No Satellite Reception

[gingerider]

Is anybody else out there having a similar issue:

Once the GPS is locked on it works fantastically, not issues at all, when I drive home and park in my garage (under the house) all still good, I close the garage door and still have GPS reception and I'm able to enter destinations etc.

When I leave my garage in the morning I have no GPS reception (GPS icon with red cross through it) and the map shows me as all over the place.... it continues like this for unto 20 minutes before it finally locks back on to the satellite.

If I park outside of my garage over night it finds the satellite within 1 - 2 minutes in the morning.

When I get to work and park in the multi-story garage it looses reception and takes 5 - 7 minutes to find it again on my drive home.

It's been back and forward to the dealer, the main APIM module has been swapped twice and the GPS receiver once along with the software update. The dealer cannot replicate the issue by parking in their one story building over night.

I've escalated to Ford who now tell me the vehicle is working as designed i.e. it's perfectly acceptable for it to take unto 20 mins to regain satellite reception!!!

I can't be the only one having this issue... am I?

 

[Joe Dirt]

I have similar issues with my Toyota, and the Garmin in my Explorer. Sometimes it takes my receivers about that long to hook up. Sometimes the Garmin won't hook up at all, and I'm not in the middle of nowhere. None of my receivers will pick up anything when parked in the shop at work.

 

[VinceL]

Our Garmin can take a month of Sundays to find that satellites at times. It is rather frustrating!

 

[jrmexplorer]

Is anybody else out there having a similar issue:

Once the GPS is locked on it works fantastically, not issues at all, when I drive home and park in my garage (under the house) all still good, I close the garage door and still have GPS reception and I'm able to enter destinations etc.

When I leave my garage in the morning I have no GPS reception (GPS icon with red cross through it) and the map shows me as all over the place.... it continues like this for unto 20 minutes before it finally locks back on to the satellite.

If I park outside of my garage over night it finds the satellite within 1 - 2 minutes in the morning.

When I get to work and park in the multi-story garage it looses reception and takes 5 - 7 minutes to find it again on my drive home.

It's been back and forward to the dealer, the main APIM module has been swapped twice and the GPS receiver once along with the software update. The dealer cannot replicate the issue by parking in their one story building over night.

I've escalated to Ford who now tell me the vehicle is working as designed i.e. it's perfectly acceptable for it to take unto 20 mins to regain satellite reception!!!

I can't be the only one having this issue... am I?

It actually can take quite a long time to find satellites. You have to remember that it needs line of sight to 4 satellites to fix a position. That can be affected by a number of factors including tall buildings, trees, houses, etc...

Its pretty normal for mine to take 2-5 minutes to find satellites, and I've had it take as long as 20 (but that is rare). I'm not sure that 20 minutes on a regular basis is normal, but I don't know the topography of your area either.

For what it's worth you can put MFT into diagnostics mode (see the sticky at the top of the page) and see how many satellites it has found.

 

[dco43054]

So where do you live? In the city among tall buildings? Out in wide open spaces? Lots of tall obstructions?

If the GPS cannot get clear signal, it will take a while to lock on, which is why you might be getting what you are getting.

The question is why when the unit is outside it locks on quickly? Does the unit stay powered up? I wouldn't think so.

Curious indeed.

 

[gingerider]

Thanks for the comments guys, it was useful to us the diagnostic mode to see how many satellites I'm getting. Some more detail:

- When I get home (after satellite reception has been attained) and park in my garage with the door closed I still had 6 satellites and it stays that way while I have the engine on
- If I leave the garage after 2 hours it picks up full reception again within 30 seconds
- If I leave the garage after a full night it takes up to 20 mins to pick up reception

I live in a fairly open area, no tall buildings near by but a decent number of trees

It annoys the hell out of me and Fords attitude that this is normal operation annoys me even more!!!!

 

[jrmexplorer]

Thanks for the comments guys, it was useful to us the diagnostic mode to see how many satellites I'm getting. Some more detail:

- When I get home (after satellite reception has been attained) and park in my garage with the door closed I still had 6 satellites and it stays that way while I have the engine on
- If I leave the garage after 2 hours it picks up full reception again within 30 seconds
- If I leave the garage after a full night it takes up to 20 mins to pick up reception

I live in a fairly open area, no tall buildings near by but a decent number of trees

It annoys the hell out of me and Fords attitude that this is normal operation annoys me even more!!!!

Did you try a third party GPS like a Garmin to compare? Do not use your cellphone as a comparison - they can and often do utilize cell tower signals to assist in getting the satellite information and/or fixing a position.

Mine works pretty much like our old standalone Garmin unit did.

I should add that your garage tests make sense to me. When the MFT isn't shutoff for too long it can utilize stored information on the location of nearby satellites upon restart. If it sits too long, this stored information is too old to be useful (the satellites move) and MFT has to reacquire the satellites - which means finding them.

What doesn't make sense is that if this is the case, why do you always get signal right away if you park in your driveway? I'm not sure.

Also keep in mind that trees block the signal. So unless there are 4 satellites located directly above you (and thus not blocked by trees) - this may be normal.

I wouldn't blame Ford just yet until you have confirmed that other nav systems aren't similarly problematic in your area.

 

[VinceL]

Fascinating...I never realized the satellites were moving around. I always thought they were in fixed positions overhead. That could explain the delay in aquisition.

You learn something new every day

 

[calb]

Is anybody else out there having a similar issue:

Once the GPS is locked on it works fantastically, not issues at all, when I drive home and park in my garage (under the house) all still good, I close the garage door and still have GPS reception and I'm able to enter destinations etc.

When I leave my garage in the morning I have no GPS reception (GPS icon with red cross through it) and the map shows me as all over the place.... it continues like this for unto 20 minutes before it finally locks back on to the satellite.

If I park outside of my garage over night it finds the satellite within 1 - 2 minutes in the morning.

When I get to work and park in the multi-story garage it looses reception and takes 5 - 7 minutes to find it again on my drive home.

It's been back and forward to the dealer, the main APIM module has been swapped twice and the GPS receiver once along with the software update. The dealer cannot replicate the issue by parking in their one story building over night.

I've escalated to Ford who now tell me the vehicle is working as designed i.e. it's perfectly acceptable for it to take unto 20 mins to regain satellite reception!!!

I can't be the only one having this issue... am I?

I just had that happen after upgrading to v3 I was apparently driving through Lake Ontario for 15 minutes. Are you on v3 too?

 

[tucker_bmd]

Finally had to vent

I just had that happen after upgrading to v3 I was apparently driving through Lake Ontario for 15 minutes. Are you on v3 too?

I don't post to often and hate that when I do it's to complain. So I will start with something positive about my 2012 XLT AWD. I am getting great gas mileage for a vehicle this size. Granted I drive mostly highway, am easy on the throttle and have my tires at 45 psi, but I am averaging 23.3 for 17000 miles and 23.9 for the last 6000 since I put my summer tires back on. I did not have to pair the oem tpms sensors I bought off of ebay for my winter wheels, so that was an expense that was nice to have in my wallet.

MyFordTouch has been pretty much fine, both the original version and the upgrade as well. But I have the issue with the Nav not showing the street name in the quadrant and then sometime later it will show the street name in the quadrant. I also have an issue what sometimes it takes 2 minutes to acquire gps and sometimes 15, on the same route every morning out of garage. Cloudy or clear skies, same behavior.

It's minor but annoying because this means there is a bug in the code and a problem with the software, because after a reboot (not a master reset) all will be fine. I do write code for a living and we have a mantra that no code is bug free, I believe MyFordTouch is still buggy, all be it for me just this one bug, but like I said, annoying none the less. I'm living with it but being a programmer I know it could be fixed if Ford wanted too. This behavior is reported by others on the outofmytouch.com bug tracker site.

Now I feel better for getting that off my chest.

 

[Jimmy-B]

A related question ...

Last night we brought our Explorer on the Auto Train from Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL. But the Nav has spent the whole day still thinking we're in VA, and hasn't managed to reacquire a GPS fix.

Is there a way to force it to do this?

Cheers!