Replacing the radio aerial on a Citroen Xantia.

[falling-out-with-my-car]

Hi all,

A little while ago on this website I discussed changing the radio aerial on my xantia and some seemed to think it was to much of a job to do, so I am posting this having done the job today and it was fairly easy, I shall explain for anyone that is interested. you will need some help from a friend for about ten minutes, unless you would like them to stay afterwards and make the tea whilst you finish the job.

on My S2 Xantia I noticed that if I pushed my fingers up behind the roof lining at the top of the windscreen I could actually pull the roof lining down about an inch and a half.

I unscrewed the sun visor on the passenger side and the two plastic clips that they clip into above the rear view mirror, this gave me enough play in the roof lining to get my arm up behind the roof lining and accurately position the new aerial fittings.

first of all I purchased a new Citroen/pug universal aerial kit from here.
make sure you get the one with the square base on the aerial not a round one.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RMA826-Roof-M ... 27bcf14db0

I phoned them up and discussed it with them and also bought a 4.5 meter extension cable 4.5 meters sounds excessive but trust me you will need at least three meters of that anyway. bits I purchased. by item numbers are.
RMA826 Roof Mount Antenna £15.93
A022/CT27AA04B ISO Radio To Standard Aerial adapter included in above price and finally A-01-45 the 4.5 meter extension cable, also included in the above price.

Having peeled back the roof lining as explained above letting it ping back into place it is wise at this point to cut a small panel of 2inches square out of the roof lining directly under the base of the aerial.

some of you might not like this very much but it is a necessary evil I am afraid it cannot be avoided, the cutout piece will slot back into position easily and will be hidden much of the time by the folded sun visors anyway.

with the roof lining now loose and the 2 inch square hole cut under the roof lining poke a screwdriver through the hole and prize out the aluminum disc covering the retaining nut at the base of the aerial.

Citroen thoughtfully fitted a alloy cylinder assembly which when touching the steel components of the aerial wiring under the aerial gets badly corroded and goes very rusty disconnecting the earth side of the aerial.

Now using an 8mm socket and 1/4 inch screwdriver/ratchet remove the retaining nut at the base of the aerial. the alloy cylinder should drop out of the hole and the aerial should be removable from the roof top.

if you have purchased the above aerial bits you will now need a friend to insert the new aerial into position but before that tuck the aerial lead under the roof lining at the front edge nearest the windscreen, the circular disc on the end will need to be pushed into the back of the box section in the middle, with the teeth facing upwards, get your friend to insert the aerial from above once you have the disc end of the Ariel in position so that you can see daylight through the center hole of the mounting.

get your friend to push the new aerial into place and hold it still whilst you put on the old nut with the washer fixed to it into place.

the old aerial mounting is just pushed to one side and remains inside the box section. use the old aerial nut to secure the new aerial base because it has a washer pressed onto the end and this will easily sit on an 8mm 1/4 inch drive socket and make fitting the nut so much easier.

Now if you remove the passenger side door seal from the door frame the aerial plug can be pushed diagonally across under the roof lining and the aerial cable can be slotted into the gap between the door frame and the interior fittings, pull the door seal off of the door frame all the way down to the door step, getting the plug and socket in behind the side plastic strip that runs from the roof to the dashboard is a bit of a fiddle but I managed it quite well prizing the plastic back gently with a screwdriver a bicycle lever would give you more purchase on the back of the plastic strip without doing any damage to it. the cable was fairly easy to channel all the way down to the bottom of the dashboard and the door seal went back into position easily.

before inserting the plug and extension behind the trim I plugged it all together and removed the stereo to test it.

I ran the lead under the air fan on the passenger side but had some difficulty finding a route from there to install the aerial cable up to the rear of the radio, so with it being 4.5 meters long it was fairly easy to push the cable up between the center console & the bottom of the dashboard on the passenger side I removed the ashtray and its back box and pushed the cable up behind the air vent control panel into the void behind the radio fitted the adapter and plugged it into the radio, which is now successfully earthed and pulling in the signals beautifully. and the wiring is all nicely hidden away.

I was able to get my left arm up behind the roof lining and past this steel box section that runs across the width of the car almost at the leading edge of the roof you will need to do this to position the base of the new aerial. there is a slot about as deep as the thickness of a forefinger in the back of the box section covering the aerial mounting hole.

other than that it is a fairly straight forward job and took me with a little help from my dad about 2 and a half hours if you count the time removing the radio and putting it all back together again.

sorry there are no pictures besides I have put back together now and I am very pleased that the annoying hissing sound on the radio has completely gone for good because the aerial wasn't grounded owing to corrosion between aluminum and steel.

Hope this helps.

regards Nigel.