I went to a local gas station to fill up and get the car washed, much to my dismay the wash broke the antenna mounting base. I've used touchless washes in the past and the only problem with them is the car remains dirty afterwards. This wash was highly touted as being thorough which it was, but it was too good. Good enough to break the base.

Anyone have tips on fixing this part? I'm assuming the headliner has to come down or partially down to get at the base. Tips? Tricks? Or am I the first moron to break the antenna base?

 

Did you remove the antenna before going through the wash?

 

Yeah, your suppose to remove it, if your going through a car wash..

 

Hindsight friends. I have the S2000 antenna installed, Loctite'ed it so nobody gets the bright idea of taking it.

I usually don't use car washes but I was in a hurry and this pelican sized bird layed a huge crumpy on my trunk deck and window. I just wanted to get the car rinsed off really.

 

It's pretty easy to get at. You have to pull the rear portion of the headliner where the base is located. There should be a connection right there that you can disconnect to seperate the base from the remainder of the antenna wire going to the headunit.

 

I've run through a "no touch" car wash with my S2000 antenna. It had drape-like rags which dragged on the car. Antenna and its based survived. I've never gone through those mechanical scrubby car washes though.

 

Well got the job done. It wasn't as easy as I hoped, took about 3 hours start to finish. I couldn't get the antenna off by loosening the rear only. I ended up removing the entire headliner which actually wasn't bad at all. Reinstalling it on the other hand kind of sucked, particularly the black molding around the windows. In case anyone needs to do this in the future for anything here's what I did to get it off, keep in mind I have an RS.

Remove the passenger assist handles. (uncap, unscrew 2 philips screws)

Remove the dome light. (pry off cover, unscrew 2 philips screws)

Remove the sun visors. (The hook portion is removed by using two flathead screwdrivers and pinching it from the side. There are two slots on the side where to do this, two philips screws other end)

Pry off C-pillars (I used my hands and they popped right off)

Pry off B-pillars (Used my hands again, easy)

Pry off A-pillars (Hands yet again, these were the easiest)

The rest is prying off the fasteners around the perimeter of the headliner (3 in back across the top, 1 underneath each pillar)

Voila, headliner has been removed.

For reassembly it's all quite easy but the black molding around the windows makes everything take longer since you have to make sure the headliner is neatly tucked inside. I also managed to drop the two fastners into the B-pillars which required I remove the seat belts. Those two managed to add about 30 minutes of extra work.

 

i never use carwash, i always wash my car by hand by my house, its the best. i would worry about my wheels and other little stuff...

 

Tweak, I agree but like I said I had a huge bird grogan on my trunk and window that I wanted off pronto. What do you guys use for washing?

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/

These guys seem like they know what they're doing but were surprised some Evolutions do not have a clear coat.