Today I actually started working on the car instead of just buying parts. There were 2 things on the to-do list for today.

Fix the antenna grommet, which is currently broken/top part doesn’t exist

Look at the radio and find a serial number so I can get code to unlock it

Lets start with the Antenna Cover. In order to get to the antenna itself, you have to go through the trunk. so I opened the trunk and started examining what I have to take out in order to get to the actual antenna. First thing I notice though is that the driver side trunk plastic cover is missing. I guess I’m gonna have to replace that. But that is besides the point. Lets get back to the task at hand. As you can see this is the piece of insulation that needs to be peeled back in order to show where the antenna is attached:

After taking off the insulation from the inside of the trunk on the driver side, you can see the hydraulic reservoir which is used for…. something (actually I believe its the retractable roof):

Now the antenna itself is hidden behind this reservoir so it needs to be take out (it is attached to a lot of cables). The brass nut there in the center right is the one that needs to be loosened and then the reservoir slides out of the way. Once that is done then we have access to the antenna. You can see below how the hydraulic reservoir is on its side now and the antenna bottom is seen on the picture on the right.

After unscrewing the nut that holds the antenna, there is a piece that I guess protects the water from getting into the trunk as its a large rubber piece around the housing. After all of this is taken off and moved, we can actually see how the antenna is attached to the grommet. A small piece of it goes inside of the gromet while the grommet itself sits mostly above the body in the hole as seen below:

As you can tell the grommet is non existent anymore… Now all of this is taken apart and its time to take the new one and put it in. But here is a problem. The new one doesn’t fit. Seems like the on I ordered is PN 65218411562 which is for BMW Z3 which were built from 04/1999. There is another part number which is for BMW Z3 which were built before 04/1999, and its PN 65218389698. Well this sucks. I just disassembled it all and the part doesn’t even fit. I guess I will have to call and get this piece replaced.

On to the radio. After several conversations with BMW here in the US as well as Bemer Motor Cars, I was unable to get them to give me a correct code to unlock the radio. So in order to get one I needed to take the radio out and get to the serial number. After taking off the 2 screws holding it in it was fairly easy to slide it out and get to the SN. Which was a very short one: BP0273401477036681. Well what do I do now? I called the Dealerships and Bemer back, and none of them were able to provide the code still. the dealership said that they don’t do anything older than 2002, and Bemer provided a code that didn’t work. Ok next option. Google. So I started searching for somewhere to get a code. No luck for any of the codes that were provided to me.

That’s it for today, radio is a mess and will have to look somewhere else later. Messaged the company to ask for a refund for the other one. Waiting on the response for the refund of the original one, and ordered the replacement. The replacement is out of stock but says the delivery will be Sept 26-Oct 1, but everything is still disassembled so should be pretty easy once the new part is here. Good thing is now I know that the car was build before 04/1999!