I've done a search but cant find if there are any smaller aerials which can replace the original one...

Im not so fussed about replacing the base, its just the aerial part?

Any help greatfully appreciated.

Vauxhall do a shorter one for the Meriva about £7, I've had one on mine for a couple of years now.

Vauxhall do a shorter one for the Meriva about £7, I've had one on mine for a couple of years now.

Cheers. Does it screw straight into the old fabia base? Any pics?

Or the short Honda one is popular, I have one. From a CRV or S2000 usually. About £15 I think from the dealers. Not noticed any reduction in radio reception either. Screws straight in once you manage to yank the original one out!

Steve

I have a VW Sharan aerial. Looks like this:

I bought it from parts4euro.com

Reception is the same as the original (which was never great, but it's definitely not any worse now).

Good grief - I thought the Honda one was short :eek:

I have a VW Sharan aerial. Looks like this:

I bought it from parts4euro.com

Reception is the same as the original (which was never great, but it's definitely not any worse now).

Blends in nicely with the roof mount mate.

i have a honda S2000 aerial, the Citroen C5 aerial also fits, iirc it takes a little persuasion to take grip in the fabia mount as the thread is slightly smaller i think but still works just as well and is very short.

Unscrew original aerial. Remove end cap. Measure *exactly* half the length (ideally of the spiral rather than the linear length, but God knows how you're meant to do that) so your aerial is still a division of the wavelengths you're looking to pick up to a negative power of two. Glue end cap to the end of now shorter aerial and there you go.

I have not done this, but it is the method with the least effect on the performance of the aerial.

I have a VW Sharan aerial. Looks like this:

I bought it from parts4euro.com

Reception is the same as the original (which was never great, but it's definitely not any worse now).

Don't you have to drill out the VW one and re thread it ? as it does not fit as standard :confused:

How about the BMW /Range rover one -the shark fin -or is that too much fiddling ?

We have 3 Skoda cars and a VW Tiguan. I have recently bought a shorter aerial and the thread is given below. The last comment in the thread gives my views on the one I bought. I don't know if there would be difficulties with the Fabia but I noticed the Fabia's reception was not as good as my Octavia's with their original aerials. The aerial I bought is not as short as some in this thread.

VW Tiguan Owners Forum • View topic - Stubby Aerial

In theory shortening the aerial will lower its sensitivity because the top of the aerial is now lower to the ground .You will not loose any stations though because the signal strength sent out is far more than needed by a car radio . Also the original length is calculated to give maximum receiver strength on the radio signals you expect to receive.

stole my mums ariel off her honda civic type r....lol

Don't you have to drill out the VW one and re thread it ? as it does not fit as standard :confused:

Nope! I was worried that was the case too, but bought anyway.. screwed straight into my 04 vRS.. it is a replica Ariel though, not a VW original part so perhaps it has a different thread to the original part it's based on?

I've found though, that although reception is OK, it's not as good as the original due to it's short size it seems to suffer amongst tall buildings a bit more... but it's ok, not terrible, just not crystal.

just changed mine tonight for one of ebay took two mins

just a black bee sting for fabia, fits fine If you have trouble taking old one off just push it towards front of the car when scewed out and tug its easy.

Trick is with the bee sting is scew the thread into the car base so there is still enough popping out to screw bee sting on. The bee sting been tightened onto this thread will tighten it up with the pressure