Power Antenna wiring with new radio (6 Viewers)

[fj80T]

Hello I searched through as many posts as I could find and did not get the answer. When installing a new pioneer radio can anyone tell me how do you get the power antenna to work there doesn’t seem to be anything to hook the blue wire up to coming out of the radio.

I thought I saw somewhere that may be a jumper wire needs to be run any info would be greatly appreciated thanks.

 

[fj80T]

Hello I searched through as many posts as I could find and did not get the answer. When installing a new pioneer radio can anyone tell me how do you get the power antenna to work there doesn’t seem to be anything to hook the blue wire up to coming out of the radio.

I thought I saw somewhere that may be a jumper wire needs to be run any info would be greatly appreciated thanks.

This is on a non-JBL system.

 

[dbfw]

I ran mine from the amp trigger wire. The newer head units don't seem to come with the separate antenna wire anymore, which is too bad since it won't retract when switching modes away from radio like the stock unit. Without some kind of external switch or arduino, about the best you can do is have the antenna extend when the head unit switches on, and retract when it switches off.

 

[trdcorolla]

I ran mine from the amp trigger wire. The newer head units don't seem to come with the separate antenna wire anymore, which is too bad since it won't retract when switching modes away from radio like the stock unit. Without some kind of external switch or arduino, about the best you can do is have the antenna extend when the head unit switches on, and retract when it switches off.

This is what I remember doing when I installed my aftermarket head unit. I was bummed the antenna is up all the time when the new head unit was on. I liked how the factory head unit lowered the antenna when it wasn't on the am/fm source.

 

[fj80T]

I ran mine from the amp trigger wire. The newer head units don't seem to come with the separate antenna wire anymore, which is too bad since it won't retract when switching modes away from radio like the stock unit. Without some kind of external switch or arduino, about the best you can do is have the antenna extend when the head unit switches on, and retract when it switches off.

Thanks. So both the blue and the blue/white onto the blue/white from the radio. Seem like I could also wire a switch onto that to power the antenna only when needed. Thanks

 

[Nightbrew]

I just installed a Sony double din with a metra amp bypass harness. The blue/white from the head unit goes to the blue from metra. This supplies power to the antenna switch.

 

[fj80T]

I just installed a Sony double din with a metra amp bypass harness. The blue/white from the head unit goes to the blue from metra. This supplies power to the antenna switch.

I also needed the blue/white to power the amp so I will try hooking them together I guess. Thanks

 

[fj80T]

I ran mine from the amp trigger wire. The newer head units don't seem to come with the separate antenna wire anymore, which is too bad since it won't retract when switching modes away from radio like the stock unit. Without some kind of external switch or arduino, about the best you can do is have the antenna extend when the head unit switches on, and retract when it switches off.

What is this on 100 series with the non-JBL system? Mine is a 99. Thanks for

 

[dbfw]

Mine is a 99 LX with the Nakamichi system, but I think it's pretty typical to have blue/white as the amp trigger. I tied that together with the blue antenna + so that when my head unit powers on, the antenna extends, and when it powers off, the antenna retracts. You certainly can put a switch inline of the blue antenna + wire and use that for selective control. When the antenna wire gets +12v it extends, and when power is removed, it retracts.

 

[kgrove]

I need help with a diagnosis... After months of going with my antenna permanently down, I connected the antenna power wire to my Pioneer head unit's amp trigger wire, so now I can control the antenna with the antenna up/down switch on the center console. The problem is when the head unit first powers up, the antenna extends maybe 4" and the manual antenna retract button cannot lower it any further. When I turn the car off, the antenna again fully retracts. So something is occurring when the head unit first powers up that triggers the antenna to go up 4" in a "ready mode". If I manually extend the antenna and leave it there, the antenna fully retracts when powering off the car and then fully extends the next time it starts, but nothing gets rid of that 4" chubby. It's no big deal until off roading or automated car washes.

Any idea how to overcome this? I'd love to maintain the manual antenna control button on my center console.

 

[dbfw]

I need help with a diagnosis... After months of going with my antenna permanently down, I connected the antenna power wire to my Pioneer head unit's amp trigger wire, so now I can control the antenna with the antenna up/down switch on the center console. The problem is when the head unit first powers up, the antenna extends maybe 4" and the manual antenna retract button cannot lower it any further. When I turn the car off, the antenna again fully retracts. So something is occurring when the head unit first powers up that triggers the antenna to go up 4" in a "ready mode". If I manually extend the antenna and leave it there, the antenna fully retracts when powering off the car and then fully extends the next time it starts, but nothing gets rid of that 4" chubby. It's no big deal until off roading or automated car washes.

Any idea how to overcome this? I'd love to maintain the manual antenna control button on my center console.

That behavior is completely normal and is how our antennas behave. When using the manual raise/lower button, you can only lower it to about that 4" level. It will only completely retract when power is removed from the antenna wire. I just power off my head unit when going through an automatic car wash so it retracts completely. Nothing wrong with your head unit or your wiring, it's just the design.

 

[kgrove]

That behavior is completely normal and is how our antennas behave. When using the manual raise/lower button, you can only lower it to about that 4" level. It will only completely retract when power is removed from the antenna wire. I just power off my head unit when going through an automatic car wash so it retracts completely. Nothing wrong with your head unit or your wiring, it's just the design.

Interesting... It's been awhile, but I could swear when I put an Alpine head unit in my '07 (after doing the nav delete project) that the antenna stayed fully down. The Alpine head unit had a dedicated power antenna wire, so the antenna only extended when the radio was on... much better design. I don't own the '07 any longer so I can't confirm my memory is right (I know it is about the Alpine having a dedicated antenna power lead, but I am less certain the antenna was fully retracted when not in use).

 

[dbfw]

Yep, that would do it. If you can find a head unit with a dedicated antenna power wire, it will fully retract when selecting a non-radio source because it removed power from the antenna wire as you switch away from radio. As far as I understand it, if +12v is put to the antenna wire to the truck, it will always extend to that 4" level at minimum depending on your use of the manual height control buttons. When power is removed from the antenna wire it will fully retract. A head unit with a separate antenna wire will do just that as you change source. If your head unit doesn't have a separate antenna wire like my Pioneer, your only choice really is to wire it to the amp trigger which then means head unit power on = antenna up

 

[kgrove]

Yep, that would do it. If you can find a head unit with a dedicated antenna power wire, it will fully retract when selecting a non-radio source because it removed power from the antenna wire as you switch away from radio. As far as I understand it, if +12v is put to the antenna wire to the truck, it will always extend to that 4" level at minimum depending on your use of the manual height control buttons. When power is removed from the antenna wire it will fully retract. A head unit with a separate antenna wire will do just that as you change source. If your head unit doesn't have a separate antenna wire like my Pioneer, your only choice really is to wire it to the amp trigger which then means head unit power on = antenna up

Good info. It took me a bit to figure out how to turn off power to my Pioneer head unit and fully retract the antenna - press and hold the top left menu button on the touch screen - but now I'm good.

The two downsides I see to the setup are 1) most people won't know how this works so somebody like my wife or kids could break off the antenna at a car wash because they don't know about powering off the head unit, and 2) I would not be able to listen to the radio while off-roading places where I'd be concerned about trees or bushes scraping my car and possibly snapping off my power antenna. A car wash is the more likely problem... I don't like scraping bushes along my car to begin with, plus most places where I might aren't likely to have radio reception anyway. I can think of a few... most likely scenario I can think of would be weekend fishing or bird hunting where I might not be too far out of a major metro area and trying to listen to a football or basketball game while driving.

It's enough that if I do this again on another car, I'll make sure the head unit I choose has a dedicated power antenna connection (the Alpine ilx-w650 and ilx-407 do, the Pioneer I recently installed does not).

 

[dbfw]

Yes, I feel like head units with separate antenna wires are less and less likely, how many newer vehicles have power antennas anymore to be bothered with. I think if you wanted to, you could put a switch inline on the truck's antenna wire so that you could cut power to it at any time and have the antenna retract while the HU power was still on if you wanted. But, if the goal is to listen to radio with antenna retracted, reception might not be great, unless you use one of the splitters so you can also incorporate the antenna in the rear side glass.

I'm sure original source-based functionality could also be done with an arduino or something similar if you wanted to get a bit fancy.

 

[SCLX470]

I have a 2001 LX470 that I just purchased that originally had the ML non-nav system. I am replacing the amp as all of the speakers turned to dust so wanted to replace those with aftermarket speakers. Now however I get this same antenna behavior of 4 inches up, but the blue wire from the head unit is plugged into a blue wire on the harness. Do I need to jump a wire in the old ML plugs that are no longer in use? Does anyone have any interest in an old ML amp?

 

[kgrove]

I have a 2001 LX470 that I just purchased that originally had the ML non-nav system. I am replacing the amp as all of the speakers turned to dust so wanted to replace those with aftermarket speakers. Now however I get this same antenna behavior of 4 inches up, but the blue wire from the head unit is plugged into a blue wire on the harness. Do I need to jump a wire in the old ML plugs that are no longer in use? Does anyone have any interest in an old ML amp?

I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but let me tell you what I figured out. I've done three of these. The one that would be most comparable to yours is my current LC, an '02 where I did a full nav system delete like it sounds like you did. The other two were an '00 non-nav and an '07 nav delete. In all three cases, I removed the factory amp and installed an aftermarket amp in it's place.

There are two scenarios for the antenna depending on whether the head unit you choose has a dedicated power antenna lead or not - some do and some don't. The Alpine's that Ive used have seperate power antenna control, but the Pioneer in my '02 does not. I don't know if that's across the board with all Alpine and Pioneer models or if it's specific to the models I chose.

If your head unit has a power antenna wire, then you'd connect the head unit's power antenna lead to the harness adaptor wire for the power antenna. In that case, the antenna extends when your head unit is switched to radio mode, but retracts if your stereo is switched out of radio mode to something like a streaming mode. My recollection is the antenna fully retracted - never had the 4" chubber you're describing. Separately you'd have your head unit's amp controller lead connect directly to your new amp to power the amp on/off whenever the head unit is on.

If your head unit does not have a separate power antenna lead, then you have to steal the signal from the head unit's amp controller lead. In that case, you'd connect your head units amp controller to both your harness adaptor and also to the amp. The Pioneer unit I put in my '02 lacks a power antenna lead. My antenna fully deploys any time the head unit has power, but if I use the antenna up/down to retract the antenna, it will only retract enough to give me that 4" chubber. It does not matter what mode the head unit is in, radio or other, and the only way to fully retract that last 4" of the antenna is to manually turn the head unit off. In my Pioneer's case, it's by holding one of the buttons on the touch screen for maybe 3 seconds.

Hopefully I answered your question.

 

[SCLX470]

Kgrove,
My HU has both a remote on for the amps and the power antenna lead. The power antenna lead(blue) goes to the blue wire in an axxess harness,. This all worked fine until I removed the ML amp. Now I only get the chub antenna. The power antenna switch still works so it's not the end of the world, but not ideal either. I have read in a few places about jumping wires from the two connectors that used to go into the ML amp but not of the articles I found matched the pin outs of the 2 connectors I have. I can probably figure it out with a few hours on the multimeter, but was hoping someone might know the right combo on here as I need to get car back together for weekend trip. Thank you for the suggestion though. This is a great site.

 

[kgrove]

Kgrove,
My HU has both a remote on for the amps and the power antenna lead. The power antenna lead(blue) goes to the blue wire in an axxess harness,. This all worked fine until I removed the ML amp. Now I only get the chub antenna. The power antenna switch still works so it's not the end of the world, but not ideal either. I have read in a few places about jumping wires from the two connectors that used to go into the ML amp but not of the articles I found matched the pin outs of the 2 connectors I have. I can probably figure it out with a few hours on the multimeter, but was hoping someone might know the right combo on here as I need to get car back together for weekend trip. Thank you for the suggestion though. This is a great site.

I get it better now. I can't answer completely, but can add some details that might help you or somebody else carry it the rest of the way.

My 2007 install did have a power antenna lead on the head unit like yours, but my recollection is it functioned exactly like you would want - antenna deploys only when the radio is on and is fully retracted at all other times. I did not do anything special other than hook things up directly to the factory harness using a Metra connector. Unfortunately I can't go confirm my recollection as my wife wrecked that car (long story... we're still in marriage counseling for that one. You would be too if your spouse wrecked a 2007 with 115K miles and no rust that had the nav system replaced. Sorry - ugly tangent).

I took a peak at the EWD from my 2002 - I assume it would be the same for your 01 even though its a Lexus.j There is an Auto Antenna Controller Relay labeled A30 that captures the wires from the radio and the up/down switch and then connects to the antenna motor. A30 appears to be in the dash maybe behind the glove box area - not positive. I can't understand why the antenna would give you that first 4".... fundamentally sounds like the same problem as I've got with a head unit lacking a dedicated power antenna controller.

If you don't have the EWD, I can snap a few photos of what appear to be the relevant pages and maybe it could reduce the time you spend with the multimeter.

 

[kgrove]

Kgrove,
My HU has both a remote on for the amps and the power antenna lead. The power antenna lead(blue) goes to the blue wire in an axxess harness,. This all worked fine until I removed the ML amp. Now I only get the chub antenna. The power antenna switch still works so it's not the end of the world, but not ideal either. I have read in a few places about jumping wires from the two connectors that used to go into the ML amp but not of the articles I found matched the pin outs of the 2 connectors I have. I can probably figure it out with a few hours on the multimeter, but was hoping someone might know the right combo on here as I need to get car back together for weekend trip. Thank you for the suggestion though. This is a great site.

I get it better now. I can't answer completely, but can add some details that might help you or somebody else carry it the rest of the way.

My 2007 install did have a power antenna lead on the head unit like yours, but my recollection is it functioned exactly like you would want - antenna deploys only when the radio is on and is fully retracted at all other times. I did not do anything special other than hook things up directly to the factory harness using a Metra connector. Unfortunately I can't go confirm my recollection as my wife wrecked that car (long story... we're still in marriage counseling for that one. You would be too if your spouse wrecked a 2007 with 115K miles and no rust that had the nav system replaced. Sorry - ugly tangent).

I took a peak at the EWD from my 2002 - I assume it would be the same for your 01 even though its a Lexus.j There is an Auto Antenna Controller Relay labeled A30 that captures the wires from the radio and the up/down switch and then connects to the antenna motor. A30 appears to be in the dash maybe behind the glove box area - not positive. I can't understand why the antenna would give you that first 4".... fundamentally sounds like the same problem as I've got with a head unit lacking a dedicated power antenna controller.

If you don't have the EWD, I can snap a few photos of what appear to be the relevant pages and maybe it could reduce the time you spend with the multimeter.

Food for thought... I was just working on installing a stereo in a Prado I imported and noticed something. Which Metra harness are you using? I'm looking at the Metra 70-1761 for 1987 and newer Toyotas. The packaging doesn't include a pin diagram, but the color coding shows blue for the power antenna and blue/white for the amp turn-on. When I look at the connectors, there is a short blue wire looping back to the connector and joining with the blue lead you'd attach to the amp switch and/or power antenna. When I think back to my 2007 LC (head unit had a separate power antenna wire), I'm pretty sure I used a different Metra harness, the one designed to bypass the factory amp (#70-8116). I'm wondering if that could be an easy place to investigate.... Is maybe the Metra connector sending the amp on/off signal through what the factory is expecting to be a power antenna channel?

FWIW, I was looking again at the EWD diagram for the radio both with and without the amplifier and I don't see any connections between the amp and the power antenna. As best I can tell, the circuit for the power antenna is limited to the radio connecting to the Auto Antenna Controller Relay and then the power antenna motor itself. This suggests to me that removing and replacing the amp should not have a direct impact on the power antenna and instead it's a matter of tracking down the path between the head unit and the Antenna Relay. Maybe it's this Metra harness Issue. If not, I suppose if you could identify the Antenna Controller Relay, you could directly wire your head unit power antenna lead to the relay.