u/foxgez

lol, I forgot to say many things in the video.

I've contacted car-masts-uk-shop on eBay, who's sourcing the best aftermarket mast (importing them from the US) since he worked for Hirschmann in the UK back in the day, and they've discontinued the supply back in 2015.

My initial issue was grinding noises coming from the motor skipping teeth on the antenna mast cable whenever it fully deployed or fully retracted, since the teeth were too shallow. The motor couldn't get a good grip on the teeth, so it didn't know when to stop.

It did that for a good while and nothing to declare inside the antenna motor assembly, the gears are perfectly fine. I guess the gears are made from a harder plastic than the antenna mast cable.

I've teared apart the antenna assembly, cleaned everything inside the antenna assembly with IPA and a toothbrush and then greased everything with lithium grease too.

I forgot to take a video of the new mast I've installed, but the teeth are way deeper and defined.

Since I've talked to the guy on eBay, he told me that Chinese aftermarket masts have shallower teeth, weighing 57g compared to the usual 85g, with bad tolerance and a shitty brushed finish.

I highly recommand getting your mast from the guy, don't waste your time with crappy parts.

Instant fix from installing the new mast.

H04 mast (with teeth on the cable) for the Hirschmann Auta 6000XX antennas.

https://ebay.io/m/lRs8wv

Hey all, hoping someone here has run into this before.

I've recently posted my newly bought wooden steering wheel for my W124 (E250D, ’94).
The horn contact plate inside the new wheel was broken/interrupted, so instead of sourcing a new contact ring I swapped the entire internal mechanism from my old factory steering wheel into the new wood wheel (which was made from an original steering wheel).

Problem: the airbag doesn’t sit centered at all. It’s pressed tight against the wheel on the left side, and there’s a big visible gap on the right. Not centered, not symmetrical, and obviously not how it’s supposed to look.

To try to fix it, I enlarged (milled) the four mounting holes with the torx screws so I could shift the whole internal mechanism to the right and get the airbag more centered/functional enough to actually honk the horn. It helped a little functionally but it’s still off-center and looks bad.
To shift the assembly to the right, I had to leave the four nuts at the back of the mechanism unscrewed.

The bigger issue now: since doing this, my steering column creaks/grinds on any movement of the wheel — turning, even small movements. I’m assuming shifting the mechanism to the right has created some kind of contact/friction point between the horn contact ring (or hub) and the steering column shaft, but I haven’t been able to pin down exactly where.

Questions:
1. Has anyone successfully swapped a horn/airbag mechanism between two different W124-era wheels (factory wheel → aftermarket wood wheel) without this alignment nightmare? Was there a specific contact ring or hub adapter that actually solved it, rather than forcing centering with a mill?

2.	I’ve seen mention of contact ring part 1244640228 as being more universal across wheels of the same generation — anyone confirm this actually fits/centers properly on a wood wheel setup like mine?

3.	Any tips on diagnosing exactly where the grinding is coming from without pulling the whole column apart? It’s subtle but present on literally any wheel movement.

Appreciate any input — trying to avoid just forcing it further and making the column issue worse.

Hey, I've finally found a phase 3 rear bumper which I've installed, but the «hole» doesn't line up with my exhaust tips.
For now I want to cut the rear bumped so that it doesn't melt because of the hot exhaust fumes going right at it.
I plan to move my exhaust a bit on the left so it's centered with the hole.

Note that the car is parked on a slope, but it has the same behavior whenever my fuel tank is half empty. What could be the cause ? And is it bad for the motor ?