I have a 1995 E420 with the tri-band antenna. It has a black rubber portion for the top 1/3rd of the antenna - and is meant to be used as the cell phone antenna as well as am/fm. The car came with the now useless cell phone option.

I'd like to know if anyone has replaced this antenna with an earlier, all-metal variety found on other W124s. The tri-band antenna is quite short, and my radio reception could be better. I've notice that the all metal antennas on earlier W124s are much taller.

Is it possible for me to replace just the antenna with the all-metal version? Will my power antenna unit accept this?

Thanks,
Troy
1995 E420 90k

Come on - no one out there has tried to boost radio reception on their W124?

A 92 service bulletin discussed going the other way(installing a cell phone), there was no discussion of changing wands. The fix was to replace the entire antenna and ship it back to to the warranty center for credit. If you look at the setup it goes thru a splittter after coming out of the antenna and then to the am/fm and ctel. The connectors are unique I think they are FME (dont even think radio shack)

I read about the "now useless car phone" a lot.

But my 95 E320 came with one and I use it every day.

I have a '97 with OEM phone and it works fine in the city where I live. However, these phones are for the older analog type (AMPS) of cellular service which is gradually being phased out for the newer types such as CDMA and GSM. When your local provider decides to terminate the older service, the phone won't work for a normal call. I have heard that the 911 feature will operate for sometime after that though. These are great phones we have with a lot of transmission power and good reception but technology marches on!

I have a '95 E300D with the same antenna. Black plastic section on top extension.

There is an ebay guy who specializes in Hirschman antennas and I discussed the 1995 E class antenna with him. I went so far as to pull my antenna, take pictures of it, send dimensions, the ID info stamped into it, etc.

He could not match or come up with a substitute for this antenna. If you look in catalogs, you see the '95 antenna priced higher than other E class years. I don't know if it's the triband situation you describe or what. I was tempted to just get a universal Hirschman and try it anyway.

But I didn't. I'm still using the old antenna, which does not extend or retract due to water getting into the unit for years, apparently. The antenna function still works, albeit marginally as you say. Let us know if you ever find a solution!

Rgds,
Chris W.

I've got the same antenna. I replaced the mast with the same type because I thought it was bad (it wasn't-it was the gears). When I got it working again, I noticed the new mast made a world of difference in AM reception and it was noticably better at FM.

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So leejxxxxx, are you saying that you replaced the tri-band antenna with an all-metal mast, or that you just replaced your old mast with an exact replacement?

Thanks,
Troy K.
1995 E420