GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Just wanted to post this b/c I had a similar problem to others where my antenna was ripped out of the base in a car wash. At the time I didn't know anything and the antenna was dangling, so I cut the wire right at the base piece to get the antenna down since it wouldn't push back in. Here are some pics of the inside of the antenna. I did this a few weeks ago, just got around to posting the pics. I took down the headliner, removed the bottom nut for the antenna base from the inside of the car, and pulled the antenna up from the outside. Then I took out the few screws holding the base pieces together to get to the inside to see how I could fix it. I didn't have a soldering iron, so I just stripped the wire, bent it up towards the base, and put it back together. Now my singal is back and I can listen to the radio again!

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Here is the other pic.

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is this a Touchless Car wash?? Or the Old fashioned whirling brushes of doom??

Quote, originally posted by zionzr2 » is this a Touchless Car wash?? Or the Old fashioned whirling brushes of doom??It was just one of the ones that has the big draping strips of cloth that kind of move back and forth as they slide down the length of the car. I had a billet antenna too which didn't help b/c it didn't give any and just pulled the base out.

I was gonna say, I never had a single problem running mine through the touchless washes that have the huge air duct that drops down from the top and rides an inch or so above the car as you slowly drive through. I had my stock antenna on umpteen times I ran through those, all it did was spring back into place after the air duct cleared it. I can see how a non-flexible antenna wouldn't give and would end up causing damage. More often than not though, I unscrewed the antenna (and every time through the wash, removed the ham radio antenna I had on that car) before going into the wash bay. I'm unscrewing the antenna on the new car as well, it has a stubby not-so-flexible antenna on the roof so it gets unscrewed every time and put back on after the wash, don't want to break anything...Rule #1, unscrew the thing before going into car washes. Well, actually, my rule #1 is to only visit touchless washes, then #2 is unscrew the antenna before going in them. lol

I guess the point is moot for me anyway. I had my antenna removed for months anyway as I mainly only listen to XM. But may or may not continue when my subscrpition runs out. But it is Wise to remove the antenna before car washes and another good point is to stick with the touchless whenever possible.