are there any risk/setbacks in oiling the antenna?

 

I hit mine once in a while with the silicone lubricant spray,
have done so last few years with no problems.
Seems to help in snow falls when it gets almost stuck going down.
You may get some dirt accumulating when it rains,
so keep an eye on wiping it, else when it goes down,
the crud slides onto the car body and drips down.

 

I used bearing grease on mine. I removed the whole antenna and zip cord. Unfortunatly the grease made its way out of the mast, so I have to ocassionally wipe the grease off.

I'd reccomend using the Silicon spary, or just plain old WD-40 every so often.

If you wanna try and improve your reception, you can remove the mast and then clean the brass sleeve along with the area that the sleeve rides on (the antenna and in the hole where the connection is made). I used q-tips or a brush and a little bit of alcohol to get down the hole.

 

k thanks for the info!

 

Any risks, not that I know of. A Nissan mechanic once told me to clean the mast with fine steel wool then, holding a rag behind the mast, spray up and down with WD-40. Keep some rags in your trunk because the liquid seeps out when the mast retracts for a few days. Works great though.

-Sean

 

The antennae's pretty easy to remove...and if you hold it upside down when spraying and wiping top to bottom you shouldn't need to worry about crud and oil.

 

yea it looked kinda dry and dirty. i cleaned it oiled it though. seems to go up and down lot smoother

 

Just remember to lower it before going thru the automatic car wash

I wish I had a nickel for everyone I replaced because of the car wash

 

no automatic carwash for me...i handwash mine

 

Know what you mean. My wing would get ripped off in an automatic.
Oh BTW, I've used mineral oil on my antenna.

 

how's that mineral oil working for you? i just used some wd-40 for now. gonna head up to home depot or lowes to get some grease or some oil.

and yeah, those automatic carwashes can be vicious!

 

I've had pretty good luck cleaning it with steel wool as someone already mentioned and then putting a coat of pure carnuba wax on it. It leaves it dry, so dirt won't stick to it, and it's "slippery" like your paint is after waxing, so it telescopes nice and smooth.

 

but won't the wax get scraped off when it telescopes down?