External Antenna.

MrPloppy · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 02, 2005 Posts: 40

Hello all,

Just got myself a nice new external antenna, and everything's great.

...however...

I'm worried about the route that I've taken to take the antenna to the outside of my car. I've got a Vauxhall Zafira, and I've routed the cable along the inner rubber seals, right to the back of the car where I've taken it out over the rubber seals of the rear door and up onto the roof.

Trouble is that I'm worried about water getting in, so much so that when I jet washed the car last night, I thought I'd test it, and of course a few drips came in where the cable was.

Can anyone suggest any better way of routing the cable outside?

jdatkinson · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 29, 2004 Posts: 63

I have routed my (now working again) external antenna in a similar fashion. I've not had any leakage in heavy rain; surely a blast with a jet washer represents a far more extreme blast of water than one would see from any weather conditions? Personally, I take the antenna off the roof and plonk it in the boot when I am away from the vehicle to stop people from fiddling with it, and I always remove it before washing the car. You may well get a reasonable signal with the antenna on the rear parcel shelf or inside the rear screen, which will not be athermic. In my Corsa, I reckon on getting 4-6 satellites with the internal antenna, 6-8 with the external antenna on the rear parcel shelf, and 8-9+ (usually full strength, too) with it mounted on the roof. With the antenna on the roof I get a fix far more quickly than anywhere else, and the Go recovers far more quickly after I lose signal in a tunnel.

gingernut777 · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:58 pm Post subject:

I've got same car, routed cable same way, just used some duck tape where cable goes through rubber, just for extra seal.

I agree about a jet wash though, there's a hell of a lot of pressure comes out of them.
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MrPloppy · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 02, 2005 Posts: 40

gingernut777 · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 8:24 am Post subject:

Don't cut the rubber, just pull it away far enough to put the antenna through
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