So we get about 2 feet of snow the other day here in Maine, and I'm outside cleaning my car off, and the fiancee is helping... she means well. Needless to say she stops suddenly and looks up at me with those, please don't hate me forever look. I ask her what's wrong, she won't say anything, the tears almost welling up in her eyes immediately, I ask her again and she holds up my Focus Central shorty antenna, I was like, thats ok, it happens, she looks at me again, I say it unscrewed no big deal, thats when I realize, there isn't a screw anymore on the base....sure enough there it is, sheared off inside the antenna. So the dilemma, first, I have the old antenna, and I'm thinking I'm gonna do what JB did, and just cut it short and put the tip back on there, the FC antenna is nice and all, but it started to lose it's color on the front side, so it was more...how should we say... pink on the front and red on the back, not exactly what I was going for in it. I may get another one, but it would be black this time, none of this silly anodized color shit. But the real problem does anyone know how the hell I can get to the antenna base, how it comes off, and how much a new one costs, and how much of a bag this job is going to be. I mean I don't want a freakin' leak in my car. By the way SyntheticShield also has this problem so I'm asking for him too, just in case you didn't want to answer me
Ah, i have done that.... twice. Once this year even... been driving around antena free since the first big storm we had.
Its not that bad to fix. IF you take out the dome light there is a bolt up in there that holds to base on, thats how you get it off and on (Rob G has done it a couple times, has has Dan i belive, im sure they will be able to help you more).
As for the cost. Dan and Chelly said they are lots.. like $40 or something. Bill on the other hand asked the Ford dealer here and they said it was like $8, then again, they are scared to DEATH of that boy so they might have just been saying something tomake him happy and threated to shove things up 'exit only' holes.
Hope that helps!
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Less than $10 for the part. 10 minute job at the most.
Somehow that one slipped my looking... I have a power sunroof though, and I don't think that I can get to the antenna part from the light because of where the power sunroof switch is located in the sedan.
I dunno if the sedan is different than the hatch, but I have the power moonroof and my shorty antenna pulled the same it's -too-cold-I'm-snapping-off trick. The little base portion that the antenna screws into is indeed $8.xx, as of last spring?
Anyway, to get it off was easy, just unsnap the domelight cover and look up, twist off the screw/bolt and then take off the antenna base. This is actually easy with the moonroof (for short people) because I just opened it and leaned out to grab the unattached base. Then you replace the new one, screw it in and pop the plastic cover back.
I've been thinking of cutting my stock antenna into a shorty, but I haven't gotten around to it.
Just get it from the local dealer. Might be a few bucks more but it may still be cheaper than with shipping costs and they may have it right there.
Just went to there site and the minimum shipping charge is $7.95 so it will be cheaper to pick it up locally.
I checked on a part I want and with the teamfocus discount at AutoFair it will be $1.15 cheaper to pick it up locally. you will probably save about $5 on the Antenna base.
lil duratec wrote: I've been thinking of cutting my stock antenna into a shorty, but I haven't gotten around to it.I'm not so sure this is a good idea. I have a shorty on mine, but I kept the stocker to use on road trips. The shorty just won't pull in stations that the longer one will.
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That's also somewhat of a concern. But I rarely use the radio since I have CDs and got XM, and that comes in fine even in quite bad "reception" areas, which I don't frequent often... it is something to consider though.
shortening up the stocker, doesn't seem to adversely affect the signal much from what Jonny has said. Somewhere between the really long space needle it currently is, and not as short as the FC one. But it's an entirely different design and doesn't seem to lose much. Course 9/10ths of your reception has to do with your stereo anyways.
I had a shorty and didn't like the way it looked so I bought a stock antenna in case I messed up cutting my old stock antenna. I cut mine to about 13 inches then placed the end with the rubber tip in boiling water w/salt in it and heated it up and pulled it off and placed it on the cut end. It works real good and no real signal lost like a true shorty antenna. I'm not sure if cutting it shorter then 13 inches would adversly effect signal reception.
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that way you can have your shorty, and still isten to everything you want in crystal clear, digital reception 
