Toyota aerials.

[Barry Cade]

I've been ironing out all the niggles on my Carina for a few weeks now. It's a genuine low miler and in very nice nick. Not usually my sort of car but it's been sooo trouble free and undemanding it's just kinda stayed with me. New passengers window regulator. Found a hens teeth headlamp washer to replace the missing one.original remote locking was borked so new kit purchased off Ebay and fitted. Towbar fitted too as we are talking about getting a caravan again, but never used yet.. Full service the other day and my high end Alpine CD stereo with Ipod lead all fitted, which brought me to the last real issue... the aerial has never worked.

 

I bought a new mast from Ebay, as I have heard the motor operate before, so thought the mast drive must be broken, only to find the mast was thicker than the original , so didn't fit. There seems to be a different aerial for each year of each model of Toyota.. I was getting bored of all my Ipod tunes and am missing Radio 2, It was a glorious day, so off to U Pull It today. No Carina's.

 

I did find 2 Lexussses, (Lexi?) but couldn't get into the boots on them- electric release and no batteries, all I could find was an old Celica, so rather than go home empty handed, I got it... £9.60!!

 

On getting back home after the 50 mile round trip, I tried the aerial. It didn't fit.

 

I ripped the Celica aerial apart, and the Carina aerial apart, but no real progress apart from finding out the Celica aerial worked when bench tested, and my new mast fitted the Celica aerial. So I had a working aerial with a new mast which didn't fit, and a broken aerial which did. Was I any further forward after 3 hours, a tenner of fuel and a tenners worth of wrong aerial?

 

I bent and filed and cut and eventually made the aerial fit, and looks factory. Plugged it all in and...it didn't work. WTF. I tested and replaced the "antenna relay", cheked the loom, ripped the stereo back out to check the connections there, checked continuity everything, and by this time I was wishing I hadn't bothered. Popmaster usually just makes me realise how little I know about music anyway.

 

Came back into the house and had some tea. Still pissed off that I'd wasted a rare day off trying to fix something that just didn't want to be fixed, however much money, swearing and ingenuity I threw at it. As usual at the end of the day I fired up the t'internet and curiosity led me to look at Toyota radio wiring diagrams... the first page I clicked informed me that Toyota's are quite unusual and need 2 wires connected to the stereo to operate the electric aerial.. I lept up, frightening the dug, and ran out to the car to rip the dash out again... connected up this second wire and heard the sound of the aerial heading up, and even went down when the radio switched off.

 

A nearly whole fecking day only to find out 1 needed to connect 1 wire.

 

No shops, no visiting the MIL, no talk of going to Ikea. I love shitering Shhhhhh....

 

 

[gtd2000]

I enjoyed that read

 

Don't you just love that feeling when you finally get the bastarding thing sorted out

[vulgalour]

Good work, that man.

[Volksy]

Good work, but shouldn't one of these be the aerial of choice on here....

 

[Skizzer]

That's a much better story than I was expecting from the miserable thread title!

 

Electric aerials were all the rage in the early 90s but seem to have more or less died out now, denying future generations the joy of watching a well-greased aerial rise majestically and magically from a wing top. Shame.

 

^ @ Volksy

[Cheggers]

My new* Saab has an electric aerial, and it is a joy to behold. Nothing beats the sound of the radio signal getting stronger as the aerial goes up

[Barry Cade]

Good work, but shouldn't one of these be the aerial of choice on here....

 

 

That's exactly what was fitted when I bought the car Seriously! Made me chuckle at the time.

 

It was really nice just whittling away a sunny day with little gears, grease and nuts and bolts spread over the kitchen table,back doors open letting the breeze blow through. Some folks go to the pub, some play golf. I fanny about with mostly forgotten bits of crap and skills that are almost gone, for amusement. We are a dying breed folks, embrace it. It was SO much more than just getting Forth FM without the crackles.