Helogadget

The Pioneer head unit I recently installed seems to have a mind of it's own controlling the power antenna. I went to the car wash today and made sure the radio was off and the antenna was down. However, when the attendant started the car to run it through, even though the radio was off, the stupid Pioneer decided the antenna needed to go UP. You all know where this is leading. I helplessly witnessed the disaster watching through the glass.

Looks like I will be doing the Tundra antenna mod! Fun fun. Bye bye weak power antenna.

Harold57

Ouch, that hurts! Sorry to hear about that.

Helogadget

I have been asked which head unit. Mine is the Pioneer AVH-X3700BHS. I would imagine the 5700 might act the same way on a Beatsonic interface. I know a lot of folks won't use car washes with brushes so it wouldn't be a problem for them. But if you do and you use these radios and have kept the stock antennas, beware.

Bgw70

Thanks for the info Helo! I have not had any irrational behavior from my 5700. Did you by chance do the firmware update? I thought you said you did.
BTW, I think I paid about $50 for a new antenna from Lexus.

Helogadget

I did do the update. You can try yours and see what it does, but it seems if you turn off the radio and the antenna goes down, if you turn off the ignition switch and then re-crank the car, even though the radio is off, it does a Bluetooth search and for some reason that seems to raise the antenna. Kiss of death at a car wash.

I thought I might replace the mast, but, know what? To get into the "mast spit out mode", the only way I know there is to do that is with the stock radio. I know of no way to do it now that the stock radio is gone.

Bgw70

Yep, you are correct! I turned the radio off, ant went down, turned key off then on, nothing, then started car and placed in reverse, radio came on to display the backup camera and it was looking for a phone, ant went up, I had no phone so the BT connection failed and I had the yes no question, I said no, put it in park and the antenna went down...

Now that was one hell of a run on sentence!

Helogadget

There ya go. Hopefully my misfortune will save you and others from grief. We are planning a trip out of town with it next weekend and I am undecided about what to do with the antenna until I can fix it. I am contemplating just sawing it off until we get back from the trip. LOL

theazz

I have the 5700 and it did the same thing as yours so I called pioneer and they said because the units have Bluetooth that the radios have to be designed (some type of law or something) to always be on with Bluetooth ( when your ignition is on) so you can still be hands free. No where in their POOR instruction book does it say that.I told him the problem with that on the SC430's and he said that's just the way they are designed and his solution was to put a switch in to eliminate that problem.
I took out the power antenna and went with the tundra solution.
theazz

Helogadget

To me the Bluetooth excuse is silly. That antenna has nothing to do with the Bluetooth. Oh well, I will do the Tundra option as well. These stock antennas are so weak and wimpy and easily bent.

Bgw70

I installed a new antenna back in January and we used it with the OEM head unit due to the limited listening options. I can honestly say I have not listened to AM or FM with the new head unit because there are too many other options!

Helogadget

That's what I told my wife. With XM, Pandora, Ipod, etc, who needs AM and FM, especially with all the commercials?