Hello,

I picked up a 2003 Mini Cooper S with 80k miles recently and LOVE it. I just swapped out the head unit and everything is working fine except the AM stations won't tune in (FM tunes in ok). When I was installing the new radio, I didn't notice the antenna lead from the car (the end that plugs into the radio) was sort of disintegrating and little pieces of material fell off. It looks like it should work though...but it doesn't. I did some searching an only came across THIS THREAD which only confused me. I am wondering what to try next. Does the Mini antenna actually require power? I doubt I connected that while wiring the Metra radio harness b/c I've always assume that was just for antenna's that need power to telescope out of the fender upon initialization. The thread I mentioned above indicates that the Mini antenna requires power, though, so I'm wondering if it's as simple as that??? Otherwise, how possible (or not) would it be to replace just the end connector on the antenna cable (the part that actually connects into the radio)?

Please let me know if I need to post this elsewhere and thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Welcome to NAM. Going to move you to the Gen1 Nav/Audio Section.

 

I went ahead and hooked up the blue wire (power antenna) and now I'm getting the AM stations :-) Probably not worth the effort to replace the damaged end now...