Electric Aerial Problems!

Post Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:04 pm

Hi,

I have just fitted an electic aerial to my e30. Looking at my head unit it says it will only work with electric aerials so long as they have a relay box! Does anybody know if the e30 has a relay box for this, and where it is?! Im guessing someone out there has had this problem too!

Also anybody know what the red and white wires plug into, relay boxes?
Any help would be great!

Thanks,

Paul

Post Tue Aug 16, 2005 6:16 pm

Hi, have just bought a RingAE916 aerial fitted on to my 635Csi - it has built-in relay (apperently most electric aerials do!) so all I did was connect the red and white wires from the radio back through in to the aerial, connected the aerial earth and plugged in the radio co-ax and away it went. E30 wiring is virtually identical to E24 (635Csi) wiring as far as audio equipment is concerned.

Post Tue Aug 16, 2005 6:30 pm

Treeman612 wrote:Hi, have just bought a RingAE916 aerial fitted on to my 635Csi - it has built-in relay (apperently most electric aerials do!) so all I did was connect the red and white wires from the radio back through in to the aerial, connected the aerial earth and plugged in the radio co-ax and away it went. E30 wiring is virtually identical to E24 (635Csi) wiring as far as audio equipment is concerned.

Hi, Thanks for that, i expect my aerial has a built in realay too then! I have earthed it in the boot as your supposed to. As for the red and white wires, do you know where they go, both into the radio? Sorry if its different for different radios, because mine is a sony, so may be wired differently. Thanks

Paul

Post Tue Aug 16, 2005 6:50 pm

Hi - I have a wiring diagram that shows the red lead from the aerial going to fuse 28 (this is the aerial power lead, so all you need to find is either a permanent live feed, or a live feed operated through the ignition switch. Permanent live means radio available whether key in ignition or not!), the white lead goes to the radio power imput. have a look at the wires going in to the back of the radio - if I remember, the white lead to the aerial 'piggy-backs' with the white lead in to the radio. I remember that originally, the aerial would only retract with ignition on, but my brother re-wired it so that the aerial automatically retracted when you turn off the ignition. Much better solution, just switch off ignition and both radio and aerial 'power off' and aerial retracts automatically. I can't remember how he rewired it, but if you're interested I'll bell him and ask. (He's the electrician, not me?? :lol:

Post Sat Aug 20, 2005 1:23 pm

Hi treeman 612, I have been looking at it again, and wondering, do i need to go under the bonnet and wire the red wire into the fuse box? I see a fuse 28 in there, but surely bmw wouldnt design it like that?! Can you remember if yours went into the fuse box?

Thanks very much, i thinmk im almost there!!

Paul

Post Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:34 pm

My electric arial was broke so i put one from another e30 in my car. I connected the permanent 12v and then my stereo supplied the 12v to work the arial but my arial just keeps extending then clicks as it has run out of arial to extend. it doesnt stop, any ideas?? when i release the 12v it retracts back.

Post Sat Aug 20, 2005 3:25 pm

bmwe30mtech
just crimp it to the power feed for the stereo.

stulane
sounds like you have a duff relay on the aeriel, or you've connected the power and trip leads the wrong way round.

Post Sat Aug 20, 2005 4:14 pm

Tried both ways round, i've not played with it fpr ages but i'll have a look at it later to see if i can get it working.

dont use the radio anyway, just for traffic info usually

Post Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:02 pm

Hi, BMW E30Mtech - I've just remembered - my bro. wired the permanent live via a live feed to the hazard lights - very close to the radio wiring , so no long wires to run to fusebox - the hazard light live feed is on all the time, irrespective of ignition switch. This means that as long as the signal feed goes through the radio on/off, via ignition, the aerial will retract whenever either the radio is turned off or the ignition is turned off.

Post Sun Aug 21, 2005 9:09 pm

Hi, Thanks treeman, i have fixed it just now in the way you said, and it works perfectly! For anybody else who might find this useful, you connect the red wire to the red and white wire in the hazard light switch, and the white wire to the red one going into your headunit. Thanks again,

Paul