Wiring to VAG bee sting aerial

May 20, 2005 3 Replies
D

Can someone tell me how many wires are supposed to go into the amplified bee sting aerial commonly found in VAG hatch backs (e.g. a 2001 A3).



I've lost radio reception in mine and I suspect the amplifier in the aerial base is gone. So I unscrewed the aerial base and opened it up. Now all I can see going into the base is a single core black wire... no co-ax and no power wire. So could it be that the radio signal + power is carried by a single wire???


Before opening it up I picked up an amplified bee sting aerial (universal fit for VW/Vauxhall etc..) from GSF carparts, but this one contains a coaxial cable + a red power lead going into the amplified base.



Very confused????? DT


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C

Yes.

Simply take the red wire to a +ve feed. It'll use the ground of the aerial to supply 0V.

Slightly related...you may want to check that the grounding area of the existing antenna isn't corroded.

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D

The whole circuit board of the existing antenna looks coroded and is covered in white powdery residue. I might try and take it out and spray it liberally with contact cleaner and then re-solder all the dull joints. I just wanted to make sure that there were no other wires going into the base, because its possible that a corroded wire may have come loose and disapeared into the headlining of the car.

Cheers

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C

That's water getting in.

Give it a good scrub with a toothbrush. Shouldn't need soldering. Water got into my cars remote central locking unit and it was similar to your description. 10 minutes scraping the powder off cured it.

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