Power Antenna wiring with new radio

[SCLX470]

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.

Those picts would be a huge help. Any chance that the EWD tells wire colors as well? I would bet there is a wire coming from one of those old amp plugs to that relay. I can run my blue antenna wire to it and I bet that will do the trick. I had heard about a relay behind the dash being involved in one of the various threads I have read. Thank you and sorry for the loss of your 07. My wife and I don’t share cars for that reason that and she can’t get into a car without leaving some trash in there when she leaves.

 

[SCLX470]

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.

The harness I have is actually the leftover from an Acxess Toyo01 that allowed a COTS HU work with ML AMP. I removed that device since I didn’t use the high level speaker outputs any longer and am using the RCA cables to two new amps. Not sure what it could be other than the amp? Antenna was working as expected,

 

[kgrove]

Here you go... hope this helps. I included the page that has the color code decoder ring. Good luck finding a solution.

 

[kgrove]

I would bet there is a wire coming from one of those old amp plugs to that relay. I can run my blue antenna wire to it and I bet that will do the trick. I had heard about a relay behind the dash being involved in one of the various threads I have read.

If I'm reading the EWD diagram right (granted - '02 LC vs '01 LX... my experience has been the wiring is the same but sometimes the documentation is labeled differently, e.g., the LC manual might refer to two connectors and call them X1 and X2, but the Lexus manual will name the same two physical connectors X2 and X3... same reality, but a guy looking at a LC book will have a hard time talking to a guy looking at a LX book)...

There is no connection between the amp and the power antenna at all. There is a power antenna signal coming from the radio to the antenna relay and then several wires from the relay to the antenna motor itself - up, down, ground, and vcc (which is likely accessory power). I included the EWD page for the radio (#238) and it similarly shows no connection between the amplifier and either the power antenna motor or the antenna relay.

Even with this, I'm still trying to figure out what happens that causes an aftermarket setup to give the antenna a 4" chubber when the head unit has power, even if the up/down switch is trying to fully retract the antenna. It seems there is something going on with the voltage level or perhaps the timing of when the voltage happens where the relay tells the motor to extend enough to give the antenna that 4" head start.

 

[SCLX470]

Thank you for diagrams. I have no idea why the 4 inch chubber happens but seems to be the norm from other forums. If I manually raise antenna it goes back to that position when I crank the car so not too terrible but would be nice for it to retract on non-radio sources but… I did do a continuity test from blue antenna wire to every pin in plugs and didn’t get anything which matches with your diagrams. Do you happen to have the pin outs for those connectors at amp just out of curiosity?

 

[kgrove]

Thank you for diagrams. I have no idea why the 4 inch chubber happens but seems to be the norm from other forums. If I manually raise antenna it goes back to that position when I crank the car so not too terrible but would be nice for it to retract on non-radio sources but… I did do a continuity test from blue antenna wire to every pin in plugs and didn’t get anything which matches with your diagrams. Do you happen to have the pin outs for those connectors at amp just out of curiosity?

I don’t think they include the pin outs in the EWD but you could create your own from the diagram with the amp. I think the numbers represent the pin position, e.g., gray (GR) ACC wire is in pin 2. I’m reading the power antenna control wire should be black and red and would go to the antenna relay which should be somewhere behind the dash / glove box area, not down by the amp under the passenger seat. That is unless the Lexus ML setup is very different from the LC diagrams.

 

[SCLX470]

I don’t think they include the pin outs in the EWD but you could create your own from the diagram with the amp. I think the numbers represent the pin position, e.g., gray (GR) ACC wire is in pin 2. I’m reading the power antenna control wire should be black and red and would go to the antenna relay which should be somewhere behind the dash / glove box area, not down by the amp under the passenger seat. That is unless the Lexus ML setup is very different from the LC diagrams.

That’s what I have primarily read is that the wire I need is black and red. That’s one of the other issues I am running into is that a previous owner must have been testing all of the wiring and have removed the covering and then put black tape on every wire. Some wires are covered all the way into the factory coverings? Here’s a picture. You can’t see the black and red wire in here but it’s there and connected to blue from HU.

 

[SCLX470]

That’s what I have primarily read is that the wire I need is black and red. That’s one of the other issues I am running into is that a previous owner must have been testing all of the wiring and have removed the covering and then put black tape on every wire. Some wires are covered all the way into the factory coverings? Here’s a picture. You can’t see the black and red wire in here but it’s there and connected to blue from HU. View attachment 2935559Looking at the EWD there is also a black/red going to the amp assuming for remote-on. I wonder if somehow those got flipped or cross connected and now that I direct wired my amp remote on I am sending the antenna to pin B1 at amp? I can test that pretty easily at least. Is there a legend for these EWDs? I think I figured most of it out but some of the symbols and abbreviations are unknown to me. How can you get an EWD for a 2001 LX? Thank you again.

 

[kgrove]

I got my LC EWD on eBay. I vaguely recall seeing some of these posted electronically as pdfs... wouldn't be surprised if you could find one somewhere specific to your car. I find it invaluable to have the EWD as well as both volumes of the FSM. I don't use them often, but they've saved me a ton of work numerous times. I'm sure they've more than paid for themselves even just in reduced parts costs on problems too complex for me (which is most) but where I can at least bring the mechanic my own parts (lower cost and avoids risk of mechanic sourcing crappy aftermarket stuff).

Here's how I'd interpret those two B-R wires. I'll attach diagrams of each connector type at the bottom.

On the radio side - both should be in connecter A, which is a type R1 connector. Pin #13 goes to the Antenna Control Relay A30. The B-R in pin #3 is in that same R1 connector and is used for the Amp contol.

On the amp: there should be only one B-R wire in pin #1 spot of the B connector, a type S7.

On the Antenna Controller Relay: I was calling in A30, but now I'm thinking the relay uses an A30 type connector. The B-R wire coming from the radio would hit pin #14 on the relay.

Here are the three relevant connectors - R1, S7, and A30:

 

[shtbrwn86]

This is an old thread, but it seems some people here know about how this antenna is supposed to work.
A few years ago I installed an older Alpine (probably from 2012) in my 99 LX and it has the blue/white (AMP+) and blue (ANT+). The antenna went up and down based on the input I selected. I recently replaced it with a newer Alpine and it no longer goes up and down based on input. Antenna goes up all the way when it's on, and all the way down when it's off. Not a huge deal, but I really liked how it went up and down based on the input. I was under the impression that if it has a power antenna wire then it will behave as expected.

Side note, the power antenna switch also stopped working. The antenna still goes up and down, but the switch can no longer lower the antenna when I am not listening to the radio. I can hear the relay when I press UP, but I don't think I hear it when I press down.

 

[MountaineerLC]

As a data point, the Atoto head unit I installed has a separate power antenna wire, however, I still get the 4” chubby when the head unit is on regardless if I’m listening to the radio or playing from my phone. I also bypassed the amp when I installed the head unit so the power is not coming from the amp. The up and down switch functions as intended except it won’t retract the antenna completely.

I wonder if there is way to interrupt the single from the head unit to the relay so that the antenna can only be controlled manually by the switch?

 

[shtbrwn86]

As a data point, the Atoto head unit I installed has a separate power antenna wire, however, I still get the 4” chubby when the head unit is on regardless if I’m listening to the radio or playing from my phone. I also bypassed the amp when I installed the head unit so the power is not coming from the amp. The up and down switch functions as intended except it won’t retract the antenna completely.

I wonder if there is way to interrupt the single from the head unit to the relay so that the antenna can only be controlled manually by the switch?

There is a thread on here about doing something similar but it bypasses the switch altogether. I’d be in favor of that if I needed to but then I’d have a switch on my dash that does nothing and that would annoy me.

 

[shtbrwn86]

It also pops now when it’s muted or when I turn the stereo off. Very annoying. Old Alpine from 2013 didn’t do this!

 

[MountaineerLC]

There is a thread on here about doing something similar but it bypasses the switch altogether. I’d be in favor of that if I needed to but then I’d have a switch on my dash that does nothing and that would annoy me.

I’d just disconnect it completely as I never use the FM radio, but my wife does when she drives the LC.

Seems like there should be a simple way to rewire it using the dash switch to power the antenna directly.

 

[shtbrwn86]

I’d just disconnect it completely as I never use the FM radio, but my wife does when she drives the LC.

Seems like there should be a simple way to rewire it using the dash switch to power the antenna directly.

This would be a great hack! Then it would function just like my 88 4Runner. Down 99.9% of the time but there when I want to listen to a baseball game or something.

 

[shtbrwn86]

I haven't found anything concrete yet, just a number of random online posts where people say that Alpine (and probably others) like doesn't really have a separate 12v for the antenna. There are two wires, but the two wires are constant 12v to the powered stationary antenna (sharkfin style). The thought process is that cars haven't had traditional power antennas for quite a long time, so why build that feature into the head unit.

Another sweet mod would be to repurpose that switch to run a winch instead (new decals too) and move the power antenna functions somewhere else. But I don't know how hard that would be to do.