Can you Replace the retractable antenna without removing the fender? Bent mine a while back and now it won't retract all the way and it bugs the hell out of me.

You should be able to just remove the fender liner (wheel well plastic trim) and reach up in there to remove it. This is just a guess, but I'll check on the proper way to remove it.

EDIT: The FSM says you can replace the actual rod without removing the motor and whatnot. You just remove a nut and pull the rod out. Check out page EL-128 in EL.pdf...EL.pdf

Pulling the rod out does work if the mast is bent, but doesn't work if the plastic track inside is broken.

If you do have to pull the whole unit, be glad it's not like my '87 'vette. Some joker said they hung the antenna from the ceiling and built the whole car around it. It was
a huge job. And you couldn't just replace the mast. That started with the '88 vette. Mine now has an '88 antenna assembly.

Its just bent. It still moves up and down but hangs up on the bent parts.

Thanks again Pwnin.

The antenna mast can be replaced without removing the fender or wheel well. The chrome nut that surrounds the antenna at the base simply screws off. Might be a bit hard to unscrew, but it does unscrew.

Once you have unscrewed the nut, it wont come out as the head of the antenna is bigger, then simply have someone start the vehicle and pull up on the antenna mast as the motor is turning to push the antenna up. If you dont get it all the way out, stop the vehicle but hold the antenna in the up position. When the motor stops retracting, start the vehicle again and pull up on the antenna again and it should come all the way out with the plastic track. Take note of which way the teeth are facing as you will need to put the new one in the same orientation.

To install the replacement antenna mast, feed the new antenna mast and plastic track through the nut and with the vehicle started, feed the plastic teeth track into the hole ensuring the teeth are facing the correct way. Then stop the vehicle and let the motor catch the plastic track and pull it down. If it does not go all the way down when the vehicle is stopped, start the vehicle again and once the motor stops, stop the vehicle an it should retract all the way down. Tighten the nut and thats it.

The above instructions are from my memory so it might not be exact but close enough to the replacement steps as I did this repkacement on a friends 2001 QX4 about 1.5 years ago.

Sorry, just notice Pwnin link had the instructions on page 130 & 131. My bad

Thanks Mikey. I like the simplified version you put up. Just need to get a new antenna now.

No problem WPGQX4, I think when I bought the one for my friend, it was from ebay for like $20 - $30 shipped to Canada.

So after reading this post I tried to replace the slightly bent antenna on my 96 Pathfinder. It is not completely broken but the lowest segment does not retract anymore due to a kink at the very base.

I also followed the instructions from the service manual:

1. Remove antenna nut and antenna base.
2. Withdraw antenna rod while raising it by operating antenna
motor.

But no matter how much I pull I am not able to raise the antenna mast from its housing. Anyone else run into this issue??

I thought maybe there was a problem with the plastic antenna cord being stuck in the motor, so I took the whole antenna and motor off of the Pathfinder, but after a full disassemble there is nothing wrong with the cord or the motor. I just cannot seem to be able to separate the mast from the housing it slides in and out of.

Please help!! I already have a replacement mast and really don't want to have to go to the dealer to fix something that should be pretty simple!

does anyone know of an antenna that isn't OEM and will fit through the standard mast area? because i learn from my mechanic that a OEM nissan pathfinder antenna mast is $180 bucks, but i later found out this buy is a complete idiot, but anyway, has anyone successfully installed an aftermarket bendy one, or a short one, that is more durable?

I just ordered a new deck and most likely wont be playing lots of radio, i just want something to get rid of the empty spot where the antenna use to be.

Any suggestions will be great appreciated.

Thanks

I bought mine from the dealer $ 47.00 canadian .............. part # 28215-9B000

Got in a battle to get it out !!! Just like its mention in previous answer if you unscrew the chrome nut on the fender, it should come out, if not like mine ............. go to war !!!!! the reason is, its stuck inside from corosion and weld together.

- remove splash shield in fender well, Botom right side up to the strut ( no need to remove it all )

- you now have acces to the motor assy

- unscrew # 10 bolt (1) from bracket, pull down antenna assy ( no need to unplug wires )

- Pull out whats left of your mast ( should have 4 sections or less )

- use cutters an cut it at about 1 1/2 feet from the tube, put the radio off, ( so the rest of the white nylon cable goes back in ) then cut it just near the housing, use long nose pliers to round the edge, put the rest of it in the hole

- start drilling with 5/16 drill bit, and slowly drill in it, go up a 1/16 at a time up to 3/8 inch ( don't drill fast, it will cause heat and the plastic will melt

- with a 3/8 inch drill you'll just eating up the sleeve about 2 inch deep, this is whats keeping it to come all the way out ( there's a new one with the new antenna ) after its remove, the rest inside will drop out, then turn the radio on to get the rest of the nylon cable out.

- put the motor back in place

- important; in the chrome antenna nut you may see a black plastic part, remove it, there is a new one fit in the new sleeve ( black w/ white o'ring )

- Just open your right door, put the radio on, put the nylon cable in the hole ( plastic teeth facing the rear of the truck ) then put the radio off, it will go in, Just hold the last 3 inch or so, screw in the chrome nut and wala !!!


ps; excuse my english, i'm french

how easy is it to remove those plastic liner pieces from the wheel well to get at the antenna?
do they unscrew or are there some kind of plastic snaps.I do not want to try to pry them off with a screw driver and break the fastners.
Also there seems to be several plastic covers that overlap. which ones do I have to remove to get to the antenna?
thx!

mvmcali wrote:how easy is it to remove those plastic liner pieces from the wheel well to get at the antenna?
do they unscrew or are there some kind of plastic snaps.I do not want to try to pry them off with a screw driver and break the fastners.
Also there seems to be several plastic covers that overlap. which ones do I have to remove to get to the antenna?
thx!

Its pretty easy to take out the plastic fender liner. There are maybe 4-6 screws and I think 3 fastners. The fastners are the type in which you push down the center bit to expand the plastic at the other end. So to remove them, you just pry up on the center bit with a flat head screw driver.



There are some that overlap, but I was able to just take out the piece I needed with some twisting when I did this last month.

-PS now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I took off the mud flap or not... If it has to come off, its just a couple of bolts I think.

I just went through this with my wife's QX4. I had the same issue with the mast not easy to remove from the motor housing.

My solution was to clamp a pair of vice-grip pliers at tight as I could to the mast (about 6" from the base) and then I used a hammer to repeatedly strike the underside of the pliers to drive the mast out of the housing. It took several blows to get it to start moving, and I was worried it would not work, but once it started moving, it came out fairly quickly.

Before I installed the new mast, I took some fine grit paper and cleaned out the visible corrosion. Then I put a dab of dielectric grease on the new sleeve before installation.

I did have to remove the entire motor housing and open it up as the nylon cable was broken and I had to get out the broken part. The new cable went in smoothly and my wife is happy.

http://www.antennamastsrus.com/infiniti ... 7-2003.htm

Antenna masts r us sells the complete motor assy and antenna for $75 bucks. looks like factory antenna assy, but i think it gets better reception. The dealer wanted $70 for the antenna, and $400 for the motor assy.... It's robbery. I'm sean btw. first post

Every little repair with the QX4 has become a colossal task.

I noticed a few days ago the antenna, for no good reason, was still up after the key was removed from the ignition.

I could hear the motor running, but the antenna wasn't retracting. Of course, I read this post, ordered the new antenna mast, and tried to remove the antenna tonight.

Following instructions from the manual, linked to in this post, the mast won't come out of the housing. It looks SO EASY in the manual. It wasn't anything like I read in the manual to simply pull out the mast. I channel locked it, vice gripped it, hammered it, whatever - that sucker wasn't moving.

Finally, I crimped the antenna so bad I cut it off and thought I'd be able to drill it out, but I don't see how drilling anything here is going to help me.

Here's my pic of the antenna housing where I cut it off, and whatever remainder of the plastic part inside the antenna snuck back down into the housing when I turned the car on - what should I do at this point...

Not gonna lie looks like you messed that up pretty bad I suggest checking the junkyard and practice pulling that fender off as you get a new power assembly. Could be able to get to it from underneath. on our old 00 i scratched the crap out of that fender.

I guess... But what's the difference if it broke off? The motor still works.... It didn't come out at all like manual said it would after removing the nut and housing.

Another way to look at it... Same difference next time I ran through the car wash with it...

You don't have to take off the fender to access the assembly.

I was able to take off the fender liner and then unbolt the motor assembly.

Also, it doesn't really matter if some of the plastic broke off, you can open up the plastic "winder" (circular looking thing) and fish the remaining white plastic bit from there. You can do this once you have the whole assembly removed.

I had a really tough time removing the mast too. What I ended up doing was leaving the assembly in place on the fender, and use vice grips to really reef on it. The mast was crushed while I was doing this, but thats pretty well the only way to do it.

I finally got the new antenna in. At least 5 hours into this seemingly easy job.

New antenna was ordered from the antennamastsrus.com and fit well.

I had to take the assembly out several times for different reasons, the white gear cord was broken off in the assembly housing.

I tried a 3/8 inch oxide bit to remove the old mast housing from the plastic shaft coming out of the car but it wouldn't go through the metal, then even tried an old masonry bit cause it's all I had. No luck so I went to the hardware store and got a 13/32 cobalt bit. It ripped the antenna housing out of the shaft in just a few spins of the drill... Very effective. I had lots of metal shavings to get out of the assembly and then tried to re-grease the gears.

Turned on the radio and then turned it off again and it sucked the new antenna right down. It stopped with about 6 to 8 inches still sticking out. I couldn't remember if that was normal or if it fit flush so I looked at some pics of other qx4s and realized it should definitely fit flush. I turned the radio on and off again and on the way down I smacked the antenna square with a rubber mallet and it sucked the rest of it down flush with the housing. Perfect fit.

I thought that would be an easy job. Half way through I called Nissan for a quote on the assembly because I wasn't having success drilling out the antenna and they quoted me 250 for the part.


For the time spent on it, I won this battle. About 15 bucks for the antenna and 15 for the drill bit.

Wanted to share my experience (and solution)

So, my antenna also had broken gear-cable. It would go just barely under the top of the truck, and would retract about halfway down. I knew it was a broken gear-cable, with my experience with a power antenna on my '91 Maxima (RIP).

So, I tried the FSM method of "yank as hard as you can" when antenna motor assembly is extending antenna up. That didn't work out. I yanked up with at least 80lbs of force; antenna did not budge.
Then I figured to try bending it about 6" above the base and then using a vice-grip so I can hammer upwards on the vice-grip, hoping to knock it up and out; same result - didn't come out.
By the end of day, none of the antenna was exposed outside of the antenna assembly.

Long story short (about 1weeks time of sitting and thinking of how to extract the remnants of the antenna out).
I took the above suggestions and bought a drill bit (synar and gcjazz12 comments above). Started drilling/shaving the inside of the remaining/stuck piece of antenna inside the base-mast. The base-mast looks like an aluminum tubing that houses the mast when fully retracted. I removed the base-mast from the main assembly and drilled/shaved the remaining antenna piece inside the base-mast.

Once I got all the remaining antenna pieces out (shaved out), there seemed to be another layer of metal, but it looked like it was the inner liner of the plastic piece at the top of the base-mast. In any case, the new antenna sleeve (the piece that fits over the new antenna - should come with one) fit inside the plastic section of the base-mast so I assume it was okay. What WASN'T okay was the actual antenna itself. At the bottom of the antenna mast is a retainer/lip that prevents it from slipping out past the antenna sleeve, but it looked like the same diameter as the antenna sleeve, which fit into the plastic section rather easily. Well, that bottom lip of the antenna mast would not feed into the base-mast.
Frustrated... I just inserted the antenna mast up from the bottom of the base-mast (remember, base-mast is removed from assembly), and fed the antenna gear-cable into the assembly using the same method described by others; that is:
- turn radio on
- wait for motor to stop running
- power radio off
- once motor starts winding again to retract the antenna, feed the gear-cable in
- as the new gear-cable is going in, quickly re-insert the base-mast into the main assembly
- I inserted the antenna sleeve from the top of the base-mast once the new antenna was nicely seated and fully retracted inside the base-mast.

and I put the antenna assembly back into the fender well and replaced everything.

good times
I would have opted for a standard/non-power antenna - I just didn't want to fish through the back of the console to re-wire the antenna wiring.

for whatever its worth... if anyone has to replace the antenna mast and it has broken in such a way that you cant simply feed the new one in from 'outside' the car... it was not a difficult task to access the motor/antenna assembly from under the fender...

I simply took the wheel off and then removed a few bolts to remove the fender well liner ( this is just a plastic liner that comes off fairly easily. i didnt have to remove the mud flap.
i opened the antenna unit and removed the broken piece of old mast
everythng went back together easily.