MyE28.com

When my M535i arrived, I was really excited that it had a manual antenna. Really excited. I could overlook the silver and the blue and the rust and the non-running aspects of the car because it had a manual antenna. The notch in the rear left corner of the hood would be doing it's job. I wouldn't have to answer the questions of people who didn't know why there was a notch there.

So, some time went by. It got driven some, parked some, hit some and now it's getting disassembled a lot. When I was preparing to remove the fenders, I noticed something peculiar. A power antenna. WTF? I never used it since the car had no radio. I had seen power antennas in the left front fender on some E28s, mostly tuner cars, but never an E12 with one here.

The weirder thing was that it was a shape I hadn't seen before. It appeared fubared since someone used the mast as a manual antenna and forced the cord out through the case. I fought long and hard getting that fender off compared to the right. The sealant was a bitch, but the undercoating was worse.

I was just going to throw the whole fender away since it was a monumental pile, but the chemical stripper wanted a piece of the car to test that had undercoating, paint, filler and rust, and couldn't think of a better piece. So, I pulled the antenna and the notch off of it today before taking it in. It's a Bosch! I didn't even know they made them. I Googled the part number and found nothing.

Tonight, I was tidying up and decided to play with the antenna. Just see what it was like inside, etc. So, I pulled it apart, rewound the cord in the reel and put it back together. Sure enough, the damn thing works.

So, here're some pictures. Anyone know what it is?







I won't be reusing it, since I want a manual one, but I just thought it was cool and wanted to share. It's a really slick design to get the case open compared to the Hirschmanns. That bolt goes all the way through. The support bracket attaches to it on the back side as well. Pretty neat.

Why wouldn't you want to use it? That's SRSLY cool. If you only want an antenna when you want an antenna, put a switch on it.

C.R. Krieger wrote:Why wouldn't you want to use it? That's SRSLY cool. If you only want an antenna when you want an antenna, put a switch on it.

THIS!

If you're going to hide an aftermarket stereo in the glove box or somewhere discreet to keep the OE look, I'm sure you already know about the blue wire.

C.R. Krieger wrote:Why wouldn't you want to use it? That's SRSLY cool. If you only want an antenna when you want an antenna, put a switch on it.

X3

An e12 with a manual antenna is rare, and somewhat useless. That antenna is rarer, and cooler than a manual antenna. Mount a discreet switch (maybe in the glovebox if you want it totally hidden) and use that blue Bosch unit. That is awesome. A manual antenna, that is merely nice. Just a thought.

yup, pretty much a no brainer like the boys say.

Son of a wrote:

C.R. Krieger wrote:Why wouldn't you want to use it? That's SRSLY cool. If you only want an antenna when you want an antenna, put a switch on it.

Mount a discreet switch (maybe in the glovebox if you want it totally hidden) and use that blue Bosch unit.

Totally Chris. I've had a switch in the glove box for 20+ years since I rarely listen to the radio and found the BMW design of lifting the antenna when the unit powered dumb.....that and I was spending more on antenna lube than gas in the winter.

I'm not sure why a manual antenna would get anyone excited, 90% of E12's came with them. They are functional and work well, but I rarely listen to the radio so I always leave them compressed on the car. SO when I do want to listen to the radio I must stop and pull it out.

My old M535i had a similar bosch power antenna. It was working fine when I bought the car in 1998, then stopped working one day 6-7 years later. I always thought it was either power to the unit or signal failure from the radio as to why. I never used the car enough to warrant fixing it.

The power antenna is very cool on an E12, and a factory option. I'd opt to keep it if it's working. It's far more rare than a manual unit.

WH

Son of a wrote:

C.R. Krieger wrote:Why wouldn't you want to use it? That's SRSLY cool. If you only want an antenna when you want an antenna, put a switch on it.

X3

An e12 with a manual antenna is rare, and somewhat useless. That antenna is rarer, and cooler than a manual antenna. Mount a discreet switch (maybe in the glovebox if you want it totally hidden) and use that blue Bosch unit. That is awesome. A manual antenna, that is merely nice. Just a thought.

x4, thats wicked cool. What HASN"T Bosch made?

ElGuappo wrote:

Son of a wrote:

C.R. Krieger wrote:Why wouldn't you want to use it? That's SRSLY cool. If you only want an antenna when you want an antenna, put a switch on it.

X3

An e12 with a manual antenna is rare, and somewhat useless. That antenna is rarer, and cooler than a manual antenna. Mount a discreet switch (maybe in the glovebox if you want it totally hidden) and use that blue Bosch unit. That is awesome. A manual antenna, that is merely nice. Just a thought.

x4, thats wicked cool. What HASN"T Bosch made?

x5 Don't you think it's pretty unlikely that anyone else will be able to use that antenna if you don't

tsmall07 wrote:

ElGuappo wrote:

Son of a wrote:

C.R. Krieger wrote:Why wouldn't you want to use it? That's SRSLY cool. If you only want an antenna when you want an antenna, put a switch on it.

X3

An e12 with a manual antenna is rare, and somewhat useless. That antenna is rarer, and cooler than a manual antenna. Mount a discreet switch (maybe in the glovebox if you want it totally hidden) and use that blue Bosch unit. That is awesome. A manual antenna, that is merely nice. Just a thought.

x4, thats wicked cool. What HASN"T Bosch made?

x5 Don't you think it's pretty unlikely that anyone else will be able to use that antenna if you don't

It will fit any E12, so yes it would be easy to sell on first fives or ebay. What price??? I don't know. $100+? to the right buyer.

WH

WH wrote:

tsmall07 wrote:

ElGuappo wrote:

Son of a wrote:

C.R. Krieger wrote:Why wouldn't you want to use it? That's SRSLY cool. If you only want an antenna when you want an antenna, put a switch on it.

X3

An e12 with a manual antenna is rare, and somewhat useless. That antenna is rarer, and cooler than a manual antenna. Mount a discreet switch (maybe in the glovebox if you want it totally hidden) and use that blue Bosch unit. That is awesome. A manual antenna, that is merely nice. Just a thought.

x4, thats wicked cool. What HASN"T Bosch made?

x5 Don't you think it's pretty unlikely that anyone else will be able to use that antenna if you don't

It will fit any E12, so yes it would be easy to sell on first fives or ebay. What price??? I don't know. $100+? to the right buyer.

WH

Aren't most e12s missing the wires and potentially the bolt holes in the front fender to make this work? Sure, anyone could make it work, but I don't know if saying it will "fit" is correct.

tsmall07 wrote:

WH wrote:

tsmall07 wrote:

ElGuappo wrote:

Son of a wrote: X3

An e12 with a manual antenna is rare, and somewhat useless. That antenna is rarer, and cooler than a manual antenna. Mount a discreet switch (maybe in the glovebox if you want it totally hidden) and use that blue Bosch unit. That is awesome. A manual antenna, that is merely nice. Just a thought.

x4, thats wicked cool. What HASN"T Bosch made?

x5 Don't you think it's pretty unlikely that anyone else will be able to use that antenna if you don't

It will fit any E12, so yes it would be easy to sell on first fives or ebay. What price??? I don't know. $100+? to the right buyer.

WH

Aren't most e12s missing the wires and potentially the bolt holes in the front fender to make this work? Sure, anyone could make it work, but I don't know if saying it will "fit" is correct.

No, all E12's have an manual antenna in the same location as this power unit. The wiring hole exists already for the antenna cable to run to the stereo so the Power wires will run through the same location. To mount the unit does not require any real modifications to the car. It's is a true "bolt on part". At least mine was in my M535i.

WH

WH wrote: No, all E12's have an manual antenna in the same location as this power unit. The wiring hole exists already for the antenna cable to run to the stereo so the Power wires will run through the same location. To mount the unit does not require any real modifications to the car. It's is a true "bolt on part". At least mine was in my M535i.

WH

Oh, Ok. From what I read above, I thought it would be more involved. I really don't know that much about e12s. Either way, I think Chris should use it.

manual antennae suck unless they are like the one on the WRX, adjustable by the driver while in the car. No need to stop and raise the antenna. I think some of the 2002s came with this feature.

For an E28 use a switch, that is what the fader location duplicate is for. The € fog light switch (two push buttons) one for the antenna and one for another item that needs to be controlled.

I'm not getting into where to put a switch in an E12

Gawd. . . Just reach out the window and extend the damn thing when you favorite program comes on N.P.R. Otherwise, just keep the Depeche Mode cd cranking away when you pimp the E12.
Not that there's anything wrong with Depeche Mode, N.P.R.or manually pulling on it.

tsmall07 wrote:Aren't most e12s missing the wires and potentially the bolt holes in the front fender to make this work?

In the case of the e30 and (i think) the e28, BMW sold a wiring retrofit kit for a power antenna.

oldskool wrote:Gawd. . . Just reach out the window and extend the damn thing when you favorite program comes on N.P.R.

My e30 came with the manual antenna so I bought the above mentioned power retrofit kit. I then realized that in four years, I've only had the radio on once to listen to the end of a Padre game and it came in fine with the antenna down. I still have the retrofit kit sitting in the box.
If it's the same part number as the e12 kit, I'm going to offer it to Chris. That guy is boffo for NPR and I'd hate to think he'd have to reach around to listen to his fav station.

I love NPR. It's so soothing to hear them talk about how great everything is going.

The thing is that my M535i is kinda odd. It doesn't even have a passenger mirror. All I've been told is that EVERY M535i had a passenger mirror and that I was wrong. Well, I got the dash out of it last night (EASY) and while removing all of the aftermarket stereo wiring, I noticed that there is no connector for the passenger mirror. There's no piece of the wiring harness for it, either. On top of that bombshell, there's no aircon or sunroof. There are power windows, power door locks and apparently this power antenna.

I wasted an hour last night trying to find what it was. All I know is that it's a Bosch Autojet and that apparently, if you can find one, they are very expensive. There were different models, of course, but I cannot find out anything about the one I have. The Bosch part number doesn't even show up anywhere. That's a bit of an issue because someone in the past just cut all the wiring for the stereo, so the bit of lamp cord for power, and the coax aren't terminated in any way.

Obviously, an antenna is the least of my worries. I highly doubt that if I do drive this car, I'll be listening to the radio, though I dropped $125 on a "MINT, MINT, MINT, you won't be disappointed" Euro Blaupunkt BMW Bavaria II that doesn't even have a damn fuse.

The thing is that my M535i is kinda odd. It doesn't even have a passenger mirror. All I've been told is that EVERY M535i had a passenger mirror and that I was wrong.

Chris, the M535 I stripped didn't have a passenger mirror either...or a rear spoiler...or a front. It was barebones.

I have that antenna in my CS with a switch under the steering column.

Funky antenna, if you really wanted stealth for your stereo Chris you'd blank antenna hole and run an internal antenna around the inside of the either the wind shield or rear window. Manual antenna why?

There is no antenna hole. I guess I'm going to have to take a picture of this, but it's kinda hard now without fenders.

wkohler wrote: I highly doubt that if I do drive this car, I'll be listening to the radio, though I dropped $125 on a "MINT, MINT, MINT, you won't be disappointed" Euro Blaupunkt BMW Bavaria II that doesn't even have a damn fuse.

I'm sorry to hear you are sharing my eBay radio-description woes - did yours come out of Germany too? I'm hoping Becker Autosound can make one good radio out of my two by grafting the display from one onto the other, and I wish I only spent $125 for the one that "worked perfectly when shipped, as described in ad". I'm sure the repairs will be more than that.

clangpap wrote:"worked perfectly when shipped"

Ha, ha. Yeah, that's one I've been burned by more than once.

I bought a NOS Blaupunkt that was delivered yesterday. I'm afraid to test it.

wkohler wrote:There is no antenna hole. I guess I'm going to have to take a picture of this, but it's kinda hard now without fenders.

Easy to describe... the antenna mast protrudes between the top rear of the front drivers fender and the front door gap. It's the location as a manual antenna.

Look at just about any E12 picture up close on the drivers side and you'll understand.

WH

So, I forgot about this forever (Apparently less than two years is officially known as forever). About a week ago, I was going through the photos I saved from my old Motorola Droid phone using the xD card slot on my card reader. I found the Ansel Adams quality photos I posted above. True experiments in light and space.

Anyway, I photographed the part number, so I started doing some searching. This led me to a Max Bimmer thread about a stereo store in Toronto going out of business. They had eight of these for $20 ea. This was only a couple months ago. I was sad.

So, that took me to Googling the number, where I found an eBay listing. It had been pulled "no longer for sale." I then sent a message to the seller who was out of town and would reply when they returned. No reply, so I sent another message today. Gave the info again and now I'm the proud owner of three of these:

wkohler wrote:So, I forgot about this forever (Apparently less than two years is officially known as forever). About a week ago, I was going through the photos I saved from my old Motorola Droid phone using the xD card slot on my card reader. I found the Ansel Adams quality photos I posted above. True experiments in light and space.

Anyway, I photographed the part number, so I started doing some searching. This led me to a Max Bimmer thread about a stereo store in Toronto going out of business. They had eight of these for $20 ea. This was only a couple months ago. I was sad.

So, that took me to Googling the number, where I found an eBay listing. It had been pulled "no longer for sale." I then sent a message to the seller who was out of town and would reply when they returned. No reply, so I sent another message today. Gave the info again and now I'm the proud owner of three of these:

Lemme make sure I understand- you didn't know if you were even going to use the "original" one, and now you have three?

Cool, kind of like me and my Becker Grand Prix's. Except I only ended up with two after one sale was cancelled.

cddallara wrote:
Lemme make sure I understand- you didn't know if you were even going to use the "original" one, and now you have three?

So glad to see I'm not the only one that would do something like this.

Well, given what was said in the thread, and I generally trust Frank's opinion when it comes to these cars, I thought it would be a nice thing to have. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to rehab the original and at the price I paid for the three, it was a no-brainer. I haven't seen these for sale since this thread. Just a guy selling that universal Hirschmann as a replacement.

The first message started with one, then the next one was "I'd take a couple," then when she said she had a few, I figured why not get three. That's a good number.

Why buy one when 3 will do? Words to live by.

Looks like the X5 antenna. According to the Ebay ads right now.