Tuesday, January 04, 2005 - 08:09 am, by: Peter Nitschke
Pete Nitschke (Pen) was asking about reconnecting the wiring to the rear screen aerials after accident damage repairs. This might be useful to more people, but I apologise for having no photos and writing it from memory (I did do it today, though!). Peter can do the photos and debug my errors. This covers a 1991 TT limited, as it's all I know.
As far as I can remember...
The antennae in the rear screen connect to the antenna amplifier harness, which feeds down the driver’s side pillar of the rear screen (i.e. the right side, seen from the rear, we have RHD). To get at the connections, you need to remove the interior trim from that pillar, but you can’t do that directly, you have to remove the lower side trim first, and that requires removal of the rear seats!
So, first remove the rear seat bench by pulling upwards on the front of the bench till the clips part. Then draw the bench forwards, freeing it from the seat belt catches (which remain in the car) and remove it from the car. Next remove the seat backrest. This is retained at its bottom end by three 12mm bolts, each bearing on a U-shaped wire loop , one each side and one to the left of centre (looking toward the rear of the car from within). Remove the bolts and the backrest can be freed by pushing it upwards until the top clips part. Remove the backrest from the car, taking care to free it from the seatbelts at each side.
Next, remove the lower side panel (offside, as described). This is held in place by several black plastic plugs. I think the seat belt can be detached from this panel by separating the surround where the belt exits. You should now be able to see four (or five?) self tapping screws that retain the upper panel at its lower edge. These should be removed.
Next, remove the grab handle at the top of the upper panel. Fold the handle downwards and prise off the plastic caps covering the handle retaining screws. These are rectangular with two rounded corners. Remove the screws and the handle will come off. Now you will need a 14mm socket to remove the upper seat belt anchor point. Prise open the hinged plastic cover of the pivot bolt. It is hinged (folded really) at its top. When you see the bolt below, undo it and draw out the entire pivot point and place it on the floor.
The upper side panel should now be free. Did I forget anything? You should be able to pull it right out, if I recall correctly, though the clips can be a little stubborn, gentle prising should prevail. When it has been removed, you should see two 10mm(?) bolts, each retaining a small flat metal plate that coils around a cable. These are the two antenna cables. Each terminates in a plastic junction block, which should be connected to the nearby metal tab, about 5mm wide. Be careful, the tabs are fairly fragile. Don’t get diverted by the connections to the noise filter, which are in the middle part of the pillar. The two antenna connections are either side of these, i.e. above and below.
If there’s any confusion, study the metal track patterns in the rear windscreen. You should be able to identify a tiny aerial at the bottom (antenna 2), a larger one at the top (antenna 1) and the rest of the screen is covered by the heater element, which covers much more area. They are not connected to each other, though it’s a bit of a maze working out which is which.
As they say in the book, assembly is the reverse of dismantling, but slower cos you forgot where all the bits are. If you need any clarification, get back to me.
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