Occasionally the antennae stops about 1/4 from full descent. I lubed the little guy with wd 40 & let it ride a few times... it goes all the way sometimes & sometimes not. I can manually persuade it to descend all the way down & then it'll work for a while...

Another typical Subaru dilemma?

99 O.B. (BTW) if that matters... maybe it's a pre Headgasket warning????

THANKS.

Later,

Peter

I think you're on the right track.

 

Manually persuade it, and then thoroughly lubricate it. Use the WD40 to begin with.

 

Work the antenna up and down about a dozen times, then use a rag to wipe off all the dirty WD40 from the extended antenna.

 

Apply fresh oil. Use some light machine oil, such as sewing machine oil. Work it up and down several more times to distribute the fresh oil.

later, peter,

 

You may have to forcibly retract the antenna all of the way down, and then remove the entire unit from the car, take it apart, clean and lubricate it, and put it back in. I've done several of them on various cars and its fairly easy to do, and pretty intuitive. I'll bet that you have some grunge and old hardened grease build up inside of the gear case, where the antenna's whip winds up, or even a slightly kinked whip. If the whip is kinked, simply replace it at this time. They aren't overly expensive, and shopping around at various dealers (toyota, Nissan, Honda) for a replacement mast should get you a cheapy, if the Subaru one is overly priced. They all use the same parts suppliers anyway. My 90 Nissan 300zx presently has a mid 90's Camry mast in it, since the Toyota dealer was in town and the Nissan dealership was 70 miles away. Sure, I had to change the screw off knob at the top of the mast on each of the masts, but that was it. Be sure to match up the diameter of the bottom mast section so that it seals properly and also doesn't flop around. You don't even need to be concerned if the masts aren't the same lenghth. They should be close enough to pull in the stations. Good luck!

we are near the Bay so the salt gets them a bit. I clean them with Scotchbrite and WD40 and they work until the motor burns out and I have to go to Grand Auto and get a cheap replacement. I usually change the whole thing at once with a universal kit. I am not sure if they have those in Canada guys.

I got fifteen years out of lubeing my Mercedes and two years on the new one when I sold it.