Well, my antenna is still fully functional but it looks dated and stupid to see it go up and down so frequently even when I don't need the radio but just the CD player or Bluetooth music. I have thought of replacing it with aftermarket hidden antenna (window-fitted or shark fin style) but having done my research the general wisdom is they would be less effective than the original antenna in terms of AM/FM reception. However, I just wonder whether using modern Jaguar's genuine hidden or shark-fin antenna would be a way out, and what kind of modification is required to match the original fitment?

 

There was in fact a very old but interesting thread in this forum on Jaguar antennas "Let's talk about antennas", where some folks prefer to retain the "era-correct antenna", and some managed to add a switch to control the antenna movements independent of the radio button. The X300 has the key remote and security signal reception taken care of by embedding wires into the rear window. So I imagine replacing the aerial radio antenna with others might disrupt other signals or settings? Am wondering if there is a smarter way to go for invisible antenna without substantially weakening radio reception.

 

It's certainly a matter of personal taste, but I'm with the camp of "retro" that likes the old style electric antennas. One really doesn't see them anymore, so it's something of a cool nostalgic feature for me.... looks classy.

But you could easily install a switch to manually control the antenna, as I'm sure it's just a relay and so I bet only would require switching a single wire. My father did that on all of our circa 1970-80s cars so he could protect the antenna in car washes, etc. by manually controlling it and also extend the lifespan as they often would break after all the up/down cycles.

BTW, so far the X300 Jaguar antenna seems to be a lot more durable than those 80s era GM antennas whose plastic internals stripped out in about 10 years. Hopefully the Jaguar unit will remain reliable 20+ years.


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I agree that the X300 original aerial antenna is surprisingly durable. Even in the old days the antenna on my 1980 Toyota Celica's had to be replaced every few years. My two reasons for wanting to replace the factory original antenna on my XJR are (1) to temporarily modernize the look when I wrap the car in a different colour [will keep original colour underneath]; (2) preserve the original antenna till later (sharing your thoughts of nostalgia).

 

Might be simply removing the # 8 fuse in the trunk . Probably the stereo head provides a ground to drive the antenna to the extend position . Once that ground is removed the other ground drives the antenna to the retracted position . Depends on what is inside of the antenna motor unit .

 

Thanks. Will give this a try.

 

Hi I had also explored getting rid of the antenna and reusing the mobile phone or wiring in the rear window similar to what I had in my old 740il. It turns out that in addition to needing the wiring in the rear window, there were also "amplifiers" as part of this set up mounted somewhere in the rear pillars to be able to have no visible antenna

 

Would a total transplant of modern Jaguar antenna with the full kit including hidden amplifier be possible? Would hope this to be DIYable.

 

It would be easy to do . The only consideration would be to electrically bridge the shield of the coax cable outer wire mesh as this protects the sensitive signal wire as the center conductor . The power wire source can come from anywhere .

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C....0.FcOvACKx-vU

 

Thanks for the link. There are just far too many after-market products out there. My earlier conclusion after doing lots of research was they are generally weak in signal reception. That is why I hope to find Jaguar's own hidden antenna from later models, and see if with some minor modifications it would work on the X300.