Mine's been that way for many months now. I also wiped and cleaned it frequently, but now that doesn't work any more or works for a day or so. I am able to pull it out all the way by hand and clean and cycle it a few times, but it goes back to its ways a few days later. In my oppinion, a retractable antena mast is a stupid and wasteful idea anyway, so I just use the mast half-raised. Seems to work almost as good as all the way up and I think it wasteful replacing a mast that is going to do the same exact thing in short order. On my wife's 240 I have replaced the antena with a flexible stubby ($7 at Auto Zone) and that works fine. I do not want to do the same on my S70 for aesthetic reasons, but neither am I going to throw good money after bad by replacing a mast on a retractable antena as I think it is a bad design and prone to periodic failure. I think VW has done a great thing in their new cars by designing a flexible stubby antena into the shape of the car. I think those VW antenas look sharp and complement the shape of the car. If I ever find a lexible stubby that complements the look of my S70, I'll replace the stupid motorized gadget immediately. A radio antena should really be maintanace-free. Most of us have enough to maintain in our busy lifes today.

Cheers.

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Vladimir. '98 S70 base, 5-speed manual (his), '91 240 sedan automatic (hers).