Yet another roof aerial gasket question... sorry!

**DC1956** · 1st June 2020, 17:04

First - the car. It's a 2006 Vectra C estate 1.9CDTi.

Next - the aerial. The car has DAB radio, but does not have GPS.

The aerial gasket has perished and cracked, and large chunks of it have disappeared off to who-knows-where.

As you all probably know, and as I have recently found out, Vx don't sell just the gasket, but they will very kindly sell me a whole new aerial assembly for £150+. Ummm, no thanks.

I can't find anyone selling gaskets for this aerial anywhere.

So I have purchased some 3mm solid neoprene sheet and some black RTV to fabricate my own gasket.

The one problem I can see at the moment, apart from fighting my way past the trim and headlining, is - what size nut is on the aerial?

From some videos I've seen, the mount is recessed behind some pressed reinforcing crossmember just under the roof, so access is very restricted. I will likely have to get a crow's foot spanner or an open-sided socket to get it undone (and done up again).

Rather than buy a whole set, I'd prefer to just get the size needed.

Or is there another method possible?

Thanks, and sorry again for opening another 'Roof aerial gasket' thread.

**CLUB04** · 1st June 2020, 17:19

Nut size is 17mm from memory
There should be sellers in the bay that do DAB ariel gaskets, will have a look

Sent from my H8416 using Tapatalk

**Baja** · 1st June 2020, 19:55

its 17, yeah.

I have replaced gasked for new one from ebay German shop which was about £12 with postage.
Although for the original rubber gasket I didn't even have to uscrew the nut completelly.
I pulled the old one, ripping it apart and you can stretch the new one over the whole plastic antenna asembly trough the square hole in gasket, wd 40 helps too. it is quite elastic.

I did start to remove aerial, unscrew the nut but meeen the connector for the wires is a ***** to work on without basicly crawling between trim and roof.
Thats when I decided to just loosen the bolt and pull new gasket over , trough its hole.

Also, screwing the bolt back on when you don't see it from inside the boot and then to realise the whole thing on top is sideways :-/

**CLUB04** · 1st June 2020, 21:29

I did mine last year, but mine is a lift back (or GTS) so getting at the headlining was easier and I fitted the dimming rear view mirror at the same time, so dropped the whole thing.
It is fiddly, but only took me 5 minutes to change the actual gasket for one purchased via a member here
(didn't stop the wet boot, but that's a different conversation lol)

Sent from my H8416 using Tapatalk

**llamallama** · 2nd June 2020, 08:11

There's this

https://www.ebay.pl/itm/122590090111

I think they have others also

**northpole** · 2nd June 2020, 09:42

any bee-sting aerial antenna rubber base will fit.. yes even the ones available at Halfords that sell a universal bee-sting (aka 16v) antenna base with a new antenna. i did mine with one of those universal ones... chucked it in hot water, and slipped it in its's place... i just removed the old perished rubber gasket by pulling it out... no need to slacken the nut on the base either plus it's water tight. Been on my car now for at least a year... and if you think it's hard to do it properly on a hatchback, try doing it on a saloon...

**CLUB04** · 2nd June 2020, 09:49

Originally Posted by northpole

any bee-sting aerial antenna rubber base will fit.. yes even the ones available at Halfords that sell a universal bee-sting (aka 16v) antenna base with a new antenna. i did mine with one of those universal ones... chucked it in hot water, and slipped it in its's place... i just removed the old perished rubber gasket by pulling it out... no need to slacken the nut on the base either plus it's water tight. Been on my car now for at least a year... and if you think it's hard to do it properly on a hatchback, try doing it on a saloon...

Needed doing in my old saloon, but engine (for the second time) went pop before I got round to it, thank god!
Headlining was sagging too, so was gonna do a job lot, but had put it off for so long because of the access with the rear window stuck in place lol

Sent from my H8416 using Tapatalk

**northpole** · 2nd June 2020, 13:17

Originally Posted by CLUB04

the access with the rear window stuck in place

that is the reason why i did it the way i did it, because i wouldn't be able to get it sitting right if i loosened the bolt... so i thought let's see if there is enough space to just stretch it over... and there was more than enough room once the old perished rubber gasket was removed... the only thing that was hard was getting the last bit to slide under but did that with a coin wrapped in a cloth so i wouldn't damage the paint... just applying pressure on the rubber gasket edge until it sat flush... job done.

ps and if i wouldn't have used warm water to make it a little softer the chances were it would break at the thinnest points so i made sure it was hot enough to keep it's shape and be more flexible. than when it cooled down, it went back to it's sturdy self, it formed the water tight seal.

**CLUB04** · 2nd June 2020, 15:21

Originally Posted by northpole

that is the reason why i did it the way i did it, because i wouldn't be able to get it sitting right if i loosened the bolt... so i thought let's see if there is enough space to just stretch it over... and there was more than enough room once the old perished rubber gasket was removed... the only thing that was hard was getting the last bit to slide under but did that with a coin wrapped in a cloth so i wouldn't damage the paint... just applying pressure on the rubber gasket edge until it sat flush... job done.

ps and if i wouldn't have used warm water to make it a little softer the chances were it would break at the thinnest points so i made sure it was hot enough to keep it's shape and be more flexible. than when it cooled down, it went back to it's sturdy self, it formed the water tight seal.

Has your roof lining sagged like mine did?
Have found the facelift lining to be much better and not suffering from that at all, but would be much easier to replace in the liftback
How is the old DTI going?
Always like seeing them (after I blew up 2

)

Sent from my H8416 using Tapatalk

**northpole** · 2nd June 2020, 15:50

Going strong mate it actually runs better now than it did in when I just got it... think it's got something to do with the maintenance schedule i keep and the fact that when I spot something it gets repaired asap...

Just need to find sport suspension as mine is an SXI but I can't seem to find the right stuff for it at reasonable prices... I will keep looking though until I find the right stuff than swap the lot in one go. Yeah it is on 17 year old suspension except for the rear springs, those are 3 years old. But all the shocks could do with being replaced... not that they are bad, they still do their job but are softer than they should be, compared to when I just got it (and replaced the rear springs) to how it is now... it has more of a lean in corners... but it still passes mot. So yeah been on my list but can't find the right stuff... it should be the same as a hatchback sri by the way, but from just checking the epc it isn't...

Oww the rooflining is sagging in 2 spots, basically the cloth has come loose, but not so bad it makes me want to sort it out... you wouldn't even notice it unless you look straight at it. So not on my to do list as it hasn't got worse in the 4 years of ownership...