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A friend has had the aerial snapped off her J-reg Astra by some kind soul, and has been quoted some astronomical sum to have it replaced. Can anyone suggest any way to either repair or cheaply replace the unit? TIA!
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Is the aerial mounted on the rear nearside wing? If it's electric, replacement masts can be purchased from Vauxhall and are easy to fit. I'm wondering if the same applies to the manual aerial or not? They're not that expensive, somewhere around £20, IIRC.
You could also try contacting Autovaux, whose prices are cheaper than Vauxhall, but are still Vauxhall parts.
www.autovaux.co.uk/SelectCar.asp
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Dave, nearside manual aerials are NOT easy to fit. I did mine a few months ago and had to remove some of the inside boot panelling, and to actually fit the thing, lost a lot of knuckle skin. Vowed never to do it again, so SWMBO then went and caught the new one in the boot when shutting it, snapping it in half. Sold the car a week later to save the bother, just wedge the top half in. I would suggest asking a mechanic.
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It mat be that they have just unscrewed the aerial from the base, in which case just pop down to your local friendly scrappy and pinch sorry purchase another and screw it back on.
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Have a look at this thread
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=i&t=12...9
Please read my comments. You will most likely have a Hirschmann aerial.
306 2.0 SE Cabriolet
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I can vouch for Pauls testament to the replacement of a manual aerial on an Astra.
I did one very recently on my daughters car.
I was surprised at the amount of interior trim that had to be taken out in addition to the tailight assembly to enable replacement. Once full access is achieved the replacement of the aerial is easy peasy. Of course the challenge after that is to replace the interior trim in the correct order (and remembering to feed the seatbelt through the 'slot' at the appropriate point.
Wife came out with a cuppa after an hour or so - she was shocked at the amount of trim on the garage floor - 'I thought you were just replacing the aerial' Ho Hum!
All in all it took me best part of 2.5 hours. If I did it again I reckon 1.5 hours - but the labour aspect alone is why you have been quoted silly money.
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This was why I asked if it was manual or electric. If it was electric, all you do is undo the chrome nut at the base of the aerial, switch on the radio and extract the broken telescopic mast. Drop the nylon rod of the new aerial mast down the hole, get someone to switch off the radio, and providing the nylon rod lines up with the mechanism, the new mast will feed itself in. Finally do up the chromed nut.
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