i recently swapped out an old rusting rear hatch door for a nused one, and i found the connections inside the door were a bit different. one door had a 2 wire lead to the defrosting wires on the window, the original had 3. There were also 2 different boxes - the new door had a smaller box that looked like it had an insulated wire going into a small box. The old door had completely different connectors going into the box and none appeared to be insulated.

While installing, i decided to just abandon the rear defrost since I couldn't get the wiring to match, but then found that my radio antenna was totally gone. I didn't realize any wiring goes into the door - help me if you can. Not sure what happened but assume it has to do with the wiring differences.

 

Moving this to the Nav/Audio section, Should get some responses.

 

If I'm recalling correctly, the antenna cable runs forward (from the antenna itself) inside the headliner. Don't remember where it drops down to get to the HU, but probably the passenger-side A-pillar.

 

From my understanding, there may be a dual diversity antenna - one on the roof and one in the glass - the car uses whichever one it gets a better signal from. On the hatchback, there is a piece of electronics that is hidden under the plastic bits. As you're looking at the car from the rear (with the hatch closed), it's located on the right side just below the glass.

There is also another antenna part that's in the car - from what I've read, it's located under the right side rear passenger panel. I believe this is the booster.

The Bentley manual does show these parts - and states that they are part of the antenna system.

 

Guess I'm just remembering wrong.

 

More information .. as I'm looking at it. The electronic part on the hatchback is the 'Antenna Amplifier'. The rear glass also contains the 'FM2 and FM3 aerial elements'.

The roof antenna is called the 'Aerial Assembly'. From the aerial assembly, there are 2 outputs - one to the 'Radio ON' and one to the Diversity Amplifier, the part located behind the right rear panel - above and to the right of the rear speaker.

According to the drawing, the 'Radio ON' has a direct connection to the Aerial Assembly, the Antenna Amplifier and the Diversity Amplifier.

 

Hmm - so it sounds like I will not have an antenna. The door wiring from my old hatch had a 3-wire lead from the glass while the new one only has 2. Both of these somehow attached to the 2 different boxes in the door, neither of which match either in number of wires or connection type. That sucks. Not sure how I could get them to match up correctly. Not too worried about the rear defrost not working but not having a radio is a bummer.

 

The rear defrost appears to be part of it.

'MINI models are equipped with a diversity antenna that uses the rear window defroster element along with the roof mounted aerial to improve radio reception'