Two questions

[digitaldragon03]

Where the heck is the radio antenna? I cant find it, i like that.

How the heck are you supposed to work that thing in the trunk. It looks like some sort of device to lift up the car or something. Its a long metal bar with a hand crank thing, what does it do and how do you do it?

[SC David]

1. Yeah, we don't have external antennas. My Alpine headunit has one built in.
2. It's the jack. Pretty straightforward. I forget exactly what it looks like, but it is definitely not the strongest or most stable of jacks, so DO NOT use it if you're going to be working under your car. The position it goes in is obvious if you use the handcrank and allow it to extend. It works slowly, but it works. I've been wanting to get a better one even just for emergency situations.

[pundit]

1. Where the heck is the radio antenna?...
2. ...How the heck are you supposed to work that thing in the trunk...
3. ...what does it do and...
4. ...how do you do it?

Hey! That's four questions!

[digitaldragon03]

I thought it was a jack, but it looked so flimsy i didnt think BMW would even bother putting it in there. Just by looking at the thing i can tell that it would end up tipping over or something.

Haha, youre right. 4 questions, about 2 things. There we go.

[Gayle]

1. Yeah, we don't have external antennas. My Alpine headunit has one built in.

Is there anything to be done about that without jacking the car? I had a e30 that was the same year as my e34. It had an external antenna and had fabulous reception. The e34's reception sucks.

[winfred]

the antenna is built into the back glass, theres a couple boxes on ether side of the glass that decode the signal into am, fm, phone and still use it as a heater

[Gayle]

the antenna is built into the back glass, theres a couple boxes on ether side of the glass that decode the signal into am, fm, phone and still use it as a heater

I had heard before that it was in the glass but it still sucks reception wise. Is there anything to be done about that besides putting some queer external antenna on the car that looks like $&#%

[winfred]

when functioning properly the glass antenna works ok, id suspect somethings a miss. it's been ages since i had to play with one and i can't remember what craps out on that system

[Kalevera]

Actually, that's a relatively common bodywork problem on the E34 (jack placed on a soft shoulder, car falls off of it while the operator is trying to change a tire, usually in the dark). I carry a cheap craftsman 2 1/2 ton jack and a southern cross because it's just easier.


best, whit

[Bill R.]

rear glass antenna, that or you have some broken lines in the antenna itself, take a look at the lines and see if any are broken or scratched in two, there are repair kits for the lines which come with a copper paint that you paint across the break and it restores the circuit. Autozone , checkers etc has the kits.

I had heard before that it was in the glass but it still sucks reception wise. Is there anything to be done about that besides putting some queer external antenna on the car that looks like $&#%