Power Antenna Troubleshooting

[NightEye]

Never got around to fixing my power antenna, but now since I'm outta school I'm gona dfix it. before I buy a new atnenna from GMpartsdirect, I wanna try and fix this one.

Currently what's happening is that the antenna simply doesn't go up and so I hardly get any stations. The antenna is an aftermarket antenna (previous owner put it in I guess) - it's a Metra Roadworks Power Antenna. What he did was cut off the wires from the original connector to the GM atnenna (the red and pink wire) and connect it to the new atnenna - BUT he didn't use the black wire (which is still connected to the loose-hanging original connector) - I think this is the ground wire, but it bothers me that he didn't use it. He did ground a wire coming from the new wntenna, but it is just connected to the new antenna and just goes to a screw to ground it.

Anyone have any ideas on what I could try - or should I just say screw it and buy a GM antenna?

Thanks,
- Mike

[nda0602v6]

It's worth a try to see if you can get that Metra antenna working. It may just not be getting power to allow it to go up. Do some trouble shooting:

The factory black wire that was left dangling is the ground. But since you say the ground wire coming out of the Metra antenna is grounded to screw in the car, that's still okay cause that's ground also. What I would do though is remove the screw and scrape the paint off till you see raw bare metal; then reinstall the ground wire. It's possible the Metra ground wire may not be making good contact to the screw/metal so it won't hurt to make sure.

Next, is your car equipped with the factory head unit or is it aftermarket? Either way, I'd pull out whatever is in the dash real quick just to double check to see if all the wiring is hooked up. I say this because when I bought my 02 bird, I found lots of cut factory wires when I removed my head unit. With the head unit pulled out, look for the Pink wire in the factory wiring and make sure it's not cut.


Do you have a test light or volt meter? If you do, check to see if either of the two factory wires in the hatch (red and pink) have power. Note: Be sure to have the RADIO playing. (Do not play tapes or CD's while testing). The Pink wire will be "live" when the radio is on and "dead" when the radio is off. The Red wire should be "live" regardless if the radio is on or off.

Out of curiosity,
How did the previous owner tap the cars main antenna wire into the Metra's antenna wire? Is the cars antenna wire "plugged" into the Metra Power Antenna or are the antenna wires "taped" together? The previous owner of my car cut that too lol. I wouldn't worry about the main antenna wire though till you get the antenna actually moving up and down first.

[NightEye]

The way he did it was cut the pink and red wire from the original connector, then crimped the wire from the metra antenna onto the wire he just cut off from the conector (so I guess they're taped). It's an ugly wiring job - I don't like it all.

I think I have a voltmeter somewhere - I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the tips.

- Mike

[nda0602v6]

Originally posted by NightEye:
The way he did it was cut the pink and red wire from the original connector, then crimped the wire from the metra antenna onto the wire he just cut off from the conector

That's exactly what someone did with my wiring. Atleast they used crimp connectors for yours, mine had nothing. They didn't even use black tape, they just "twisted" the wires together and shoved em' in the back fully exposed. And the main antenna wire I was talking about in my 1st reply.. (the really thick black wire that feeds the actuall radio signals)...that was also cut and spliced on mine. Hopefully they didn't cut yours. So I feel your pain when you see all the sloppy wiring. Hope you get it working, write back and let us know what you find out.
-Nick

[ May 03, 2004, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: nda0602v6 ]