No GPS icon displayed

[RHall]

Have a 2019 Sport I picked up at the end of May after trading in a 2014 Limited.

About 3-4 weeks ago I suddenly started getting the dreaded NO GPS symbol. Sometimes I have signal for a few minutes, then it goes out. Sometimes over night it will return, or just won't work for days in a row. Or sometimes it won't work for an hour or two - and then suddenly starts working only to stop a little while later. Argh.... And of course its extra frustrating because I use Carplay all the time with my iPhone - and as others noted, when you are using CarPlay, all the map applications use the vehicles GPS and not the devices GPS - which fouls up the iPhone as well. Unplug the iPhone, and its map display shoots right back to correct location, plug it back in to use CarPlay, and location goes crazy because car is in NO GPS mode. I've also see the noted bug where Waze calculates the vehicle speed incorrectly because the Sync system is sending it back to the device incorrectly...

Wish there was a toggle to allow you to choose which GPS was used (device or vehicle) when using Carplay...

In any case, to solve the NO GPS indicator/issue, I have tried Master Reset to no avail. I was going to try pulling the battery or the fuse, but ran across this (and other similar posts) and will try the Soft Reset first.

I had gone into the diagnostics, and it was seeing plenty of satellites, but wasn't updating the fields above it with location info, etc. when exhibiting the NO GPS. I will check to see if the APIM and GPSM modules have same version numbers.... Hoping the soft-reset maybe does the trick.

I have a TSB/Recall/Field Service Action for the Anti-Lock Brake System Module Software Update on my VIN, that I have been meaning to take into the dealer to get resolved, but knowing they will be tinkering with the APIM for that, I was hoping to avoid confusion...

If I find a solution, short of trip to the dealer I'll share here - otherwise will share results of visit to the dealer after I can get it to them.

Funny thing, my 2014 Limited, started doing similar stuff occasionally in late 2018 into 2019 - it didn't have CarPlay of course, but the built in Nav/GPS would occasionally go totally out of wack, only to return to normal a few days later. It only started doing that 4.5 years into owning it. Sigh....

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum.

Peter

 

[MM07]

Does your iPhone have iOS 12.4.1?

Also maybe iOS 13 on 9-19 might help?

 

[RHall]

Yes, running iOS 12.4.1 on XS Max.

Soft-reset didn't seem to do anything for me - when it happens there is no immediate fix, other than to wait it out. And to be more accurate, the NO GPS symbol shows up BEFORE I connect my Phone to it. It can also happen while its connected, but it doesn't seem to be tied directly to anything being tethered, that's just another annoying aspect of it, because of how once its connected, the device then uses the car's GPS.

I did actually install the GM release of iOS 13 yesterday (essentially what will be released to the public on the 19th) to see if that would make a difference, and while it provides a bunch of really great improvements to CarPlay overall (definitely worth the upgrade there!) It does not correct the NO GPS issue -at least in my case. I still had it happen yesterday a couple times, but all day today I lucked out and it was working well. I'm going to give iOS 13.1 beta 3 a whirl this weekend. This really looks like its a Ford Sync3 issue. Similarly, I also checked out Waze to see if Apple maybe figured out and included a fix from their end to address the GPS speed difference noticeable in Waze, but no go - that issues is still there - it looks like that really depends on an update to Sync3 from Ford. Now if Ford would just push that out and make it available to everyone....instead of making a trip to the dealer......grrr..... hah

Have an 11 Pro Max arriving on the 20th - will be giving that a whirl too

 

[RHall]

Shared this in another thread for 2020's as it seemed very similar, but updating this now that I finally had things serviced. The above updated from September - since then I still had plenty of NO GPS showing up intermittently with no rhyme or reasoning.

Quick note on this topic that may be helpful to others.

I finally had my 2019 Explorer Sport in for service late last week for a number of items, bad map sensor on intake manifold, that put car into limp mode - yikes! As well as recall/TSB for ABS brake computer update, fixing the roof rack rails from popping up, and the NO GPS Sync3 issue in this thread.

Given the intermittent nature of the NO GPS icon, they had a hard time replicating it - but did get lucky and saw it. Some notes from what my local dealer did:

1. They kept tying to replicate it and got lucky and saw it - checked my APIM it was good. Checked the cables from the APIM to antenna, and the splitter and they were all good.
2. They went into the debug mode in Sync 3 and checked the satellite signals - I had done this before too - one thing of note, it was only connecting to/picking up signals from a handful of satellites, and it should have been picking up way more. (As of August 2019, 74 Global Positioning System navigation satellites have been launched, 31 of which are operational, 9 in reserve, 2 being tested, 30 have been retired and 2 were lost at launch. The constellation requires a minimum of 24 operational and the official target count is 33.)
3. The called Ford techs directly and talked about the issue and found some commonality to it, it should definitely pick up more than 8 - which is what I was seeing when it was working, more than 8, less than 8m and it would drop out show NO GPS icon - they gave some guidance but not much.
4. Tech went to back of car, and banged on/tapped the antenna during usage, and sure enough it would cause the signal to get worse or drop entirely.

So, it looks like its bad antennas - either they are faulty, getting damaged somehow (maybe water/car washes, etc). And this is the shark fin style with the added antenna coming out. I know different models have had different antennas over the years.

Ford overnighted a new antenna to dealer with paint job to match, popped it in - and fingers crossed it's fixed it so far - and it feels like its much more responsive in course-correcting if I go to areas where the map coverage has changed - before sometimes it would take quite a bit of time, or merging back onto a nearby road or highway for glitches to get you back on track/tracking properly - now it feels quicker, likely from the broader amount of and more stable pickup of the signals from more satellites. If it happens again, I'll be sure and share. Looking good at the moment.

Also - its worth noting that although the government hasn't used/triggered SA - (Selective Availability) since 2000 when Clinton eliminated that for more localized techniques to degrade the civilian GPS signals in times of need (military actions, presedential traveling, etc) - there are still things that actively are triggered by the goverment that can effect GPS from time to time - a really handy page, especially if you are doing diagnoses to see the satellite strength during testing and what's responding, is to use the governments GPS status page here, which has current status on all the satellites and any operations or programming that might be occurring or planned that can cause a variety of issues - take a peek here: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?Do=constellationStatus and the main site here which is also useful: GPS: The Global Positioning System

Hope this is helpful!

 

[Michael W]

Damn... if it happens to me, I'll tap my antenna to see if that fixes it.

 

[Michael W]

Damn... if it happens to me, I'll tap my antenna to see if that fixes it.

Yeah. If i tap it the GPS starts working but after driv6a but, the no GPS logo shows up.

 

[MM07]

Yeah. If i tap it the GPS starts working but after driv6a but, the no GPS logo shows up.

Maybe you guys need your antenna replaced. There was a recall...

Explorer SiriusXM Stuck "Acquiring Signal" (Intermittent) 2018 Models

Anyone who wants a TSB copy start a conversation with me and shoot me your e-mail address. I will send it to you. Please send to me at cblevins1@msn.com

www.explorerforum.com

Not sure if it would help.

 

[peterk9]

It's an SSM, not a Recall. Big difference.

List of Useful Threads - 2011 + Explorer TSB's & SSM's

The following applies to the Explorer & PIU (thanks to Jason, jmr061 for the info) SSM 6329 - Apr 11 2018 2007-2016 Various Vehicles - All Wheel Drive (AWD) - Propane Or Natural Gas Odor During Idle Or Low Speed Driving - Built On Or Before 30-Jun-2016 Some 2007-2016...

www.explorerforum.com

Peter