Electric aerial help

Electric aerial help

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Discussion

SLB

Original Poster:

256 posts

241 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.

SLB

Original Poster:

256 posts

241 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.

SLB

Original Poster:

256 posts

241 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.