Antenna Problems, Changed head unit, antenna now wont go up or down Options

[RoadRage]

Hello fellow 6gc'ers,

I am new to the forums because I only just bought my Celica this weekend. It came with the factory casette and CD player that looked awful and was damaged and had buttons missing, so i bought a new Sony head unit and a pocket underneath, and I was going to install it myself but I got an offer if I pay extra 50 they'll do it within the hour, so I said sure why not.

Now in the old radio the antenna would go up when I turned the radio on and down when I turned the radio off in accessory mode and If i left the radio on (therefore the antenna up) and took the key out the radio would flash every 2 seconds and make some electrical buzzing sound and would keep doing it till I put the key back in on accessory and turned it off,

When I came back to the guy installing it, he said he could not get the antenna working because there were inside the car a bunch of extra useless wires (that were once probably used for something) and if he plugged the antenna in to the head unit there would be a constant source of power to the head unit even when the car off and it is draining my battery and he is surprised the battery hasn't died yet, so he left it unplugged with the antenna up so I would get radio reception, and even if he left it plugged in he said the antenna should go down when I turned off accessory not when i turned the radio off (actually I'm not even sure from what he explained if the antenna would even work properly if he plugged it back in anyway), now it just annoys me to have the antenna always up.

Does anyone know any ideas about a fix or some sorts or will I have to fork out some more money for an auto electrician to fix it up?

Also, I noticed now when I go off accessory the clock turns off too, while before it was always on, which i did find suspicious

[richee3]

I say ditch the ugly fishing pole antenna and get a hidden antenna. They're about $20 USD and money well spent to ditch the factory antenna.

Honestly, the only thing to do is dive right in and get your hands dirty. Time to tear your dash apart and figure out what those "extra wires" are for and get rid of them. They shouldn't affect your antenna if it was functioning properly before. The antenna has constant power anyway but works on switched power- radio on, antenna up and vise versa. I've never heard of the radio "buzzing" until you shut the radio off. USDM Celicas automatically retract the antenna when the key is turned off or if the radio is set to play a CD or cassette.