Shark Fin Antenna Inadvertent Removal (1 Viewer)

[rcpalmer78]

So, feel free to laugh and comment at any point in this story.... Wife was pulling her new Land Cruiser out of the garage yesterday morning and our automated garage door which is not currently automated had slid down literally 1/2” lower than tolerance would permit. The shark fin popped off. Apparently it damaged that, as well as the wiring harness, also (barely) recontouring the metal around the insertion point. Dealer wants to charge $3k to mount a new antenna, take down the headliner to run a new wiring harness and fix the metal so the new antenna will fit flush. I’ve searched the forums and apparently nobody has experienced such a SNAFU. As of right now we are going to file through insurance since it is literally a brand new, temporary tag still on it truck. Anyone have any other thoughts about plugging the hole and moving the antenna in the event we want a roof rack, etc instead of going through all of this? Appreciate ideas and comments- I’ll start - “next time spend less on your land cruiser and more on garage doors....”

 

[Sac Cerevisiae]

Meh. I had my tailgate up and drove into the garage and dinged the spoiler. $h!t happens. Bummer about the deformed roof metal. Most roof racks don’t impact the antenna so I’d just replace it there.

 

[rcpalmer78]

Meh. I had my tailgate up and drove into the garage and dinged the spoiler. $h!t happens. Bummer about the deformed roof metal. Most roof racks don’t impact the antenna so I’d just replace it there.

Agree. And trust me, first thing I did was give her a hug, because I’ve done much worse. She can handle the vehicle, drives an HD no problem. Only thing that made me hesitate is that some folks had complained about diminished reception with aftermarket roof racks. At some point soon we are going to get going with mods and that’s on the list.

 

[KLF]

Mine could disappear and it wouldn't bother me. It's only for XM/Sirius stuff, which I'll never subscribe.

I would like to see a photo of the hole from above. I think it would be a perfect place to put a ham radio antenna with an NMO mount.

 

[rcpalmer78]

Mine could disappear and it wouldn't bother me. It's only for XM/Sirius stuff, which I'll never subscribe.

I would like to see a photo of the hole from above. I think it would be a perfect place to put a ham radio antenna with an NMO mount.

Will need to take pictures for insurance claim. Wife going in morning to Toyota dealership where we left it to do so. They haven’t started work yet - wanted to hear from you all first. Regardless of what we do I will make sure to post a pic. From memory it’s a 1cm x 2cm rectangle - I will ask her to measure. If I were to electively remove, based on what I see, would use heavy fishing line to disrupt adhesive all the way around until I was to and around the rectangle which is about 2/3 back on the fin. It is clipped into the wiring harness. Not sure if it’s clipped into the hole.

 

[ElJayBird]

Mine could disappear and it wouldn't bother me. It's only for XM/Sirius stuff, which I'll never subscribe.

Honestly, with services like Spotify and Apple Music available now, I’m surprised XM/Sirius still exist at all. They must spend a fortune on postage because I get junk mail from them at least once or twice a week.

 

[CJ3Flyer]

I’d leave it off. It facilitates government tracking of your vehicle.

 

[ArnieC]

Satellite radio is pretty useless, but right now they are running promos for $2 for 3 months. Thats right, sixty six cents a month.

If you want to reactivate a dead radio or are paying full price, give them a ring and they will drop their drawers. I wouldnt pay over $1/month but it is somewhat enjoyable.

 

[Sandroad]

That antenna definitely gets in the way of my Yakima canoe roller loader and I’d love to remove it. I hadn’t thought of the “drive into garage with the door slightly down” method. Sounds quick and easy. But, I do appreciate the info on how it’s fastened and will appreciate the pics. I gave up on Sirius/XM years ago because their super-compressed signal didn’t have enough frequencies left to provide quality sound. And I hate how aggressive they are; I had to cancel the credit card to get them to stop charging me long after I’d canceled their service.

 

[bloc]

Satellite radio is pretty useless, but right now they are running promos for $2 for 3 months. Thats right, sixty six cents a month.

If you want to reactivate a dead radio or are paying full price, give them a ring and they will drop their drawers. I wouldnt pay over $1/month but it is somewhat enjoyable.

I've been playing that game with them for years, usually before a long roadtrip.

As for canceling, it helps A LOT to tell them you are recording the call when you ask them to cancel. I even refuse to give them a reason for canceling other than "I woke up today and don't want it", which seems to melt their brains.

 

[rscoleman]

Sorry and good luck on what ever fix you go with.
On SAT radio thing. I do not currently subscribe but often take calls asking me to sign back up. I always tell them same thing. I have 2 vehicles with antennas and GPS system that I use in my boat and motorcycle that has antenna (3 total) that I would love to activate service on. I want single flat monthly rate that will activate all antennas. I will pay for 3 years in advance at rate of 5 dollars a month no more. They always say can't do that and I say have nice day.

 

[KLF]

For some reason, the Sirius started working again at some point in the Cruiser. Must be some promotional push. The only reason I know is a message popped up on my nav screen the other day that there was severe weather approaching. Started pushing buttons, huh ya everything is working. Audio, sports scores, stocks, weather. I never subscribed, and they don't have any of my CC info so I know I'm not paying for it. The only email they have for me is my burner account, and I never answer phone calls from someone not in my contacts.

See... In NH we have these things called "trees". We have lots of them, we're pretty proud of them too. But they render Sirius audio channels unusable. Way too much skipping. Plus, the sound is very poor quality when I do receive it. Must be the compression. Not interested.

But I sure would be interested in a way to cleanly get the fin off the roof.

 

[Tripledave]

Man, that sucks. I know the truck is new and all but I could get into lots of "repair" work myself to avoid giving anyone $3k to fix that issue. A new antenna should be relatively cheap, there cannot be much to a "wiring harness" for said antenna as antenna wires are usually coaxial cable (core, insulator, shield, jacket), and roof sheet metal (once headliner is removed) should be super easy to work back into place. Just my thoughts..... Go for it

 

[KLF]

The dealer repair estimate is probably assuming the harness above the headliner is damaged, and they don't typically cut into harnesses, they just want to replace the whole harness. I've had the rear of my headliner down enough to see that harness heads towards the front of the truck from there, so most of the headliner will have to come down. That is a huge job, lots of plastic and clips, and lots of risk of breaking something.

 

[slowride]

That antenna definitely gets in the way of my Yakima canoe roller loader and I’d love to remove it. I hadn’t thought of the “drive into garage with the door slightly down” method. Sounds quick and easy. But, I do appreciate the info on how it’s fastened and will appreciate the pics. I gave up on Sirius/XM years ago because their super-compressed signal didn’t have enough frequencies left to provide quality sound. And I hate how aggressive they are; I had to cancel the credit card to get them to stop charging me long after I’d canceled their service.
[/QUOTE Sirius/XM has always been sub-par audio quality (SUX)... and they have auto re-new annual contracts from HELL itself... Never give your credit card to the sales professional selling you a whatever brand of car...

I use free Pandora and get an ad about every 12 songs or so... Pandora is high quality, it rocks the cruisers JBL system to the core... I love to hear the ads they pick for me... clearly they can't peg me by the music I listen to... I have a friend who listens to Howard Stern, that's about the only reason I could see someone paying for XM... High fidelity it ain't...

If you own the cruiser and don't care about XM, I'd forget about the fin and cover it over... only an NBA player will ever notice it missing and your gas mileage might improve due to the lowered drag coefficient ... LOL...

 

[rcpalmer78]

The dealer repair estimate is probably assuming the harness above the headliner is damaged, and they don't typically cut into harnesses, they just want to replace the whole harness. I've had the rear of my headliner down enough to see that harness heads towards the front of the truck from there, so most of the headliner will have to come down. That is a huge job, lots of plastic and clips, and lots of risk of breaking something.

Correct - estimate involves seven hours of labor to pull and reattach headliner to replace harness. I talked to them further today. They have done this before on other vehicles and state even to reattach the fin but not rewire they still have to pull headliner- attachment point for fin that broke has to come from the underside. We are going to go ahead and let insurance handle it since it’s new, but if it had more years on it or was paying it all out of pocket then may have gone a different direction. Work is warrantied for lifetime. All Clips bent and broken will be replaced so it won’t be a rattling mess. Thank you all for your input- while there was consensus that the antenna is useless, there really wasn’t an inexpensive realistic alternative.

For those of you interested in attachment points here are the photos from today. Again, hole is about 2cm by 1cm. Don’t get too excited - that’s not my wife’s hand.

 

[KLF]

Ok, now all the 3D printer people need to step up and make a weatherproof plug for that hole. @suprarx7nut (YotaMD) any chance?

 

[Sandroad]

Me too on Pandora. I subscribe for no ads and more bandwidth. I often “warm up the speakers” with good music.

 

[Harryis36]

Ok, now all the 3D printer people need to step up and make a weatherproof plug for that hole. @suprarx7nut (YotaMD) any chance?

My wife just did this to our new to us 2013 LC 200 and bent the roof. I used a bunch of silicone to patch it for now I till it’s summer and I can work outside. Did you come up with a plug or cap? I know they have one for the. 2nd gen Tacoma’s. Tempted to relocate the entire thing as I don’t need the gps and the satellite radio does not work in alaska.

 

[fasteddie2015]

Washing the LC yesterday, I noticed a scratch on the roof and that some paint was missing from the antenna and rear spoiler. No idea how it happened but after reading this I consider myself lucky.

Best I can guess, I pulled into a parking garage that had a sign stating 7 foot clearance. The LC is about 6 foot tall, but maybe I rubbed the bottom of that sign. Not going back to check.