How do I recalibrate the GPS? | Ford Explorer Forums

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How do I recalibrate the GPS?

baxterdown

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City, State
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Year, Model & Trim Level
2011 Limited
MFT's GPS is off by about 200 ft. I looked everywhere and can't find how to recalibrate it. Is there a way to?
 



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You can do this, IIRC, with the left side LCD screen and selections.

200 feet is not that bad.
 






I noticed the same thing......while sitting in my driveway it gives me the address of a home 3 houses away.

Thats not accurate, should be just a few meters.

Thanks I was looking for recalibration settings too.
 






Hey guys, thanks for the quick replies!

Bill, I ran outside as soon as you posted. There are no settings on the left screen to recalibrate the GPS.

In my case, its actually pretty bad. Every destination I enter in the GPS is always off by about half a block. Worse, my vacation home is on a u-shaped street. The house is on the right tip of the U, the GPS is showing it on the left tip of U. I thought this was a Navteq problem, but I just went to their website and they are showing it correctly on their map.

MFT is also occasionally does other strange GPS things. For example, on the way to our vacation home we are supposed to make this left turn at an intersection. MFT shows the correct path on the screen, but never tells me to make the turn. I've tested both ways: missing the turn, in which case it tells me to make a U turn. And making the correct turn, in which case it just remains silent.

By the way, the GPS on my 2009 Flex was perfect and always got everything (home, vacation home, the turn, etc.) right. I'm hoping a recalibration of the MFT GPS will fix these issues.
 






Same issue with accuracy. Mine has me living several houses down. My wifes portable Garmin hits me within a few feet of the driveway. Arriving at destination on your left... Not expecting military precision guidance but come on a cheaper handheld has the better performance???????
 






You can do this, IIRC, with the left side LCD screen and selections.

200 feet is not that bad.

Colud you explain how and where to do this. I can't find it either.
Thanks
 






Sorry, guys, I must be mistaken. I have seen a calibration setting, but maybe it's for the gas MPG's.
 






Hey guys, thanks for the quick replies!

Bill, I ran outside as soon as you posted. There are no settings on the left screen to recalibrate the GPS.

In my case, its actually pretty bad. Every destination I enter in the GPS is always off by about half a block. Worse, my vacation home is on a u-shaped street. The house is on the right tip of the U, the GPS is showing it on the left tip of U. I thought this was a Navteq problem, but I just went to their website and they are showing it correctly on their map.

MFT is also occasionally does other strange GPS things. For example, on the way to our vacation home we are supposed to make this left turn at an intersection. MFT shows the correct path on the screen, but never tells me to make the turn. I've tested both ways: missing the turn, in which case it tells me to make a U turn. And making the correct turn, in which case it just remains silent.

By the way, the GPS on my 2009 Flex was perfect and always got everything (home, vacation home, the turn, etc.) right. I'm hoping a recalibration of the MFT GPS will fix these issues.

Ford actually uses Telenav, not Navteq. And they have my road wrong on their website as well.

I think most of the navigation location issues are with Telenav, not the MFT system. I had it show me I was driving home in the middle of a field the other night, but the next morning it was ok. I'm guessing that whatever satellite they use for GPS may have been out of sync.
 






Same issue with accuracy. Mine has me living several houses down. My wifes portable Garmin hits me within a few feet of the driveway. Arriving at destination on your left... Not expecting military precision guidance but come on a cheaper handheld has the better performance???????
I had the same problem with my former '09 Toyota Highlander. When in my driveway, it gave me an address about 10 houses down the street.
 






I just called SYNC Tech Support and they advised me there is NO ability to adjust the GPS setup through MFT/SYNC settings in the vehicle.

Apparently a dealer has to do this. Ya right, can you imagine explaining that to the service advisor. They cant even download the right software.

Take this with a grain of salt because at first he said "Your vehicle is the subject of a TSB # 11-04-18 so that will fix the issue"

I then grabbed my latest dealer invoice for the SYNC v2.8 upgrade and it says right on it " Upgraded SYNC to latest version as per TSB #11-04-18"

So what the SYNC Support advisor first suggested had already been done.

He did mention that yet another update is forthcoming but wouldn't give anymore details.

I have had different answers on the same issue depending on which advisor I spoke to so someone else should phone and ask the same question to see if the answer is the same.
 






Maybe TeleNav is the better place to call.

Contact TeleNav customer support at 1.888.353.6284 for assistance.

So I called TeleNav Support Agent and he says to call back during business hours and hit Option #3 then ask right away to be transferred to Level 3 Tech Support because they are handling all the Ford SYNC/MFT Issues.
 






MFT's GPS is off by about 200 ft. I looked everywhere and can't find how to recalibrate it. Is there a way to?

Yes you can do this; I'll have to get back later, as I'm not in my car now. The NAV had my home address in my neighbor's back yard. You have to be where you want it to calibrate. If you want HOME to be you in your driveway, you must be there in your driveway when you calibrate it. It then saves it as a GPS coordinate, not an address. I also did it at my brother-in-law's house in SC. His house is a half-mile off the road, so this was a challenge for the NAV; it can only assume the half-mile setback is a straight line, since private driveways aren't in the mapping database.
 






I just went out to my Explorer and went thru the steps. On the NAV screen there will be the marker of your desired address and a blinking circle where you actually are. Just drag the address icon into the blinking circle and save. Now the Favorites/HOME tag for that location will be true.
That's not exactly calibrating the system, but is is adjusting it for a particular destination.
Overall this is a great system; much easier to use and more cool features than any German car.
The next map card will hopefully be a little more accurate.
 






Ford actually uses Telenav, not Navteq.

Thanks JDraper for the clarification. I went to Telenav, and indeed, they have the addresses wrong. My home address shows down the street. Our vacation home is exactly where MFT shows it: ON THE OTHER BLOCK!!!!

Whoever is in charge of the whole MFT program should be fired! It is truly a disaster in every way (software, hardware, and now maps!) ARGH!!!!

I wonder if we could save a different map to the SD Card...
 






Called and spoke to TeleNav Level 3 Support.

No clue about SYNC/MFT, no clue how to re-calibrate.

Essentially they said TeleNav supplies the geodata and anything else is the responsibility of Ford.

So we are back to SYNC Tech Support, then they will contact TeleNav.
 






Lets added to the list of maybe one day it will get fixed.

Funny anyone see the Allstate commercial with MAYHEM and the GPS that tells him to turn here and its car or building not a street. Waiting for that insurance claim for an Explorer driver using their GPS.
 






Thanks JDraper for the clarification. I went to Telenav, and indeed, they have the addresses wrong. My home address shows down the street. Our vacation home is exactly where MFT shows it: ON THE OTHER BLOCK!!!!

Whoever is in charge of the whole MFT program should be fired! It is truly a disaster in every way (software, hardware, and now maps!) ARGH!!!!

I wonder if we could save a different map to the SD Card...

Bad maps aren't the MFT programs fault. It's Telenav's fault. I guess you could ding Ford for using Telenav, but we don't know why it was chosen (probably low cost supplier though :rolleyes: )
 






GPS accuracy depends on a lot of things. You'd expect it to be better than +/- 300 feet though. Wonder whose hardware they are using?

At least with a bad address location in the map data, Telenav can fix that.
 






My Navigation's current location accuracy is pretty good, it's just it has my home in the wrong place.
 



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GPS Problems

My NAV is of by 200 feet. But the biggest complaint is the info is at least 4 years old and maybe more. My neighborhood of 400+ homes was built in 2006 and my street is not even on the map. This calls in to question other locations as well. I called Ford and they said there was no update. I told them I should receive an up to date system for the expensive vehicle I just took delivery on less than a month ago. I told them that Ford should set the vender stright and demand current maps be supplied with new vehicles. The customer service rep said she would note the complaint and escalate it. We shall see what happens.....This is bull!
 






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