I've noticed that the gps symbol on the top right hand corner of the screen keeps having the GPS and satellite disappearing. Today it was missing for about 5 mins. I've not noticed it happen before. Does this mean the GPS isn’t working properly? I wasn't in a built up area so wasn't due to poor reception.
GPS Problems
- Thread starter jamiecarpenter
- Start date
Ever since the Pope's visit, I can't get a GPS signal in London and it looks like the car calculates position based on travel distance, compass and steering sensor, as there is no satellite lock. I first noticed this as there were no satellites (little dots) in the little box with a picture of the earth in -the top right of the screen. I also keep checking the satellite status (Main Menu -> Set -> hold menu for 10 second -> gps info) and it usually shows 6-8 satellites in range, but no clear signal, and therefore no GPS lock. Checked if the antenna is connected to the unit and all seems fine.
Sometimes the satellites apear for a little bit, but then go away. Navigation still works somehow, probably based on travel distance, compass and steering sensor?
My Road Angel stopped picking up satellites roughly at the same time. Nothing.
Sometimes it picks them up, then I see that the SatNav has picked them up as well (little dots apear on the earth picture in the corner). Then when I come back to london the signal usually goes away.
The car is fully stock and everything worked fine a few months back. Nothing has been done to it except autoglass changed the windshiled. This should not block the signal on the built in satnav as the antenna is somewhere in the back. The road angel does not see any satellites outside the car either. Same issue with the iphone GPS whenever bmw satnav or roadangel not working .... got totally lost once in Birmingham...
Have you seen this before? Am I emitting radio waves that block everything around me?? Would the dealer fix this under warranty?
Sometimes the satellites apear for a little bit, but then go away. Navigation still works somehow, probably based on travel distance, compass and steering sensor?
My Road Angel stopped picking up satellites roughly at the same time. Nothing.
Sometimes it picks them up, then I see that the SatNav has picked them up as well (little dots apear on the earth picture in the corner). Then when I come back to london the signal usually goes away. The car is fully stock and everything worked fine a few months back. Nothing has been done to it except autoglass changed the windshiled. This should not block the signal on the built in satnav as the antenna is somewhere in the back. The road angel does not see any satellites outside the car either. Same issue with the iphone GPS whenever bmw satnav or roadangel not working .... got totally lost once in Birmingham...
Have you seen this before? Am I emitting radio waves that block everything around me?? Would the dealer fix this under warranty?
Pop open the interior light (the whole panel) with a screwdriver with some electrical tape wrapped round it so you dont mark the panel, inside to the left you will see the GPS sensor mounted on a bracket. I'd check its still mounted there and see if you can feel the wire coming from it has not been cut in some way or something placed over?? you never know?? ... You wont be able to check the whole wire without removing all the trim but its a start. I detached my Road Pilot Go's GPS and mounted it next to it, then wired the Road Pilot Go straight up to the interior mirror where there is +12v when ignition is on. I did this because I found that it would not get a good lock without pointing straight up at the sky which was not possible with the way they had attached the gps sensor to it.
Sounds as though something may be interferring with the signal for both but cant think what, have you tried getting a lock with road angel say by placing it under the back window?
Sounds as though something may be interferring with the signal for both but cant think what, have you tried getting a lock with road angel say by placing it under the back window?
If three GPS devices fail to operate at the same time then I can't see it being a problem with you car fit - must be a general signal issue.
Could be the Pope has some divine influence over these sun spot things... :roll:
And there's more.... http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21333
Could be the Pope has some divine influence over these sun spot things... :roll:
And there's more.... http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21333
My sat nav lost the plot completely on Sunday when I was driving around Bond Street, and then again on Chelsea Embankment. At one point it showed me as driving in the Thames and repeatedly told me to "Please proceed to the planned route". Never been a problem before, and fine again now.
Friend's Garmin was recording no satellites on Sunday too.
Friend's Garmin was recording no satellites on Sunday too.
Interestingly, I've never had any problems with my OEM sat nav before this episode, even when driving around central. My TomTom does it all the time as the maps are very out of date. I do wonder if the Pope has commanded the sun spots to target our Protestant nation!
The map continued to scroll, showing me moving, just indicating that I was on the wrong road (or river 
). After parking and driving again it was working normally, and has since.
It all seems a little coincidental to me - several people complaining simultaneously about the same issue, including my friend with their Garmin. It makes me think it is something external to my car :?
). After parking and driving again it was working normally, and has since. It all seems a little coincidental to me - several people complaining simultaneously about the same issue, including my friend with their Garmin. It makes me think it is something external to my car :?
BMWZ4MC said:The map continued to scroll, showing me moving, just indicating that I was on the wrong road (or river
It all seems a little coincidental to me - several people complaining simultaneously about the same issue, including my friend with their Garmin. It makes me think it is something external to my car :?
Get that too, especially when cloudy.
Do you think the dealer will help...? At least check if the unit is faulty....?
A
Anonymous
Guest
Hello all,
Sorry to bump an old thread but this seems to be quite a common issue.
I bought a Z4M Roadster yesterday and noticed on the way back from the seller that the sat nav seemed to think it was still at the sellers house.... :roll:
On the way home, I pulled over and put the navigation into diagnostic mode and brought up the hidden menu.
You do this by switching on the ignition, going into the SET menu on the main screen and then holding down the MENU key for 10 seconds. A set of sub menus will appear where you are able to see input from the sensor. In my case, when I looked at the GPS sensor information, it did not have any satellites and the GPS coordinates where not changing as we drove along.
Anyway, having got home and spent some time googling around, it seems that the GPS sensor / GPS antenna failing is quite a common problem on the Z4.
As posted above, for cars with factory fitted navigation, the sensor is located at the top of the windscreen, behind the plastic trim around the location of the interior light.
To investigate, I did not remove the interior light because when I tried to do so, it seemed quite stiff and being a cold day, the plastic trim was quite brittle. Having worked on cars a bit before and knowing the short cut of not removing bits to do a job, hits you much harder in the end, I therefore removed the 4 screws which hold both sunvisors and removed the sunvisors. I then put the roof back a little and you are able to simply slide the middle section of the trim which runs along the top of the windscreen towards the rear of the car and remove it. The two side pieces therefore stay kind of in-situ. You are then able to access the GPS sensor, which you will see is located on a grey metal bracket which is held to the car by two phillips screws.
First of all I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the plug to the GPS sensor. The plug is located about 3 or 4 inches along the wire as it runs towards the left hand A pillar and is simply a pull connection.
When I disconnected and reconnected the GPS sensor, whilst watching the number of satellites within the hidden menu, a few seconds later, I was suddenly able to get reception from 6 or 7 satellites, so it seemed to be a bad connection.
However. . . it then stopped working again. I wiggled the connection and this was not the problem. The problem seemed to be the wire at the location where it goes into the actual sensor itself. If I pushed the wire in, I got reception, if I pulled it a little or bent it down, as it would normally be in the car without me holding it, no reception.
At this point it became obvious that the problem is the sensor itself. It started to look like I would very likely be shelling out for a new GPS sensor. I therefore decided to have a go at fixing the existing one. It was clearly a silly connection issue and if if mine was knackered anyway, what did I have to lose?
I removed the mounting bracket complete with sensor from the car, removed the sensor from the mounting bracket and removed the plastic bracket which holds the sensor to the metal mounting bracket (4 small gold screws). I then was able to carefully prize the sensor open using a small flat blade screwdriver.
Once the sensor was open, 3 small gold screws hold the PCB in the metal sensor housing chassis. The signal wire is soldered onto a metal part of the sensor a few mm after where it comes in. This connection looked a bit ropey so I simply removed some of the solder, re-soldered the connection and tidied it all up.
I put the car back together and it now works perfectly. So, if you have this issue and have used a soldering iron before, have a go before you buy a new sensor.
Sorry to bump an old thread but this seems to be quite a common issue.
I bought a Z4M Roadster yesterday and noticed on the way back from the seller that the sat nav seemed to think it was still at the sellers house.... :roll:
On the way home, I pulled over and put the navigation into diagnostic mode and brought up the hidden menu.
You do this by switching on the ignition, going into the SET menu on the main screen and then holding down the MENU key for 10 seconds. A set of sub menus will appear where you are able to see input from the sensor. In my case, when I looked at the GPS sensor information, it did not have any satellites and the GPS coordinates where not changing as we drove along.
Anyway, having got home and spent some time googling around, it seems that the GPS sensor / GPS antenna failing is quite a common problem on the Z4.
As posted above, for cars with factory fitted navigation, the sensor is located at the top of the windscreen, behind the plastic trim around the location of the interior light.
To investigate, I did not remove the interior light because when I tried to do so, it seemed quite stiff and being a cold day, the plastic trim was quite brittle. Having worked on cars a bit before and knowing the short cut of not removing bits to do a job, hits you much harder in the end, I therefore removed the 4 screws which hold both sunvisors and removed the sunvisors. I then put the roof back a little and you are able to simply slide the middle section of the trim which runs along the top of the windscreen towards the rear of the car and remove it. The two side pieces therefore stay kind of in-situ. You are then able to access the GPS sensor, which you will see is located on a grey metal bracket which is held to the car by two phillips screws.
First of all I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the plug to the GPS sensor. The plug is located about 3 or 4 inches along the wire as it runs towards the left hand A pillar and is simply a pull connection.
When I disconnected and reconnected the GPS sensor, whilst watching the number of satellites within the hidden menu, a few seconds later, I was suddenly able to get reception from 6 or 7 satellites, so it seemed to be a bad connection.
However. . . it then stopped working again. I wiggled the connection and this was not the problem. The problem seemed to be the wire at the location where it goes into the actual sensor itself. If I pushed the wire in, I got reception, if I pulled it a little or bent it down, as it would normally be in the car without me holding it, no reception.
At this point it became obvious that the problem is the sensor itself. It started to look like I would very likely be shelling out for a new GPS sensor. I therefore decided to have a go at fixing the existing one. It was clearly a silly connection issue and if if mine was knackered anyway, what did I have to lose?
I removed the mounting bracket complete with sensor from the car, removed the sensor from the mounting bracket and removed the plastic bracket which holds the sensor to the metal mounting bracket (4 small gold screws). I then was able to carefully prize the sensor open using a small flat blade screwdriver.
Once the sensor was open, 3 small gold screws hold the PCB in the metal sensor housing chassis. The signal wire is soldered onto a metal part of the sensor a few mm after where it comes in. This connection looked a bit ropey so I simply removed some of the solder, re-soldered the connection and tidied it all up.
I put the car back together and it now works perfectly. So, if you have this issue and have used a soldering iron before, have a go before you buy a new sensor.