unknown
2005-12-07 10:18:38 UTC
I was just hoping for some advice, here.
My car (Volvo S70) has a rear, nearside wing mounted electric aerial. Which
has always been a complete pain - difficult to keep clean / lubed. Over
time, it's had a couple of new masts, and not that long back a new motor.
A couple of days back, it must have failed and had some problem - although
it did retract the aerial, when I returned to the car after work (so around
5 pm, it would have been parked at around 8:15 am), I could here a faint
knocking noise from the rear - this was before I'd even put the key in the
ignition. It didn't take me long to realise that it was coming from the
electric aerial - although fully retracted - it just sounded like it was
just continually trying to retract.
Turning on the ignition, turning on and off the radio, seemed to make no
difference, nothing would seemingly stop the aerial from making this noise,
when it _should_ be in the down position. Switching the radio on, stopped
the noise, although the aerial wouldn't extend.
So I removed the power plug from the electric aerial. I suspect I was lucky
it didn't drain the battery on the day it played up - because presumably it
started doing this after retracting - and I'm surprised I didn't notice it
in the morning, because I normally go to the back of the car, to get
something out of the boot.
Anyway - to the question - what options do I have for replacing this - I'm
sick and tired of these electric aerials, I'd like to use something like
I've seen on other cars - mostly roof mounted, but I have seen them mounted
on wings before now - the type of aerial that's short, flexible, and
removable - although clearly the roof type mounts would probably be wrong to
mount on a wing.
Is this possible? And what sort of aerial and where from? Would I need some
sort of amplification for the aerial? If so, would that need any additional
wiring?
Many thanks for any help.
My car (Volvo S70) has a rear, nearside wing mounted electric aerial. Which
has always been a complete pain - difficult to keep clean / lubed. Over
time, it's had a couple of new masts, and not that long back a new motor.
A couple of days back, it must have failed and had some problem - although
it did retract the aerial, when I returned to the car after work (so around
5 pm, it would have been parked at around 8:15 am), I could here a faint
knocking noise from the rear - this was before I'd even put the key in the
ignition. It didn't take me long to realise that it was coming from the
electric aerial - although fully retracted - it just sounded like it was
just continually trying to retract.
Turning on the ignition, turning on and off the radio, seemed to make no
difference, nothing would seemingly stop the aerial from making this noise,
when it _should_ be in the down position. Switching the radio on, stopped
the noise, although the aerial wouldn't extend.
So I removed the power plug from the electric aerial. I suspect I was lucky
it didn't drain the battery on the day it played up - because presumably it
started doing this after retracting - and I'm surprised I didn't notice it
in the morning, because I normally go to the back of the car, to get
something out of the boot.
Anyway - to the question - what options do I have for replacing this - I'm
sick and tired of these electric aerials, I'd like to use something like
I've seen on other cars - mostly roof mounted, but I have seen them mounted
on wings before now - the type of aerial that's short, flexible, and
removable - although clearly the roof type mounts would probably be wrong to
mount on a wing.
Is this possible? And what sort of aerial and where from? Would I need some
sort of amplification for the aerial? If so, would that need any additional
wiring?
Many thanks for any help.