I've had a lot of problems lately with my NAV system (W211). The dealer had to repair the system 6 times (!) during last 2 months, but the NAV system was getting lost all the time (would show that I was located in the ocean, in the river, sometimes at the cemetary, etc.)

Finally dealer said that the antenna connection was loose, and assured me that everything was fine. I enabled the GPS display at the bottom of the screen (it shows actual coordinates along with number of satellites connected).

After entering a long tunnel, the unit lost all of the six satellites it saw and has not seen them since. Coordinates are gone, too. The system still has a general idea of it's location, but I suspect that it is not going to last

Questions:

1. How long should it take the NAV system to reconnect to the satellites if I am in the open space with no tall buildings around?

2. What could be a problem?

Thanks,
Alex

 

Definately sounds like a bad GPS antenna. Its under warranty isn't it?

 

It is under the warranty - that's probably why dealer had it 6 times...

 

Don't give up. It took my dealer 2 1/2 years and I don't remember how many trips to finally get my navigation system fixed. Finally ended up being a short in the systems cable above the headliner. No problems since.

 

You can check the performance of the GPS antenna with TeleAid, by seeing what TeleAid thinks your location is.

If TeleAid cannot get a good location as well, then the splitter may be at fault. You can unplug the splitter and plug the antenna directly into either the nav system or the TeleAid system.

If you still cannot get a good location, then the antenna/wiring may be bad. I would imagine that this was checked first... but still.

-s-

 

When I picked up my car (in Jun 04), I had the exact same problem and the next day the dealer picked it up and dropped it off 2 hours later after having fixed the problem. He said it was the antenna that was not properly connected. NAV has worked very well since then. Although sometimes when I go through the lincoln tunnel, the system goes haywire for a little while....

 

Alex,

Looks like your MB is amphibian! Dont feel bad. I have had the same problem... My Ml55's sunroof deflector somehow broke loose and struck the antenna on its path off the vehicle. Didnt think anything of it when I brought it to the dealer to fix that but since then my nav was goofy. They replaced the antenna since it was caused by the strike of the defective sunroof deflector.

By the way, speaking of Teleaid.. Has anyone noticed their SOS, Wrench, and I button's blinking solid red (ON) then off randomly???? Mine is doing it now... Odd...

 

My NAV system was miraculously healed; no problems have occurred since I posted my question.

If anyone is interested, now after I exit the Lincoln tunnel within 1 minute the system sees 1-3 satellites and within next 1 min 5-8 satellites. Have not seen more than 8 at a time.

I think that the problem is in the intermittent connection failure in the GPS antenna signal circuit.

I will post any fixes / problems related to this issue.

My sincere thanks to everybody who replied.

Alex

 

I have gps problems too , 2010 e-coupė (W 207). Went to dealer today. Seems that gps antenna needs to be replaced. I wonder what can we wrong with an antenna (a wire?) i should more suspect a bad connectn somewhere, yves

 

The GPS antenna has a pre-amplifier internal to the antenna itself. That can and has gone bad.

 

With the 211s you need a wiclic connector gps antenna. I bought one off eBay for ten bucks from eBay seller audiopart. It actually worked. Make sure u test it with clear sight of the sky. I made the mistake initially of not doing that.