This is for you guys who mounted your antenna above the third brake light on your 04-05 F-150's. Did you guys find the need to seal it somehow?

The other day I had a Sirius tuner unit installed by an Alpine dealer. I had him run the antenna out the brake light. I told him I thought he might have to use some silicon to seal around the wiring etc.

After the install, I asked him about it and he told me that he didn't need to seal it and that there was a rubber gasket of some type protecting it from leakage.

Do you guys think I should tear the cover off and do something, or is he (the installer) correct? I've never had the cover off to see what's inside.

Thanks,

Matt

 

I have done several of those. The gasket from the light will seal the line for the sirius, or xm whichever, without any problems. No worries mate

 

I ran mine through the third brake light and it doesn't leak. No rain here yet but it's been through the carwash three or four times now.

 

Mine's been installed there since march of '04 and it is fine. The weatherstripping around the light will seal itself around the wire. Just to be safer, I put my wire under the light, but ran it around to the bottom of the light before putting it under the weatherstripping. This sounds odd, but anybody who's ever had their light off should understand what I mean.

Like the others said, don't worry about it unless it leaks. The more you mess around with it to inspect things, the more likely it is to become a problem.

 

My 06 leaked today.

Installed Saturday
Rained Sunday night
Cleaned up the seat this morning
Siliconed this evening

 

My tiny antenna sits on my dash. No leaks, no install issues... works like a champ. Not for everyone depending on your area, but it works for me.

 

i will second the it sits on the dash with no problem. i popped the tray out that sits in the middle in front of the radio and ran the wire so that it comes out and the antenna is sitting between the two defroster ducts. a little double face tap and it was good. the only time and it was only once that it cut out was when i was driving down a road that had overhanging trees from both sides of the road. couldnt see the sky at all. but since thats an increasing rarity in NJ i will leave it on the dash. soon there will be no trees to interfere with the signal.

 

My 04' was out the third brake light. That thing everytime it rained. My 06' has it under the wiper cowl on the pass. side. Works like a champ. Matter of fact, I have 3 of 'em out there. Nav., Sirius, and XM.

 

So your antenna is actually covered by the cowling?

Dave