Hi all,

I bought a 2005 Mk 2 Ford Focus (1.6 Ghia) a few months ago. I didn't notice at the time that it had no aerial base or aerial on the roof. I still get a bit of reception on the radio, but it's limited to big stations in big towns. On further investigation, I found that there were 2 leads coming into where the aerial base would be:

• a black lead from passenger side, which has no fixing on the end
• and a blue lead from the driver's side, which has a bolt with a plastic shroud around the head

These 2 leads were taped together. Can anyone explain to me what's going on?! I've read various posts on here about aerials, bad reception, earthing issues etc, and so expected to find just one lead with a bolt of some sort on the end to go into the aerial mount.

The radio unit is a 6000 CD.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

The blue lead with the bolt through it is the aerial connection - same as photo I found on eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134930756974

No idea on the other one, is it definitely a wiring cable and not a washer hose of some type?

Or related to a sunroof if your car has one, that hole in the headliner looks a lot bigger than just from removing the interior light?
 

 

That black thing looks like the end of an Aerial, not a cable. Have you tried to see if it will pull out ?

 

That is really odd having those 2 x items taped together. The aerial connection in a Mk2 (same as mine) is as complicated as a hammer & nails! You gotta wonder why it was removed in the first place.

What a great community of helpful people this is! Thanks for all your replies.

Thank you @troy45 for confirming that the blue cable is for the aerial - I'd read all sorts of things about blue cables being for DAB, black ones for FM and all sorts, so had really got lost down the rabbit hole!

And massive thanks to @unofix - the black "lead" was in fact an old aerial, which had been shoved up into the headliner. I'd pulled it a bit to untape it all, but assumed it was a lead that was going somewhere so didn't want to overdo it - I could kick myself for all the confusion it's caused!

@StephenFord I also thought it was odd, and wondered what had been going on. My guess now is that at some point the aerial base broke and this was somebody's bodge fix.

I'll buy a new aerial base and antenna now. Do you have any recommendations, or things to avoid?

2 hours ago, stumpy_reed said:

I'll buy a new aerial base and antenna now. Do you have any recommendations, or things to avoid?

I just picked mine up on Ebay, I'm sure they're all made in the same Chinese factory anyway, and just stuck to the standard aerial length as the original. Once you fit it, put a small amount of grease on the thread holding the aerial on, this will prevent the aerial corroding solid onto the base, and once every couple of months, just lightly unscrew it to make sure it hasn't seized...

Okay, thanks @StephenFord sounds like good advice!

Hi again,

This job is rumbling on as it turns out that the end of the aerial lead has been messed around with and is quite mangled, and the connector itself is not complete either (as you might be able to tell from the first photo I posted).

Does anybody know if it's possible to buy just the connection that goes onto the end of the lead and attaches to the roof / antenna base? I haven't seen any for sale.

Or how you would go about replacing the whole aerial lead - I haven't been able to find any posts or tutorials on this which makes me think it might be a nightmare!

Any pearls of wisdom gratefully received!

Thanks

eBay, and just buy the complete assembly. Comes with cable, base, fixings, aerial.

• https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354960602418?
• OR
• https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134970257319?

On 2/22/2024 at 4:58 PM, stumpy_reed said:

Hi all,

I bought a 2005 Mk 2 Ford Focus (1.6 Ghia) a few months ago. I didn't notice at the time that it had no aerial base or aerial on the roof. I still get a bit of reception on the radio, but it's limited to big stations in big towns.

 

These 2 leads were taped together. Can anyone explain to me what's going on?! I've read various posts on here about aerials, bad reception, earthing issues etc, and so expected to

 

the problem on ALL Mk 2s was the bolt head was the wrong size and it sorts the antenna to the car body - all they ever needed to do was shove it in a lathe and take a smidge off

the rest of the fun was either vandalism by not understanding it was only ever the wrong bolt head ford specified or maybe an attempt to add DAB antenna

 

 

 

Thanks @unofix I had seen those items on eBay, but I thought it might be a bit of a nightmare job to get the cable out and replace it. However I've just managed to get the A-pillar off and get to the cable. I'll buy one of those eBay parts now.

Cheers for the info @Botus  I've seen your previous posts about this issue on other threads and will bear it in mind when I put everything back together!