S430 D navigation loses position

[Bob727]

I bought a 2001 S430 with 56K mi last month. Love it and everything works except the D nav system, and I am stumped. I bought the latest CD's from a dealer and they load fine. The unit accepts progamming commands, and shows the correct turn list to destination. BUT when I select map it does not know its current location. Even when I manually input current location, it loses track of its own position as soon as I start driving. Within a few minutes it is many miles off and can't recover. I think it may not be reading the gps satellites. Any ideas?

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[Skylaw]

You can check the number of satellites you are receiving. If you don't have your COMAND manual, you can download it at http://home.earthlink.net/~phdwebsite/comand_manual.htm and see p.184 (Activating the Location Map). The number of satellites you are receiving is in the upper right corner of the screen.

You could try some of the procedures and resources here: http://www.benzworld.org/forums/audi...es-00-sat.html

However, a common cause of no satellites (or few) being shown is a problem in the antenna. Most commonly, this would be water in a splitter. I don't have a bookmark to give you on this, but search this forum and BenzWorld for "navigation antenna splitter" or "zero satellites" and you may find the location of the splitter.

[Bob727]

Thanks. I'll check the sats tomorrow and post the results.

[Bob727]

Thanks. I checked and found the nav is not reading any sats. Any ideas on how to fix the antenna, splitter, or cable? I don't even know where in the car ro start looking.

[Skylaw]

That's the bookmark I don't have to give to you; search this forum and BenzWorld for terms like "no satellites" "nav antenna splitter" "Nav lost" and any variants you can think of. I have seen it posted - I just don't have it available. My best bet is that the problem is the splitter.

[Bob727]

Thanks, Skylaw. You were a big help. I finally fixed it by pulling off the gps antenna to check for water. There wasn't any and it didn't help...but I saw the two lead wires running to the trunk and followed them into the right side above the battery. To my amazement they were not even hooked up. After I plugged one into the splitter and one into a dangling coax, the nav unit picked up 6 sats in a few minutes and oriented itself in about 15 minuites. I used it to navigate a 20 mile trip through a lot of turns and it worked perefectly. It had no trouble readjusting when I took it off route. In fact, it is just as accurate as the one in my '07 Pathfinder. I particularly like the display in the instrument cluster and the long-lead voice prompts. I used Scotch heavy duty 2-sided tape to reattach the antenna. After all this, I'm pretty sure the majority of MB nav orientation problems are due to faulty antenna input.

[Skylaw]

Thank you for the feedback, and glad you got it working!

[bamberger_1]

here a picture of the antenna connector behind the siding in the rear fendor above the battery. Maybe one needs that detail to fix the antenna problem. One connetor is for the radio (or telephone??I'm not sure) and one for the navigation. If both are loose then you need to check.

[Bob727]

Thanks. That is what I discovered was disconnected. Works great now that it is hooked up again. I have new questions. I want to update my wheels and have found a very good deal at Adisto...MB replicas with lugs and caps for $123. Are they any good? Most important, will the great ride be affected if I replace the original 16" rims with either 17" or 18"? I have heard that the skinny tires on the bigger wheels are harsh. Also, will I have to reset the speedometer.

[Skylaw]

You might do better with a new post rather than changing topics completely in the middle of a string, because only your original post's subject will show on the main page. Folks not interested in your nav problem may never see your wheel/tire question. Posting new either here in the W220 forum, or in the Tire Rack's forum a little further down on the main page, will likely get better responses.