Electric aerial help

Electric aerial help

Author
Discussion

SLB

Original Poster:

255 posts

240 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
Someone previously replaced the original elèctric aerial on my 350i with a manual one. After picking up a brand new one from the car boot I thought I'd have a go at fitting it only to find that the fused live feed is dead. I traced it back to the fuse box - blue and red wire, and thought I'd found going it across to the drivers side, I assumed to pickup a permanently live connection. Now I realise it's not the same wire as the red stripe is narrower and I can't find it in the loom. I can't find it on the wiring diagram other than on one Of the pictures of the fuse labels there is one which has aerial with the cigar lighter. My label doesn't have aerial on it and the fuse is not blown so I don't know what is going on.

I assume it should be a permanent live so the aerial would still go down if you turn everything off suddenly, which is what I want otherwise the spoiler would brake it when I open the boot. Can anyone help? Thanks, Steve.

ukdj

1,004 posts

183 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
Not wedge specific but isn't the electric aerial feed usually taken from the radio/loom ?

How many wires on the aerial ?

assume at worst 3 wires

+12v permanent

+12v switched from radio

-ve ground


ElvisWedgely

2,714 posts

164 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
There are two types of electric ariels. Semi auto and fully auto. Semi is used with a switch, auto operates from the stereo unit. Assuming yours is the fully auto it would normally have four wires. Negative, continious positive, ignition positive and a sensor wire from the stereo. You may also need to use a normal four pin relay to operate the ariel without drop in power. So, you need to locate from the radio dash area:-

1. A continous live.
2. An ignition live.
3. A sensor live from the stereo.
4. A good earth.

Mount the relay next to the ariel. Run all wires up to the ariel location and using the continious live and the ignition live wire up the four pin relay. Use the stereo sensor wire for the ariel and the earth to the ariel earth. You should now be ready to test.

Before you wire it all up check that your ariel from the boot sale actually works by connecting directly to the car battery. Also don't forget to use in line fuses for the live wires.

I hope this helps.

Tony. TCB.

Edited by ElvisWedgely on Saturday 21st February 16:47

SLB

Original Poster:

255 posts

240 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
The original relay is still there but I don't need it as the new aerial has one inside. Both old and new have three wires and the switched live from the radio is working fine. I've tested the aerial using a power supply and it works great so all I'm missing is the permanent live but trying to find where it goes or how to get alternative power into the boot is the issue. I guess it went wrong before and couldn't easily be fixed so was replaced with a manual one.

The boot lights had also been disabled as has the central locking so they are the next jobs.

ElvisWedgely

2,714 posts

164 months

Saturday 21st February 2015
quotequote all
SLB said:
The original relay is still there but I don't need it as the new aerial has one inside. Both old and new have three wires and the switched live from the radio is working fine. I've tested the aerial using a power supply and it works great so all I'm missing is the permanent live but trying to find where it goes or how to get alternative power into the boot is the issue. I guess it went wrong before and couldn't easily be fixed so was replaced with a manual one.

The boot lights had also been disabled as has the central locking so they are the next jobs.
Finding a continous live shouldn't be too difficult. Use a tester bulb or multimeter around the dash area and then connect a wire using scotch lock and pass it to the boot. Job done.

Tony. TCB.

Grady

1,221 posts

259 months

Sunday 22nd February 2015
quotequote all
For a slightly different take... My XJ-6 and 86 280i (when new) had a system where the aerial was wired differently than modern aerials. IIRC, the aerial was "hot" while up and then cold and the aerial would go down. There was also a dash switch involved. Modern aerials don't use the same logic (over here anyway).

I posted instructions on here with pictures for the conversion. (Check out the how to search in the wiki.) Grady

SLB

Original Poster:

255 posts

240 months

Monday 2nd March 2015
quotequote all
I eventually found the offending wire hiding behind the radio with a female bullet connector on but not connected to anything. I couldn't find a permanent live there so joined it to the cigar lighter so it works with ignition which is fine. All works great except when I went for a drive the intermittent wipe and wipe on the wash weren't working. I've disturbed the wiring as it all works fine with the flap and ecu pulled down, put it back up and it stops again so I suspect it's to do with the timer on the relay panel. Atleast it gives me something else to fix.