Since I’ve owned my MR2, the standard radio Aerial hasn’t worked. This is a fairly common fault with the MR2 aerial for some reason, and many either replace it with another Toyota item, an aftermarket solution – or just put up with not listening to the radio (the latter of which I admit to doing for over 2 years!)

I finally came to my senses and purchased an Autoleads RMA819 Interior Aerial. As this is an amplified aerial, installation does require a little bit of work. Wiring in the aerial was a relatively simple procedure; Simply splice the power wire of the new aerial into the ignition wire of the original aerial connector (the grey wire), and connect the signal lead from the new unit into the original unit. The Autoleads aerial also comes supplied with an Earth wire, but in my experience of installation, the Earth wire isn’t necessary.

The trickiest aspect of installation was finding somewhere to mount the aerial itself. I opted to keep things simple and simply mount it in the boot, but it was rather tricky finding somewhere that produced the best signal quality. Choosing function over form, I mounted it to the underside of my boot lid. I would have preferred somewhere a little more subtle, but this position definitely provided the best signal.

I can now receive both national and local radio stations in absolute clarity. A very worthwhile modification!

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