Antenna Making Loud Noise

[tmhtmh]

The antenna on my RX300 (2002) is making a loud noise when ti retracts - especially noticable when I just turned the vehicle off. Is this likely the motor or maybe it just needs some oil to move more smoothly? If it is the motor, is there a solution or just wait until it fails then replace it? The noise is fairly loud but not enough for me to spend much to fix unless I'm avoiding spending more in the future.

Thanks.

[lenore]

Try cleaning the antenna mast with a solf cotton cloth and then apply a little WD40 on a cloth to the same mast in the extended positon. Then try it up and down. If it is still noisey than the mast is bent somewhere. The mast itself can be replaced for about $75 cost. Not counting labor. If you are a diy person you can do it yourself.

[tmhtmh]

Thanks lenore, the wd-40 seemed to help quite a bit. it's still making a bit more noise than I'd expect, but now it doesn't sound like it's about to die completely.

[tmastres]

I just went through antenna replacement routine 2 weeks ago. There are some useful post regarding antenna replacement on this forum if you do a search. I'd suggest you replace the antenna mast now rather that wait until it stops working. Mine started with noticeable noise whenever the antenna retracted and that went on for about a month until one day I noticed the antenna was still up after I parked the car. The antenna is operated by a geared nylon cord that is forced up/down by a small motor & cog system. What happened to me was that the cord broke and could no longer operate the mast. The reason I say its better/easier to do it before it breaks is that once it breaks you'll more than likely have to open up the motor housing and retreive the broken piece. The mast separates easily from the motor housing and its simpler to just take the old mast and cord out and thread the new one in. Its not a tough DIY job but it does require tearing out a lot of the interior trim work on that side of the vehicle.

[Ericok]

The mast itself can be replaced for about $75 cost. Not counting labor. If you are a diy person you can do it yourself.

I bought my replacement mast on ebay for $20 (including shipping). Someone else posted that PepBoys carries a replacement mast.

[jaymay]

I just went through antenna replacement routine 2 weeks ago. There are some useful post regarding antenna replacement on this forum if you do a search. I'd suggest you replace the antenna mast now rather that wait until it stops working. Mine started with noticeable noise whenever the antenna retracted and that went on for about a month until one day I noticed the antenna was still up after I parked the car. The antenna is operated by a geared nylon cord that is forced up/down by a small motor & cog system. What happened to me was that the cord broke and could no longer operate the mast. The reason I say its better/easier to do it before it breaks is that once it breaks you'll more than likely have to open up the motor housing and retreive the broken piece. The mast separates easily from the motor housing and its simpler to just take the old mast and cord out and thread the new one in. Its not a tough DIY job but it does require tearing out a lot of the interior trim work on that side of the vehicle.

Tmastres, I think my antenna broke just like yours di. Can you guide me to the where the bit on replacemnt is? And where you can get the part? THanks. jay

[tmastres]

Hey there,

the antenna info I was referreng to is right here, from a poster named

Vicky I believe

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...9461&hl=antenna

Its about the 4th or 5th post that has the useful info. I'll go over

my situation which was pretty similar to theirs and sounds like yours

as well. I first went to Toyota to get the mast replacement but as I

mentioned in my first post above I had no luck there, more than that

though they were not much cheaper than Lexus, $60 vs $70 So I bought it at Lexus. They knew exactly what I needed at Lexus so I'm sure they've sold more than a few. A few people mentioned

that they got theirs on e-bay or on-line for 20-30 bucks, go figure.

Anyhow the biggest pain in the whole process is pulling out all the

interior trim panels needed to get to the antenna. Basically you've got

to remove everything from the cargo compartment, lift up the lid to

the spare tire and remove the black trays that are to the right of

that. Once you've done that you can proceed to remove the black and

tan (most are black but some are tan and no beer jokes please) little

fasteners that hold all the interior panels together. There may be a

better way to get them out but I just use a flat-head screwdriver and

popped them out. You know where the antenna is so you just keep

pulling out fasteners and panel pieces until you have access to the

antenna and motor assembly, it takes a bit of wrestling. The motor is on a bracket that is held on

by 2 screws. before you remove those screws remove the retaining nut

on the outside of the vehicle where the antenna comes out. Its a crome

nut maybe and inch or so in diameter that has four slots in it. I

didn't have a good tool to remove this so I used a pair of flat head

screwdrives with some masking tape wrapped around the tips (to protect

the chrome). This is a tough part and may require a little torque on

your end but once it preaks free it should thread out easily enough,

its about 1.5 inches long. That done you can remove the screws and

take the whole assembly partially out. At this point you'll need to

unclip the wiring bundle for the motor and the antenna lead and then

its all the way out. The mast can be removed easily from the motor housing and with it will come the actuator cable. Unfortunately, if your antenna was stuck it probably means that the cable is broken somewhere and there's probably a small piece of it left on the inside of the antenna housing once you've removed the mast/cable. If the end of your cable looks like its broken off then you're going to have to disassemble the housing. Not too difficult just remove the 6-8 screws ( I really dont remember how many)and it all comes apart. Now this is something best done on a workshop table or such as the interior parts of motor housing are simply held in place by each side of the housing, once you pull it apart things will be loose to move on their own. Its not difficlut to figure out where the pieces go or how the mechanism works but its easir to re-assemble if you can have all the parts within easy reach and have a little level working space. Once you've gotten the broken piece out you can either a: thread the new masts cable through the motor mechanism, coil all the cable up and stick it inside the cup/capsule designed to hold it (not an easy thing as the cable is kinda stiff) or b: re-assemble the motor housing hook the wiring bundle back up (to get power to the motor) and thread the new cable into the housing by turning the radio on/off to get the cable drawn into place by the motor itself. I went for option A but it was a pain but I didn't have anyone to actuate the radio for me at the moment so I could help feed it in. If I were to do it again I'd probably pick B. Once you've got it working its just reverse the procedure you used to get it all apart (Yikes!) Anyhow I hope that helps and please feel free to e-mail me with any specific questions, I'm happy to help if I can.

[jaymay]

Thanks a bunch Tmastres! Great info. Appreciate your comments.

I've yet to order the mast but did everyting except take out the antenna motor assembly. A couple of more questions:

1) Did you see which way the teethed cable was faccing? When I pulled it out I really didn't see it. Maybe it doesn't matter since I'll have to pull out the motor anyways.

2) Is there a way to take out the whole side housing? Or just enough to access the motor?

3) Which mast did you get the Genuine or OEM at 1/2 the price fro $25 from?

http://antennamastsrus.com/Lexus/RX%20300/...201999-2003.htm

Thanks a again,

j

[tmastres]

Thanks a bunch Tmastres! Great info. Appreciate your comments.

I've yet to order the mast but did everyting except take out the antenna motor assembly. A couple of more questions:

1) Did you see which way the teethed cable was faccing? When I pulled it out I really didn't see it. Maybe it doesn't matter since I'll have to pull out the motor anyways.

2) Is there a way to take out the whole side housing? Or just enough to access the motor?

3) Which mast did you get the Genuine or OEM at 1/2 the price fro $25 from?

http://antennamastsrus.com/Lexus/RX%20300/...201999-2003.htm

Thanks a again,

j

The teeth face inward toward the motor itself. It coils in a bit like a nautilus shell. Its a fairly simple worm gear arrangement inside.

As for the housig I'm not sure exactly what you mean on this one but If Im guessing correctly you mean the motor assembley case and it simple comes apart in two halves. Inside is the motor, the worm gear and the coil/take-up spool.

I actually just bit the bullet and paid Lexus $70. The part number -- Rod & Pipe Sheild w/cable # 863370W030. I had the whole back of the car apart and didnt want to wait for mail-order etc. I looked at a t Toyota dealer first but as I mentioned the ones they showed me were about $60 and Toyota/Lexus don't cross reference their part numbers so the Toyota tech couldnt tell me which of the 4 antenna masts would/wouldnt fit. There were two that looked very similar to my broken one but they had different cable lengths. Although I had brought the mast with me to the Toyota dealer I had forgotten to bring the broken off piece so I couldnt tell if the cable lengths on the Toyota masts were exactly right. On top of that the Toyota guy told me that if I installed one of those masts in my Lexus I'd void the product warranty of the mast .

Anyhow, plese feel free to contact me as much as you like and I'll give you as much info as I can.

[tmhtmh]

Hey, here's a question I just thought of. I could care less about auto-antenna ...... can I easily disable the motor and use it as a manual up/down antenna? OK, I have to put it down for the car wash a few times a year, I don't mind.

Mine's still making a bad noise and will likely die soon if not fixed. I'd just let it die if i can easily just do it by hand. I'm not too into "power-this-and-that" anyhow (although I love having settings for the power seat for my wife and me). Windows also, but after that, don't care.

Any ideas on this?

[tmastres]

Hey, here's a question I just thought of. I could care less about auto-antenna ...... can I easily disable the motor and use it as a manual up/down antenna? OK, I have to put it down for the car wash a few times a year, I don't mind.

Any ideas on this?

Thinking about this I'd say it would work. You'd have to disable the power before the cable actually breaks though. If you did that you could push the mast/cable up and down against the resistance of the un-powered motor. However, since the cable was meant to be driven by the wom gear in the motor base you may find that forcing it down from its end causes some type of material fatigue due to flexing etc..When mine broke (cable) it got stuck in the up position and I could NOT get it down no matter what I tried. I suppose if you just left it up all the time you wouldnt have to worry about a lot of wear on the cable and It should last indefinitely.

[jaymay]

Thanks a bunch Tmastres! Great info. Appreciate your comments.

I've yet to order the mast but did everyting except take out the antenna motor assembly. A couple of more questions:

1) Did you see which way the teethed cable was faccing? When I pulled it out I really didn't see it. Maybe it doesn't matter since I'll have to pull out the motor anyways.

2) Is there a way to take out the whole side housing? Or just enough to access the motor?

3) Which mast did you get the Genuine or OEM at 1/2 the price fro $25 from?

http://antennamastsrus.com/Lexus/RX%20300/...201999-2003.htm

Thanks a again,

j

The teeth face inward toward the motor itself. It coils in a bit like a nautilus shell. Its a fairly simple worm gear arrangement inside.

As for the housig I'm not sure exactly what you mean on this one but If Im guessing correctly you mean the motor assembley case and it simple comes apart in two halves. Inside is the motor, the worm gear and the coil/take-up spool.

I actually just bit the bullet and paid Lexus $70. The part number -- Rod & Pipe Sheild w/cable # 863370W030. I had the whole back of the car apart and didnt want to wait for mail-order etc. I looked at a t Toyota dealer first but as I mentioned the ones they showed me were about $60 and Toyota/Lexus don't cross reference their part numbers so the Toyota tech couldnt tell me which of the 4 antenna masts would/wouldnt fit. There were two that looked very similar to my broken one but they had different cable lengths. Although I had brought the mast with me to the Toyota dealer I had forgotten to bring the broken off piece so I couldnt tell if the cable lengths on the Toyota masts were exactly right. On top of that the Toyota guy told me that if I installed one of those masts in my Lexus I'd void the product warranty of the mast .

Anyhow, plese feel free to contact me as much as you like and I'll give you as much info as I can.

Tmastres,

Just completed replacing the mast. Thanks a bunch for your guidance and wisdom,quite helpful, really appreciate it!

j

[Kamana]

I am in the prcess of replacing and just wanted to add a couple of pictures.

[tmastres]

I am in the prcess of replacing and just wanted to add a couple of pictures.

Ah Yes , I remember it well! Wish I had thought to take some photos when I did it but I'm glad you did, hope it all works out.

[BobbyB]

I just replaced my antenna and having lurked and learned on this sight, I will give this topic my 2 cents. I got my antenna onine for about $30 from Ebay, the seller was Bridgewood Motorsports. Quick ship, I had to just look at the antenna in my kitchen for 2 months before tackling what I knew was going to be one of those aggravating jobs. Like others in this post have said, you need to take the trim out, and so forth. Once I had the motor assmbly out, it helped to stabilize it with a flat piece of wood in the trunk area. There was one wire from the bottom that I couldn't get out. Maybe there is a trick to it, but I didn't want to force anythiing at that point. My old antenna had the broken plastic retractor cable problem, so I took of the cover as previously stated. Putting the cable back together ended up more complicated until I figured out a few things that weren't previously mentioned. The aluminum housing that the antenna goes into that mounts into the motorhousing can be twisted off if you are having difficulty getting the plastic cable through the hole. I felt the need to test the thing before putting it all back together, and after having watched the antenna getting pushed out 3 times, I figured out that the way the motor stops is by resistance. Bottom line, you have to put it back together and remount it for it to work correctly. I guess there are resistance sensors. I also fed the cable by turning the radio off, and once I got through my troubles, it went back together just fine. My next project before I put everything back together is to find the amp, and problem solve why my front passenger speaker isn't working.

[Multi]

Thanks a bunch Tmastres! Great info. Appreciate your comments.

I've yet to order the mast but did everyting except take out the antenna motor assembly. A couple of more questions:

1) Did you see which way the teethed cable was faccing? When I pulled it out I really didn't see it. Maybe it doesn't matter since I'll have to pull out the motor anyways.

2) Is there a way to take out the whole side housing? Or just enough to access the motor?

3) Which mast did you get the Genuine or OEM at 1/2 the price fro $25 from?

http://antennamastsrus.com/Lexus/RX%20300/...201999-2003.htm

Thanks a again,

j

The teeth face inward toward the motor itself. It coils in a bit like a nautilus shell. Its a fairly simple worm gear arrangement inside.

As for the housig I'm not sure exactly what you mean on this one but If Im guessing correctly you mean the motor assembley case and it simple comes apart in two halves. Inside is the motor, the worm gear and the coil/take-up spool.

I actually just bit the bullet and paid Lexus $70. The part number -- Rod & Pipe Sheild w/cable # 863370W030. I had the whole back of the car apart and didnt want to wait for mail-order etc. I looked at a t Toyota dealer first but as I mentioned the ones they showed me were about $60 and Toyota/Lexus don't cross reference their part numbers so the Toyota tech couldnt tell me which of the 4 antenna masts would/wouldnt fit. There were two that looked very similar to my broken one but they had different cable lengths. Although I had brought the mast with me to the Toyota dealer I had forgotten to bring the broken off piece so I couldnt tell if the cable lengths on the Toyota masts were exactly right. On top of that the Toyota guy told me that if I installed one of those masts in my Lexus I'd void the product warranty of the mast .

Anyhow, plese feel free to contact me as much as you like and I'll give you as much info as I can.

You guys are so smart and working hard. It is great. Maybe I should try to replace my antenna mast, too. One question: Which way the motor rotates, clock-wise or counter-clock-wise, if I look at the motor from the lefthand-side of the car to the righthand-side? I am trying to figure out how I should insert the plastic cable. Or, put it this way, if I stand behind the car, should the teeth on the cable face the front of the car or th back of the car?

My antenna is bent and broken into half. The plastic cable jumped out from the top of the antenna. I think the motor and pulley must be still good. Otherwise, it won't push the cable out. I tried to push the cable back in by turning the radio on and off. To my surprise, I heard the motor running, but the assembly would not take the cable in. I did not feel that the cable was touching the pulley. What could be wrong?

[tmastres]

Thanks a bunch Tmastres! Great info. Appreciate your comments.

I've yet to order the mast but did everyting except take out the antenna motor assembly. A couple of more questions:

1) Did you see which way the teethed cable was faccing? When I pulled it out I really didn't see it. Maybe it doesn't matter since I'll have to pull out the motor anyways.

2) Is there a way to take out the whole side housing? Or just enough to access the motor?

3) Which mast did you get the Genuine or OEM at 1/2 the price fro $25 from?

http://antennamastsrus.com/Lexus/RX%20300/...201999-2003.htm

Thanks a again,

j

The teeth face inward toward the motor itself. It coils in a bit like a nautilus shell. Its a fairly simple worm gear arrangement inside.

As for the housig I'm not sure exactly what you mean on this one but If Im guessing correctly you mean the motor assembley case and it simple comes apart in two halves. Inside is the motor, the worm gear and the coil/take-up spool.

I actually just bit the bullet and paid Lexus $70. The part number -- Rod & Pipe Sheild w/cable # 863370W030. I had the whole back of the car apart and didnt want to wait for mail-order etc. I looked at a t Toyota dealer first but as I mentioned the ones they showed me were about $60 and Toyota/Lexus don't cross reference their part numbers so the Toyota tech couldnt tell me which of the 4 antenna masts would/wouldnt fit. There were two that looked very similar to my broken one but they had different cable lengths. Although I had brought the mast with me to the Toyota dealer I had forgotten to bring the broken off piece so I couldnt tell if the cable lengths on the Toyota masts were exactly right. On top of that the Toyota guy told me that if I installed one of those masts in my Lexus I'd void the product warranty of the mast .

Anyhow, plese feel free to contact me as much as you like and I'll give you as much info as I can.

You guys are so smart and working hard. It is great. Maybe I should try to replace my antenna mast, too. One question: Which way the motor rotates, clock-wise or counter-clock-wise, if I look at the motor from the lefthand-side of the car to the righthand-side? I am trying to figure out how I should insert the plastic cable. Or, put it this way, if I stand behind the car, should the teeth on the cable face the front of the car or th back of the car?

My antenna is bent and broken into half. The plastic cable jumped out from the top of the antenna. I think the motor and pulley must be still good. Otherwise, it won't push the cable out. I tried to push the cable back in by turning the radio on and off. To my surprise, I heard the motor running, but the assembly would not take the cable in. I did not feel that the cable was touching the pulley. What could be wrong?

If you're antenna mast is broken , you'll get a new cable when you get a new mast since they're attached. I honestly don't remember if the teeth face when you install it but I'm fairly sure that if you guess wrong it simply wont retract the cable and not damage it . So then you switch it.

[lsangmook]

Thanks a bunch Tmastres! Great info. Appreciate your comments.

I've yet to order the mast but did everyting except take out the antenna motor assembly. A couple of more questions:

1) Did you see which way the teethed cable was faccing? When I pulled it out I really didn't see it. Maybe it doesn't matter since I'll have to pull out the motor anyways.

2) Is there a way to take out the whole side housing? Or just enough to access the motor?

3) Which mast did you get the Genuine or OEM at 1/2 the price fro $25 from?

http://antennamastsrus.com/Lexus/RX%20300/...201999-2003.htm

Thanks a again,

j

Thanks everyone for excellent info. I did try mine with $25 OEM part and it worked great. ( I forgot to have greese in handy but still works.

[jwhelan]

I flowed the steps and I even opened the motor to check if there was any broken off pieces but I when I turn my Radio off, my antenna still sticks out about and inch. Should I cut off an inch from the cord?

[Bend Oregon RX300]

Hey there,

the antenna info I was referreng to is right here, from a poster named

Vicky I believe

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...9461&hl=antenna

Its about the 4th or 5th post that has the useful info. I'll go over

my situation which was pretty similar to theirs and sounds like yours

as well. I first went to Toyota to get the mast replacement but as I

mentioned in my first post above I had no luck there, more than that

though they were not much cheaper than Lexus, $60 vs $70 So I bought it at Lexus. They knew exactly what I needed at Lexus so I'm sure they've sold more than a few. A few people mentioned

that they got theirs on e-bay or on-line for 20-30 bucks, go figure.

Anyhow the biggest pain in the whole process is pulling out all the

interior trim panels needed to get to the antenna. Basically you've got

to remove everything from the cargo compartment, lift up the lid to

the spare tire and remove the black trays that are to the right of

that. Once you've done that you can proceed to remove the black and

tan (most are black but some are tan and no beer jokes please) little

fasteners that hold all the interior panels together. There may be a

better way to get them out but I just use a flat-head screwdriver and

popped them out. You know where the antenna is so you just keep

pulling out fasteners and panel pieces until you have access to the

antenna and motor assembly, it takes a bit of wrestling. The motor is on a bracket that is held on

by 2 screws. before you remove those screws remove the retaining nut

on the outside of the vehicle where the antenna comes out. Its a crome

nut maybe and inch or so in diameter that has four slots in it. I

didn't have a good tool to remove this so I used a pair of flat head

screwdrives with some masking tape wrapped around the tips (to protect

the chrome). This is a tough part and may require a little torque on

your end but once it preaks free it should thread out easily enough,

its about 1.5 inches long. That done you can remove the screws and

take the whole assembly partially out. At this point you'll need to

unclip the wiring bundle for the motor and the antenna lead and then

its all the way out. The mast can be removed easily from the motor housing and with it will come the actuator cable. Unfortunately, if your antenna was stuck it probably means that the cable is broken somewhere and there's probably a small piece of it left on the inside of the antenna housing once you've removed the mast/cable. If the end of your cable looks like its broken off then you're going to have to disassemble the housing. Not too difficult just remove the 6-8 screws ( I really dont remember how many)and it all comes apart. Now this is something best done on a workshop table or such as the interior parts of motor housing are simply held in place by each side of the housing, once you pull it apart things will be loose to move on their own. Its not difficlut to figure out where the pieces go or how the mechanism works but its easir to re-assemble if you can have all the parts within easy reach and have a little level working space. Once you've gotten the broken piece out you can either a: thread the new masts cable through the motor mechanism, coil all the cable up and stick it inside the cup/capsule designed to hold it (not an easy thing as the cable is kinda stiff) or b: re-assemble the motor housing hook the wiring bundle back up (to get power to the motor) and thread the new cable into the housing by turning the radio on/off to get the cable drawn into place by the motor itself. I went for option A but it was a pain but I didn't have anyone to actuate the radio for me at the moment so I could help feed it in. If I were to do it again I'd probably pick B. Once you've got it working its just reverse the procedure you used to get it all apart (Yikes!) Anyhow I hope that helps and please feel free to e-mail me with any specific questions, I'm happy to help if I can.

Here in Bend, Oregon, the antenna drive cables take extra stress from activating in freezing conditions, where there may be snow or ice impacted around the telescoping parts or the external retraction "well". Figuring three extensions/retractions per day, that comes to nearly 1,000 annual cycles and there is likely a mean time between failures of 10-15,000+ cycles, more or less. Our antenna failed last winter, hence now must repair the unit. Online, there is an excellent step-by-step how -to affect this repair: http://antennamastsrus.com/Instructions%20Mast.htm

Some of the eBay sources quote $12.95 including free shipping. Considering the company posting the link claims OEM quality and has a return policy, my thought is to pay the extra bucks and have the piece of mind that a parts return RMA is not on the horizon. It would be helpful if other DIY parts sources were referenced, so we could begin to see if any of the cheaper "OEM" are indeed OEM parts. stauchwall@gmail.com

[code58]

I have used both the OEM and the aftermarket for about $18. SHIPPED off of e-bay. The e-bay ones from Ga. are made in China and are VERY nice quality (stainless steel), but are not 100% equal to the OEM. I would have no problem recommending the GOOD aftermarket ones, but probably would most often recommend the OEM (the ORIGINAL) that can actually be bought on e-bay for about $25. For the additional $12.-$13. over the aftermarket, the price is so cheap that it's probably not worth the money saved. Though the aftermarket ones I've used were very nice quality, you don't KNOW about the quality of the nylon gear strip, which is what actually breaks. You can't LOOK at the white nylon and tell what the quality is.

(the $18. for aftermarket is SHIPPED, the $25. for OEM would have to have the shipping charge added to that.) BE SURE that what you order is stainless, some are steel (chrome plated) , and you don't want rust running down your quarter panel.

One additional thing- I easily made a tool to remove the nut on top by taking a piece of 1/2 in. thin wall conduit about 12 in. long and grinding the end so all that was left protruding was the little fingers that go into the slots on the nut. That way it's EASY to screw the nut off and back on without any worry of scratching the paint.

[tmastres]

One additional thing- I easily made a tool to remove the nut on top by taking a piece of 1/2 in. thin wall conduit about 12 in. long and grinding the end so all that was left protruding was the little fingers that go into the slots on the nut. That way it's EASY to screw the nut off and back on without any worry of scratching the paint.

Now you tell me :P Great Idea!!

[code58]

You know what they say, better late than never..... that is what they say isn't it??? Well, maybe not MUCH better.

[mica4r]

Thanks thanks & thanks for the wisdom.

My antenna was ripped out by the auto transport company. So I have no way of confirming how much of the white gear strip is still in the motor... Will it hurt if I just put the new antenna in and see what happens?

Thanks again.

[Ericok]

Just to make it clear, if you're just replacing a noisy antenna you don't have to remove the motor or any interior trim. The replacement antenna can be installed from outside the vehicle by sending the nylon tooth strip down the antenna mounting hole - there's a procedure for doing that involving turning the radio on and off. If your replacement antenna won't go all the way down, it's probably because a piece of the the old nylon strip is broken and left inside - you'll have to remove the motor to fix that. Do not cut off a piece from the new antenna strip to make it fit. Check to see if your replacement antenna has a longer nylon strip than the antenna you removed from the vehicle. If it is, it's because there's a nylon piece left in the motor from the old antenna - you'll have to remove the motor to get it out.