Rhys

Anyone on here might know what is causing this? :


My sat nav seems to have lost signal and is placing my car somewhere its not. Now this has happened twice before but the following morning it has gone back to normal. However 2 days have now past and its the same. Any ideas what might be causing this? And can i reset it?

Got a long journy tomorrow and i need the sat nav working lol.

JjCoDeX75

Hi mate

Had the same thing happen on mine. It is the ariel - not that expensive to replace. The BMW sat nav system relies on two things - the ariel for the sats, and also the wheel sensor. This allows the nav to work in tunnels etc.

You can tell if it has no signals as the little picture of the satelite in the corner that usually has little green dots in it (that look like stars) will be missing the green dots. The green dots represent satellites.

Very very common on these, and easy to fix.

JJ

Jim Green

Also Rhys........Remove the power socket from the unit in the boot (Not sure where the unit is located on yours, but the 5 series has them in the boot), and let the system re-boot it's self.

Rhys

Thanks both, any idea where to get new areial from and roughly how much? What does the GPS unit look like? Jim its the same in E46 as your 5 series all in the boot on passenger side. Is the gps unit then one on sat on top, or is that the bluetooth? As not sure what im dissconecting etc.

Where is the areial routed? does go to part of my Shark fin (thing) on the roof?

AlexF

The aerial is part of the fin yes.

BMW would a be a good place to get the bits

Rhys

Alex would this mean new fin? Dont like the idea of taken it of the roof

JjCoDeX75

IIRC you dont have to take it out. BMW do sell them, but there is a guy who does a lot of genuine article items on ebay.

The Sharks fin is an option only found on the cars with both a mobile phone and the GPS. The others can use a normal internal ariel. Mine was retrofitted, and the ariel was located under the rear parcel shelf (over the metal, under the cloth bit) - piece of piss to fit, and works absolutely perfectly.

Make sure you get an OEM part wherever you get it from.

JJ

Rhys

Cheers for info i will have a good look today, as didnt really have time yesterday. Im just worried that it is Shark fina nd is going be nightmare to fit new one. Though suppose can get another one and just fit it under parcel shelf like yours had.

Where does the areial plug into? Which box on the back?

TIFF

Rhys

You need to accept that you DO live in Wales mate..........

Rhys

Update:

I have just pulled the fuses out so lets see what happens. This is the info im getting of the on board computer:




As you can see says searching for Satalites, was this point to arieal?


If so is this the arieal connection on the back of the DVD drive?



What are these connections to on one of the silver computers?


And last question which one of these is the GPS unit? Or is it just the DVD drive?

JjCoDeX75

Right.

In order.

The screen does appear to indicate that there are no sats. This deffo points to the Antenna, as the Unit themselves is usually pretty robust.

Photo 3 shows the correct antenna lead. It plugs straight into the back of the DVD player. The very very old systems did use a separate box for the GPS transponder, but they were superceded with the Mk3 systems onwards. If yours is DVD, then yours is the Mk IV.

So this is good news.

The two ariels in the next photos look to be plugged into your TV tuner box, which I believe uses a two antenna system. Leave these alone - they have nothing to do with your particular problem.

Finally, not sure about the box on the top - looks like the phone interface possibly?

The Ariel is the cheapest bit to replace - get one, and plug it in with the antenna on the roof to double check.

Dont forget, you dont need to go to the diagnostics screen to check the sats - just look at the little picture in the top right of the screen when you are in GPS mode - the little green dots are sats - no green dots - no sats.

JJ

Rhys

When you say get one, and plug it in with the antenna on the roof what do you mean by that? I just though you would get one and that was it.

Would it be good idea to get this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-SAT-NAV-GP...3286.m14.l1318

Just to test the system out.. But how would that work with antenna on the roof?


Thanks for help btw, appreciate it!

Jim Galbally

buy new one from BMW...

if it turns out that its not broken, take it back for a refund

Rhys

Jim already thought of that, but guy said no refunds as its electrical item! lol. Dont want to Fork out £100+ and it not be the item. So for sub £20 might try above first...

JjCoDeX75

Hi rhys

The link is dead, but briefly......

The GPS antenna can be located under the carpet bit of your parcel shelf, which is waaaay cheaper than putting a new roof ariel on your car! Also - this is easier on the wiring, as you can leave the old ariel in situ.

The parcel shelf is in two pieces - the metal bit you can see from within the boot, and the carpet bit you can see from in the cabin. The carpet bit doesnt block GPS signal. This is where bmw mount them on the ones without the shark fin.

As stated - the ebay ones are cheaper, though they can be less reliable - make sure you get a Genuine one from ebay if possible.

LAstly - if you have any friends with a bmw with nav, the easiest way to test your system is to simply unplug both DVD units and put yours in their car - if it suddenly works - then it is deffo the ariel. If theirs suddenly doesnt work in your car - likewise. Also - the computer can re-calibrate the options very quickly.

If you are ever in the devon area, then we can do the same with my one - (in a Rover 85 ROFOL, but from a BMW 330i)

JJ