gps not updating at all

[tbcinnc]

I am a newbie to the site, but have had the car for almost 70K in a little over two years.

I am having a problem with the gps. It does not link to satelite anymore for some reason. I did a serch here and didn't see anyone else having this problem.

The gps works and follows roads, but if you take a new street, or if they have modified the road a bit (6.1 version) then the map gets off and I have to stop and re-calibrate it. This is very annoying because since you can't do anything when driving, so if I am trying to find a location, all of a sudden I am lost driving through fields and lakes.

I took the disk out and replaced it as well as completly unplugging the unit while the car was off, and then re-starting it, getting an error message, then re connecting after I turned it back off again.

Still as far as I can tell, no gps link.

Any ideas?

[KTPhil]

Does your display show the "GPS" icon/letters?

[qbee42]

What do you mean by "stop and recalibrate it"?

Tom

[efusco]

The database for the GPS will never update unless you go out and buy an update disk. Thus, any new or changed roads will not be on you DVD's database. So if you drive a new road there's no way for the system to know it's there.

But, once you get back on a road that is on the disk after 20-30 seconds or so the system should put you back on that road.

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by efusco

<snip>

But, once you get back on a road that is on the disk after 20-30 seconds or so the system should put you back on that road.

To clarify this comment, the accuracy of the GPS system is not good enough to pinpoint a car on the width of a road. To compensate for this, the nav system looks for the nearest road oriented in the same direction as the car is traveling, and snaps the car's position onto that road. You can see this when you first start up, and sometimes the car will be shown going diagonally through a field. All of a sudden the car will jump back onto the road where it belongs. On occasion, the car will snap to the wrong road and it will take a few seconds before the nav system gets it all straightened out.

If you are on a new road, one not in the database, the nav system will try to snap onto any nearby road. Lacking anything nearby, it will give up and show your Prius cruising through empty space on the map.

Tom

[spitinuri]

It gives you a certain amount of freedom floating in GPS free air. If you want the latest disk be prepared to pay around $300 or just get a Garmin Nuvi for $100.

[donee]

Hi All,

If the system has dead-reconining, but not receiving any satellite fixes, this might explain the OP's observations. Dead-reconining alone would not keep the car sufficiently accurately placed on a road over miles and miles. Its there for breif satellite reception outages (tunnels, heavy tree cover, etc).

tbcinnc do you have heavy foileage there at the end of summer in North Carolina? Other possible issues is placing a metal item (radar detector, clip board, stash of CD's ) on top of the dash board. The GPS antenna I believe is imbedded in the dash (at least I could not find it outside of the dash on the GPS equiped Prius cars I have been in). Even a heavy non-conductive item (plastic clip board, news-papers, magazines, etc), in the right location on the dash might detune the antenna center frequency.

Another issue is windshield tinting. Some tintings reflect the GPS signals significantly, and others absorb it. The tinting layer is so thin, however, that absorbtion tintings probably do not have a big effect.

If those things are not it, you may have a broken antenna or receiver.

[hill]

You'd have to have the Gen III, with optional sirius satelite, and HD NAV in order to get map updates on the fly. Since you have a 2007, you will never get updats without buying a new DVD.

.

[tbcinnc]

I am sorry for not getting back sooner. I thought this thing would post to my e-mail when I got a response. I was out of town for a few days and left the car at the dealer to work on my HID problem too.

GPS. According to the dealer the antenea isn't working. They are not sure though. To replace the antenea, the part is over $ 400 and the labor to replace is $ 230. For $ 630 I figure I can have a pretty sweat garmin or such with the latest maps.

What I meant by having to reset was that I stop the car, recalibrate it to the closest point I can and start driving. It latches on usually at the next turn if I was close enough on my first guess.

I know there are links out there, but to save my lazy butt time, can I display an aftermarket on the current screen of the Prius.

Thanks

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by tbcinnc

<snip>

What I meant by having to reset was that I stop the car, recalibrate it to the closest point I can and start driving. It latches on usually at the next turn if I was close enough on my first guess.

<snip>

Once again, what do you mean by "recalibrate it to the closest point I can...". I know of no such function. The GPS finds its own location without any sort of user input. If you mean you need to move the location pointer to your current spot, that mean the GPS isn't working, in which case the dealer's diagnosis is probably correct.

Tom