Motorized Aerial Problems

[charliefortune]

Hi - I've just swapped a motorized aerial from one E30 to another. It worked fine on the first one, but wont do anything on the 2nd. However, I don't know exactly which wire is the one that controls the aerial. All the wires into the stereo are correct, all works as expected, apart from no aerial. When I wired it up, there was one (grey and red, I think) wire left over, I tested it with a multimeter to find the was no current coming from it, and then used it as the aerial wire. No joy.

Can I connect the aerial directly to the battery to check it still goes up and down ? I'm guessing that they have a pos. and neg. power leads, then one more that make or breaks the circuit depending on signal from the head unit ?

[Kowalski]

Originally posted by charliefortune@Jan 20 2005, 04:01 AM
Hi - I've just swapped a motorized aerial from one E30 to another. It worked fine on the first one, but wont do anything on the 2nd. However, I don't know exactly which wire is the one that controls the aerial. All the wires into the stereo are correct, all works as expected, apart from no aerial. When I wired it up, there was one (grey and red, I think) wire left over, I tested it with a multimeter to find the was no current coming from it, and then used it as the aerial wire. No joy.

Can I connect the aerial directly to the battery to check it still goes up and down ? I'm guessing that they have a pos. and neg. power leads, then one more that make or breaks the circuit depending on signal from the head unit ?

[snapback]275461[/snapback]

one of the wires goes up to your deck and its the accesory wire, which is the power antena i believe. and when you turn it on FM it goes up and if you listen to a cd it goes down, now im not sure if your talking about hte stock or aftermarket deck but im assuming aftermarket, i can't go check because i wrecked mine and just got a short black one from canadian tire for about 20$ and put that in cause its really short and skinnier and less tackey. so good luck with that, and check the radio manual if you still have it.