Metra Electronics 44-PW22 Motorized AM/FM Fully Automatic Power Antenna

Very reliable, bear with me for a second - I have a couple of these I use to power automatic doors on my chicken run. They fire twice a day, every day, at dusk and dawn to open and close the doors and go up and down with a small aluminum panel attached to them. Have been running for several years. The first one with a steel panel worked but burned out after a couple years. - So a slightly weird use case I know but if they can do this in a dusty chicken run they will work fine in your car with no other weight on them. The antennas are under cover so don't get rained on but they get dusty as heck.

The project tuned out great. Depending upon the body design and access your antenna replacement project may be easy our complex. My brother does auto stereo installations so I was able to get helpful hints like don’t throw anything from old antenna away or loose any old parts until your install is functional. I had to modify the old bracket to accommodate the new antenna assembly. Additionally, the company sends an array antenna adapters, so I had to use the old one with some significant modifications. The new rig works well, but it’s not as quiet as the Los one.

The Metra 44-PW22 works fine for me as a replacement for the original antenna. For the car I was working on, a Jaguar XJS, I could only find two alternatives to the very expensive OEM replacement: One that is not automatic, and this one. This one does exactly what it is supposed to do, and for the price, I am very satisfied with this product. Note I just recently installed it, and so cannot report on long term reliability. A few notes for people considering buying it: - For my car, it is considerably noisier than the original. - Wiring is simple, three wires: One always 12V (red), another 12V when the radio is turned on (blue), and ground. - The way it works is this: When the blue wire goes hot, the antenna goes up. When it reaches full extension, the motor continues to grind for a few seconds before quitting. When the blue wire goes cold, the antenna goes down. When it is fully retracted, the motor continues to grind for a few seconds before quitting. - The important thing to note about wiring is this: The blue wire requires 12V to raise the antenna. However, the input is not a low current logic signal, but rather a power signal. If your radio does not provide enough current to drive the blue signal, a relay or transistor switch is needed -- and is not a part of this kit. (See more below.) I believe a truly universal automatic antenna ought to support a >low current< input signal, and provide the relay or switching transistor internally. This is my reason for the four star vs. five star rating. Notes specific to the Jag XJS: - This unit is NOT a mechanical drop-n replacement. It is a little shorter than the original. And although there are also two similar mounting screws and the drain tube outlet, they are not spaced or aligned the same as the original. As a result, you can't re-use the original bracket, but have to bend the provided mounting bracket strip into shape. It is important to get the vertical dimension right, but don't sweat the exact horizontal dimension between the screws attaching the bracket to the antenna and the car. You can rotate the bracket a bit to get the vertical alignment reasonable, and torque it down. With a single screw attachment, the result is not as sturdy as the original bracket, but it is adequate. - The Metra unit comes with a pivot assembly to abut the inside of the fender. For my car, I found it worked best to simply remove the pivot assembly altogether. I also re-used the original tubular screw from the outside of the fender. Make sure to sort all this out before you try to measure the vertical spacing for the bracket strip. - Regarding wiring, the OEM radio puts out a 12V signal when the radio is turned on. However, this signal can only source about 10 mA, and the voltage drops to about 5 V. I initially obtained a low-current relay that was supposed to switch with as little as 10 mA. However, when I wired it up, the source signal could not switch the relay on. It could keep it on once switched, but could not cause it to switch. So I had to backtrack and get a switching transistor instead. I used a TIP120 NPN. I ran the yellow/green wire from the car through a 1.5k resistor to the base of the transistor. Works like a champ. It's good practice to run a snubber diode from collector to emitter, but my initial test circuit worked without it, without immediate damage to the transistor. So in summary, depending on your car, this may be one of the few, and possibly the only choice available. The good news is that it works well at a reasonable price. It would be a five star rating for me, but I had to add some external components to get the automatic function with my radio. Not hard, but adds a bit to the cost, and definitely adds to the time/effort on the installation.

I installed this in my classic corvette and from new it raised with a few clicks at the top and lowered with a few loud clicks at the bottom. well i finally go the car on the road after a year two year restoration and the antenna has only probably gone up and down 30+- times and every time it clicks a few more times. now after a month of using the car it clicks very loud and embarrassingly for 20 seconds after i shut off the car. So I called Metra tech support and asked what they think the problem is. The ass on the phone i think he said his name was tony said "it sounds like its broken and i should buy a new one) I told him its essentially new but been unused sitting in a car for two years. he said Yep sorry nothing we can do. I asked if they sold a better unit that would last. he said no. It is sad that company's take no responsibly for defective products. tragically I altered my car to fit this unit and am forced to buy another one. Hopefully it is just this one defective unit.

For some reason, I got the idea that this one had an antenna black in color, like I got for another car. I have no luck, even thought that was available in the past. Returned it.

I bought one of these PW22 power antennas for my 2003 Corvette C5 Z06 in October 2012 from a different merchant, after my previous model HCA350B from JC Whitney had died after a few years. The HCA350B was no longer available, and I figured I'd give a different brand / model a try. Well the PW22 lasted 36 months, same length of time. It just died, but I couldn't find anything with superior ratings, so I just bought another PW22, this time from Amazon, and installed it earlier today. It took about an hour to install, and it works great. But I doubt it will last over 3 years. By the way, as I was installing the second PW22 a little while ago, I got to see what had happened to the first one. When it failed, the flexible drive rack inside the antenna house burst out of the periphery of the housing. So about two feet of the plastic toothy element was tangled with the brake light wiring. Fortunately, no harm done. Noteworthy is the fact that my HCA350B and first PW22 power antennas both failed in a manner that might drain the battery. When I turned off the car, the antenna retracted but the motor would not stop running; The first time I was in my garage and ran and got a pair of wire cutters and snipped the red wire I had run beside the passenger door. I installed a wire nut later in case the PW22 failed the same way, which it did. And I was parking at the gym to work out when it happened, no wire cutters. So providing a way to quickly disconnect the power paid off.

It contained all of the mounting hardware needed including straps to secure it. Make sure your vehicle has the right antenna connection for this one which is a screw on connection at the mast. Many vehicles have a male style push connector which will not work on this product. Also nice touch that the long wiring harness can disconnect from the leads near the antenna allowing you to shorten the cable as you see fit.

Me.gusto por q es lo mismo pero más barata le.quedo muy bien a mi eclipse gst convertible 2.0 1999

These are a great compact power antenae with good customer support from the supplier.

ya habia comprado dos artículos mas de Metra, crei que como los otros dos quedaban como guantes, supuse que en esta ocasión seria lo mismo, por lo que decidi cambiar la antena de mi auto, pues no funcionaba y estaba rota, lamentablemente resulto que el mastil la parte donde se 'guarda' es demasiado corta, por esta razón no logra salir de la carroceria, debido a que (en mi caso) antes de llegar al orificio de la antena, hay un orificio interior que no permite subir mas la antena, y por ser de un mástil mas corto que el original no fue posible sujetarla de la parte superior, a mi parecer va a ser necesario recortar parte de la carrocería interior para poder subir mas el mastil y a su vez poder sujetarlo desde arriba/afuera de la carroceria del auto; si no lo devolví fue por el gasto que hice y el tiempo tan tardado de devolución de artículos internacionales ya tengo mas de dos semanas que devolvi un articulo y no pasa de las aduanas

This product allegedly was supposed to fit in my 1986 300zx. Before even installing the motor I test fit'd it and then made sure that it would in fact go up and down. To my disappointment it did not and after hours of trying to get it to work I brought it to the mechanic who was also unable to make the motor move and told me later that the motor was most likely defective from the factory or was mis-wired. I then had to use the motor of the old antenna and the mast from this new one and finally got it to work. The fitment was terrible and I had to use many parts from the old antenna to have it fit properly. I would not recommend this product to anyone even if it did fit properly it didn't work.