akewlguy Posted January 17, 2006 Posted January 17, 2006 Purchased an autozone black antenna mast... They said it would work... Well after much frustration it was to small and now I need to buy the antenna and rubber bushing. Anyone know a good place to buy that will ship to my home. We do not have a Lexus dealer within 60 miles of my home. Also anyone know who hosts these forums. I need one for a personal website.
branshew Posted January 17, 2006 Posted January 17, 2006 Purchased an autozone black antenna mast... They said it would work... Well after much frustration it was to small and now I need to buy the antenna and rubber bushing. Anyone know a good place to buy that will ship to my home. We do not have a Lexus dealer within 60 miles of my home. Also anyone know who hosts these forums. I need one for a personal website. I picked up an aftermarket Toyota Camry model at Pep Boys for my ES (mast only) for under $20. I would imagine the LS antenna is the same.
sapper_daddy Posted January 17, 2006 Posted January 17, 2006 i ordered mine online for 19 bucks try ebay!
glenmore Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Ebay is a great place. Available all the time and cheap. Comes with great instructions also. Caution, it is a dirty messy job. When the old one comes out, it may fling grease every which away. glenmore 1990 LS400
Threadcutter Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Purchased an autozone black antenna mast... They said it would work... Well after much frustration it was to small and now I need to buy the antenna and rubber bushing. Anyone know a good place to buy that will ship to my home. We do not have a Lexus dealer within 60 miles of my home. Also anyone know who hosts these forums. I need one for a personal website. Kewl: Glenmore's right.........spend the 30'ish bucks for a complete aftermarket unit. That way, you don't have to contend with the mess & needing another set of hands when you put the new mast in the old housing. It's not particularly difficult to install a new mast, but I wish I would have gone the complete unit route as opposed to the replacement mast route. That way, you just remove the old unit, trash it & install the new unit. If you're wondering about whether or not it's a difficult job, it's not.....
akewlguy Posted January 18, 2006 Author Posted January 18, 2006 Yeah... Well what really stinks is the fact I completly ripped out the old mast and then went through the process of a mess. Knowing that the antenna did not fit right I really wasted about 3-4 hours. I will look into a replacement kit and just throw the old in the garage and the new in the LS. Cheers Why do we sometimes do something so stupid like go to Autozone. Went to EBAY like you guys stated and bammmmm, right there the exact antenna I need for $5 less then what I paid. Wasted 4 hours and a lot of soap to fix something that would never work. Thanks for advice! For sure this is worth $50 a year!
Threadcutter Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 Yeah... Well what really stinks is the fact I completly ripped out the old mast and then went through the process of a mess. Knowing that the antenna did not fit right I really wasted about 3-4 hours. I will look into a replacement kit and just throw the old in the garage and the new in the LS. Cheers Why do we sometimes do something so stupid like go to Autozone. Went to EBAY like you guys stated and bammmmm, right there the exact antenna I need for $5 less then what I paid. Wasted 4 hours and a lot of soap to fix something that would never work. Thanks for advice! For sure this is worth $50 a year! Kewl: Don't beat yourself up.........Ever heard the term "Hindsight is 20/20"? We've all been there. I'll give you another "funny" example; I replaced the struts all the way around on my '95 LS. The process is well documented on lexls.com. In his instructions, he recommends purchasing Ball joint puller (OEM Tools #25297 $9.99 @ Autozone), which I did. I think I even had to pay the huge sum of $15.00. Was I ripped off? No. Quite the contrary, even though I only used this tool for less than 30 seconds on each front wheel, it was one of the best tool investments that I've ever made. Because of what that tool accomplished for me, I'd happily do it all over again. Is Autozone at fault? Nah, not in my opinion. I just purchased a set of front wheel bearings & seals there. I went for the Timken brand.........You know, good old American brand, arguably at some point in time the finest bearing manufacturer in the world. I open one of the bearing boxes & guess what's in it? a Koyo bearing.......I'm not terribly disappointed because Koyo is pretty high quality stuff too. It's just that I was expecting Timken. Was any of this Autozone's fault? Nope. Remember, they were Timken boxes. On the other hand, when I compare OEM parts prices on some of the websites (like Park Place Lexus) to what my local Stealer(s) have quoted me, I get angry. The stealers are about 20 to 25% above list price........Not good. You live, you learn, you have a beer & enjoy life..................
akewlguy Posted January 18, 2006 Author Posted January 18, 2006 Ah I am not really that aggrivated. Just when I was all dirty during my only weekend home I was getting mad. I will return the 25$ piece of crap and on a good note the new cable can be pushed in when antenna is up and it will suck it down when I turn it off. :)
Black Lex Posted January 21, 2006 Posted January 21, 2006 Ah I am not really that aggrivated. Just when I was all dirty during my only weekend home I was getting mad. I will return the 25$ piece of crap and on a good note the new cable can be pushed in when antenna is up and it will suck it down when I turn it off. :) I bought a mast on ebay for 15 or 20 bucks and was not satisfied . It was shorter than OEM and didn't adjust to am and fm properly am is taller setting about 6 or 7 inches. So I returned and bought a OEM mast from Irontoad.com for about 42 bucks . Works fine and It only took a few min. to install
akewlguy Posted January 21, 2006 Author Posted January 21, 2006 Thanks man.. I guess this will go back before I even get it!
RichieRich Posted January 27, 2006 Posted January 27, 2006 I bought one of the cheapie replacement masts from Ebay. Used the tutorial on lexls.com to install it. Other then being a greasy job it wasn't too difficult. Two weeks later and now the antenna cable clicks loudly when it tops out, then drops back down about 6 inches. The mast is also very rusty already. Probably going to leave it in there until it stops working and then replace it with the OEM one. I don't like having cheap junk on my cars that rusts in less then two weeks......
sapper_daddy Posted January 29, 2006 Posted January 29, 2006 i got mine from antennamastsrus.com it works fine, i live in south la, where rust has rust on it but the key thing was that i lubed it up really well with fresh lubriplate, seems to be working, i'd definitly check out that site though, got it from an ebay auction for 20 and it's the exact same length as the original
akewlguy Posted January 29, 2006 Author Posted January 29, 2006 Bought and installed the one on EBAY for 20 bucks. It works and looks fine. Same size as stock. I will let you know if it rusts, but so far good. Nice to have the radio back! As it turns out it looks like the new antenna is a few inches shorter then the orriginal. So now I hear a slight grind at the end of the antenna rising. Ohh well. It brakes then I will buy a new assembly for 30 bucks. Cheers
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