16- Z3 Replacing the Seatbelt Clip Pt2

Product Summary
Colour: Silver
Qty included: 1
Length: 18cm
Material: Aluminium
Signals received: AM-FM
Fitment style: Screw fit
Technical info: Base hole is 5mm, complete with 5m-5m and 6m-5m threads
Guarantee: 12 months

Product Description
Our aerials are designed and made using the highest quality materials to ensure lasting quality.
These aerials are competitively priced and great value to give your vehicle an improved enhancement to coincide with the design of your vehicle.

Note: This particular type of Aerial to me, is quite unusual, however; is common within the Z3 Series by all accounts...
These can be very expensive to replace and can be in excess of £100-200UK + and this is just for a scrapyard replacement - If you can repair it, this is the better option, if not it is obvious one will need to replace it with perhaps something a little more suitable to one's pocket as I am doing. I am not quite sure what warrants the excessive prices other than perhaps the BMW Brand. There is of course today 2024, the rare availability of car donors, not forgetting sellers greed. BMW prices can be around £200(UK) £280.42(from Latvia) for this unit a ridiculous price really, however there are those out there that can and will pay that price. Unfortunately, I am not one of them.

Repair Process:
After removing the screws and nut on the aerial body, the Aerial body seemed to be molded or two pieces stuck together really well. To overcome this, I decided to use a hacksaw and cut into the body at the top towards the brass screw thread, (where the aerial stalk attaches). At the bottom of the unit there is another form of screw thread, I had hoped this would give me some access, of sorts, it didn't as there was just a hollow tube leading up to the top brass thread, (the tube possibly used for water drainage). It was reasonably easy to hacksaw through the bonded plastic and I levered it gently apart. This exposed a top part of a circuit board where there was remnants of a wire attached to it and it looked as if it was leading out to the brass screw thread at the top.

My wire had obviously broken, (see previous images above). The remnants of the wire was also surrounded by what seemed to be expanded-foam. Some of this was gauged out to clear the old remnants. (I did use a small drill to drill a hole, just enough to get a new wire through. (I used a piece of old copper telephone wire I had lying around). This I soldered onto the circuit board where the broken wire had been attached and then I threaded the wire through to the brass screw-thread at the top. This end I could not solder, as it was what seemed to be brass or some non-soldering material however; the pressure of the screw-thread for the aerial attachment, screwed down onto the wire held the wire in place and I am assuming this will complete a circuit. This just left me to put everything back together, the cut out plastic, with the screws re-inserted, the black wired earth strap from the bracket onto one of the screws and black tape on the cuts of the plastic to make it a little more waterproof and pretty. I also used Shrink-wrap on the top, above the nut to keep the 'brass' screw-thread section together with the nut section; as there was no other way of keeping them together on their own, this was what I had available at the time and it seemed to work; the repair was near enough done. This just leaves me to reinstall this aerial unit back onto the vehicle and to test it to see if it works with the radio.

Diary Entry: 14.09.24 - This weekend the sun had decided to revisit and therefore a good opportunity to install the electric aerial, to cut a long story short, it didn't fit; it was a few millimetres too long, it meant taking the rear wing off for me to get it all lined up and attached. This was too much work, especially with having to get involved with the sealant or bond that is sometimes used by manufacturers, this can be very messy. I did find my original aerial I had previously misplaced though.... it was back on the vehicle, where I had left it. Possibly thinking I could repair it some day, as replacing it would have cost over £100+. Today was the day for another attempted repair.

15.09.24 - The rain had stayed off and it was a walk up to the garage to reinstall the aerial, déjà vu. The external aerial fitting proved a bit of a hit or miss, as the Chinese or imported rubber grommet that originally came with the electrical areial was not going to work for the original factory aerial, this was expected. The aperture was too wide, (remembering, that the pack of grommets came with a number of different, styles, types and designs of grommets, for the electrical aerial however; these were only suitable for the electrical aerial).
I decided to use a customised approach by deleting the rubber grommet and using a plastic purpose surround instead, (this also came in the bag of grommets). I was not sure how I would fit or anchor this plastic surround down to the bodywork, reluctantly; I decided to use some strong glue, sticking the plastic surround to the bodywork or the rear wing, the aerial poked through the wing and the aerial stalk was screwed to the main inside fitting, the aerial stalk now also poked through the plastic surround, (also making sure there was the thread making contact with the exposed wire and I added a few of appropriate sized rubber ring seals over the aerial stalk, two were inside the boot and there was one on the outside, so three in all. This slightly overlapped the plastic aperture giving a small lip all around. Hopefully, this will keep the water out. The aerial seemed firm and was as secure as it was going to be. The appropriate wiring was connected from inside of the boot/trunk and this just left me with the testing of the radio. The radio tuned in ok, it seemed better than I expected and better than the previous attempts of trying to install the purchased newer aerials that failed dismally. The initial tuning was done partially within the garage and was a good gauge for the potential reception, this was even better outside the garage and with the soft-top up so; it looked like this job was done, not before time.....another way to look at this repair; it had saved me over £100+ by repairing the original factory aerial and with held breath, for a change, it worked! It seems one can lose most of the time but on an odd occasion, have a win as it seemed in this case. Great!