember that the mute position may not have a wire connected to the plug

Derek,

I wasn't suggesting connecting the green wire to permanent +12V, but rather leaving it disconnected altogether.  I have had no problems installing 2 Motorola kits like this.  Is there any benefit to connecting the green IGN wire?  Also, it seems that some radios do not have a mute wire at all - my '05 Escalade for example.

-Michael