Antenna wiring diagram

[RabidPony]

Anyone have the color codes for the antenna wiring? My base completely fell apart so I ordered a new one only to find that the OE has two wires and this one only has one. I'm just going to suck it up and rewire but I need to know what is what before I go cutting and splicing.

[tom4bren]

Our antenna reception pretty much sux with the stock setup. If I ever need to replace mine, I think I'll try something like this:

http://www.tunetrapper.com/Hidden_Car_Antennas.html

[RabidPony]

Yeah, that is the long term plan but short term, I have to work with what's at hand. I mainly need to know what the light blue wire is that runs parallel to the signal wire.

[tom4bren]

It shows what you are talking about on page 8C-3 of the shop manual (pdf page 13320). The circuit diagram on page 8D-20 (pdf page 13343) does not. It's probably OK to just leave it disconnected.

You may want to see if it's got 12V on it (it may be the power lead for an amplified antenna) so make sure you tape it off so that it doesn't ground.

[RabidPony]

Yeah, OE is an amplified antenna. Got the one I bought wired up just to the signal wire and the signal is even worse than before. Looks like I'll have to give Merlin a call.

[tom4bren]

Yah, it's a long run for an antenna without an amp.

That's why I was thinking about a hidden antenna tucked up in the front cladding (shorter run & clean install). Mebbe use the rear antenna hole to mount a light or sump'n.

[RabidPony]

I actually found an amplified antenna on eBay with a base identical to ours. Connections even look close. I'll post a link when I get home.

[bartmanS4]

I recently installed one of these because my stock antenna broke. It works ok but not great. It hardly works at all if I plug in the blue power lead though. If I touch the power lead on the antenna with my finger the reception is great. Perhaps I need to run a wire to the drivers seat for this. Annoying.


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000K53QNI/..._M3T1_ST1_dp_1

[RabidPony]

Yeah, that's the one I was looking at on ebay. I wonder if you got a defective one. It's identical to our OE.

[AndyC]

My reception has gone -unless I get in a city it's bad. I'm thinking the amplifer has gone weak. Is the stock amp built into the antenna base?
It use to pick up great with my Kenwood system but now not so much.

Andy

[bartmanS4]

Yes, the signal amplifier is in the antenna base. This is powered by the blue/white wire that runs from the head unit to the antenna. I've sorted mine out am I'm getting much better reception now.