The LS400 I bought was in great shape, with only a few areas that needed some TLC. One of the annoying things (to me) was that the power antenna was frozen half way up. This would NEVER do!
I ordered an aftermarket antenna replacement and was pleased it was only $11 (hmmm...feels kinda flimsy!). Simple design, really. Just a telescoping tube with a thin white gear on it that the power motor drives up or down. Easy..so long as the antenna gear wasn't broken off in the motor. So I pried off the nut, and gave the antenna a mighty yank...and luckily, the gear drive wasn't broken. It would be just a matter of powering on the antenna and pulling the gears out as the motor fed them out. Hmmmmm....except when I get to the end, the darn motor won't let go of the last bit of the antenna!
Unbelievably, the radio has a lock function that you must press to release the antenna gears. Pushing "AM and CD" buttons together releases the antenna gears. Simple. Now I just feed in the new gears, turn the radio off and let the antenna motor reel in the new one. Works great!! When was the last time you remember seeing a working power antenna?
But it didn't turn out as planned. A couple of days later, the antenna no longer works. I pull the antenna, and to my horror the gears are gone. Dang! The gear drive is broken and spooled into the motor. Sigh. I take apart the back trunk to access the motor. Remove motor. Take apart motor. Remove broken gear drive. Put motor back together and replace in car. This time, I went with the "expensive" option. More steel, some chrome and higher quality. $17!
So far it's been a few days and all is well!!
I know it's a bit silly going through all this effort for an antenna. But I wanted to keep the car as stock as possible, and the antenna DOES look pretty neat going up and down...
