1995 Camry Radio Antenna Issue - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

atomiks · 11-06-2009, 01:02 PM

Greetings All,

I have an issue with my antenna -- obviously in my 1995 Camry. This is a new issue and did not initially happen, but I can't think of what would have caused it to happen (no direct impact with the antenna or anything) at least that I can think of. The only possibility is that I dumped it somehow from inside the trunk while moving things in my trunk...that, or something weather-related. Also, this issue does not ALWAYS happen, but often does. Essentially here is the issue:

1) I turn on the stereo. If this is on the 'tape' source (for a tape adapter to iPod for example) -- no issue. I don't have a CD player.
2) If it is on AM/FM or I switch it to this source, the antenna will go up as usual -- nothing new here
3) Once the antenna is fully extended, there will be a rather loud mechanical 'buzzing' sort of noise, coming from the rear of the car/in the trunk region, near the antenna.

This noise will continue (seemingly indefinitely) although I have always switched the source to tape (or turned the stereo off) so as to not cause serious long-term damage. It sounds almost like the antenna motor is getting a signal to keep extending the antenna, even though it is already fully extended. Any thoughts or ideas on what might cause this? Or more importantly, how I might go about fixing it / investigating further?

I looked for other posts on this topic, but haven't found anything clear. If someone else knows of a fix, please link me up! Otherwise, any help is greatly appreciated.

hill8570 · 11-06-2009, 01:15 PM

Most likely the end of the nylon extender for the antenna is stripped. Easy enough to pop out to take a look -- see '94 Camry - Broken powered radio antenna (among many other threads) for instructions. You can either replace with a new OEM antenna ($50+), a generic (around $20), let it go all the way up and then pull the power connector so that it's always up, or yank the whole power unit and replace with a non-powered antenna (search the forum for "S2000 conversion" for one possibility).

camrycraig · 11-07-2009, 10:53 AM

If you go to (http://www.antennamastsrus.com/Toyota/Camry) you will find aftermarket OEM antenna masts and complete units cheap. I bought one and it works perfect. The mast is only $10.

Mike Gerber · 11-07-2009, 11:13 AM

You can get an aftermarket replacement mast for around $20 at Pep Boys.

Mike

atomiks · 11-10-2009, 11:25 AM

Excellent -- thanks for the help. So if I got that powered replacement mast from the post from camrycraig that would probably work? Does that include the nylon extender as well?

How difficult is it to replace this / any special tools needed?

No pep boys nearby (Madison, WI) so I might have to go with another option.

NINJA EDIT: Nevermind, I'd forgotten that the link posted had fairly detailed instructions, I'll try that out this evening.