In our small town there used to be three Esso (Exxon) stations with car washes within 10 miles of us. Esso have closed them all down. This leaves us with one Petrocanada car wash that is handy. But, I learned a long time ago not to go there with our 300D. It has rotary brushes that don't get along well with the diesel's antenna (which no longer retracted).

But, unfortunately, my wife had forgotten that she should not go there. She even asked the attendant if it would be OK and she said their carwash had no problem with antennas! My wife did not even notice what had happened, but when I got home, I noticed the antenna had a nice 90 deg bend in it! The car was nice and clean, so I knew what had happened!

I guess I could buy a new mast and try and get the retraction system working again. But I must have done that at least 3 times before I gave up and just left it in the up position.

Has anyone installed one of the modern flexible types on an old benz? My Tahoe had one that had no problems in car washes. Or even better, a manually collapsible type like some cars had years ago?

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

I imagine there was a manual antenna option for that car. I have to say though, the motor isn't especially failure prone on those old power units, just the mast, they should be cheap. A nice working power antenna is one of those old car warm fuzzy feeling things.

And any commercial car wash is bad for your paint unless it's halfway shot already like all my old junk.

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K

I learned a long time ago not to go through car washes.

It takes about 15 minutes to do a basic wash. After that, I use an electric leaf blower to blow the water off, then follow-up with a dry towel for a quick wipe down. Total time 1/2 hour, money saved $10 bucks, quality job 100%. Complaints none.

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Question Authority before it Questions you.

For half of the year up here, we don't even have water to our outside faucets! Ours has just been hooked up for summer. Cars get really dirty in the winter and DIY or automatic car washes are the only way to go. But funnily enough, we don't have a lot of them. We spend a couple of months in SC in winter and there are a lot more car washes there, even although cars stay clean.

Re getting fuzzy feeling when antenna goes up and down. It great when it works, but after 19 years of ownership, that fuzzy feelin has been wiped out by the hassle of sticking masts and replacements!

I was hoping to find a flexible unit, but may have trouble getting one that will fit the opening.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5