Aerial unit wanted

[freds dad]

After deciding to change the aerial on the car I struggled to get the old one off. After a bit of BFI and WD40 I found out why. The previous owner had bodged the plastic inside with some tape and it finally broke into a 1000 pieces, well not quite a 1000 but a few.

Anyway less of the rambling. I now need a new unit. I believe the part number is 65218375159 and if any of you good folk have one lying aroun they would like to sell me then please contact me and we can arrange.

Whilst browsing the web it seems that aerials from othe Beemers mat fit the Zed. Has anyone down this or does anyone know if it's possible?

Cheers

FD

[freds dad]

Anyone out there?

[Southernboy]

I think that as long as the rubber grommets, brackets and the large rubber grommet on the inside of the boot will accept the unit it doesn't really matter where the aerial has come from. Perhaps best is to replace the large rubber grommet on the inside with a new unit, but before fitting it check to see if another aerial will fit through it tightly, and also through the outer grommet. The bracket to hold it in place in the boot area can be fashioned if it isn't immediately compatible using some copper straps or the like from your plumbing supplier. Copper is soft enough to bend and twist to shape, and rigid enough to carry such a small mass. Other than that, keep hunting the car breakers.

[Southernboy]

If you have a look at the diagram on realoem.com it accurately shows what the parts and appearance of the unit should be. That will give you an idea of what you are looking for, and how it is held in it's standard application. Any aerial which closely matches that from another BMW, should be fine. The outer grommet takes care of the body curve, the aerial itself comes straight up, and doesn't have any special shape to worry about.

[VinceR]

I bought mine from a breakers - bmw-carparts.co.uk (it was from an E36, same part: 65218375159) for the princely sum of £15 .. fitted it (& a new grommet) & it's been grand ..

[OldskoolRS]

FWIW the aerial on my OH's 2006 Mini fits and looks exactly the same, though the mount itself is different, so not much use...I bought a replacement aerial on Ebay but it only works when the car is on my drive and fades out as soon as I move the car, so I'm not much use with aerials.

[Pistol968]

I like the original style aerial, not sure why anyone would want to swap it for the Bee sting stubby job.

[OldskoolRS]

I like the original style aerial, not sure why anyone would want to swap it for the Bee sting stubby job.

I thought that the bigger OEM one might be more prone to a passing idiot trying to snap it off as the back of my Z3 is very near to the pavement and no gates...

Anyway, I don't tend to listen to the radio or CD when driving it as I like the sound of the engine too much.

[colb]

Just been down this route.
I had bad reception so removed the aerial and found the top plastic shroud holding the threaded part at the top where the mast screws in had crumbled. The aerial wire connected to the base of the threaded part had also come loose making intermittant contact, hence the bad reception.
I managed to solder the wire back on and then used araldite glue to bond it back on the plastic shroud, used a small nylon ratchet tie to help it hold together whilst the araldite set.
Have bought a new outer grommet from BMW Part Number 65 21 8 411 562 at a cost of £1.70 beware someone on e-bay is selling these for over £5!!!!

Have yet to fit it back on the car but no rush as whilst it has been off the car I fitted a Halfords Rear roof aerial as a temporary fix, it's raked back as opposed to the stock straight aerial but looks ok. I also needed a conversion lead to connect this aerial to the BMW screw fitting lead, got this at Halfords as well.

Update
Put it back on the car yesterday, all went well but did need to screw a long bolt into the areial to pull the unit up through the new grommet, bit of pressure and it popped itself into the grommet. Reception now restored.

Colb
1999 1.8 Blue