GPS question
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12
Likes: 0
GPS question
Today I took my brand new vert through a car-wash. No problem with that but when I left my GPS system stopped functioning. I had the GPS rectangle with a red line through it for over an hour. I finally called the dealer who told me that the antenna for the gps was in a side view mirror and that possibly that was the source of the problem.
Sure enough when in the car-wash the driver mirror had been moved from its proper spot and drenched. Finally I went into the Nav menu and recalibrated the system. The error signal went away and all is fine now.
Has anyone else had this anomaly ?
Jim
Sure enough when in the car-wash the driver mirror had been moved from its proper spot and drenched. Finally I went into the Nav menu and recalibrated the system. The error signal went away and all is fine now.
Has anyone else had this anomaly ?
Jim
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 20,054
Likes: 44
From: Swansea IL
It's mentioned in the owners manual that inside structures etc you can loose the GPS signal. Nothing to worry about and you shouldn't have had to recalibrate the system. You loose your XM signal too.
Tom
Tom
Racer
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 321
Likes: 2
From: Mesquite TX
Originally Posted by jhiller
Has anyone else had this anomaly ?
Jim
GPS attenna's can lose their calibration if they lose sight with the satellite signal. If this is the first time it's happened, then it could be the carwash and not the mirror getting moved that resulted in the loss of signal. GPS systems will sometimes lose their signal, going under a tunnel or sometimes in a downtown "canyon" the signal gets lost.
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12
Likes: 0
I park my car in a garage every night. When I leave in the morning it takes about 2.5 minutes to go from no signal to full GPS signal. My system went without GPS signal for over an hour after the car-wash in an area that has excellent signal strength. This was much more than losing sight of the satellites.
Jim
Jim
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,858
Likes: 1
From: Burlington County NJ
GPS antenna inside mirror???
Is this new for 06??
On my 05, the antenna is at the top of the windshield.
Is this new for 06??
On my 05, the antenna is at the top of the windshield.
Originally Posted by jhiller
Today I took my brand new vert through a car-wash. No problem with that but when I left my GPS system stopped functioning. I had the GPS rectangle with a red line through it for over an hour. I finally called the dealer who told me that the antenna for the gps was in a side view mirror and that possibly that was the source of the problem.
Sure enough when in the car-wash the driver mirror had been moved from its proper spot and drenched. Finally I went into the Nav menu and recalibrated the system. The error signal went away and all is fine now.
Has anyone else had this anomaly ?
Jim
Sure enough when in the car-wash the driver mirror had been moved from its proper spot and drenched. Finally I went into the Nav menu and recalibrated the system. The error signal went away and all is fine now.
Has anyone else had this anomaly ?
Jim
Melting Slicks
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,022
Likes: 0
From: Belleville Illinois
Originally Posted by alan64
you took it through a car wash? have you lost your mind!!!
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 37,329
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From: Plano Texas
CI 6-7-8-9 Veteran
CI-VI Car Show Winner
St. Jude Donor '07-'08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13
Originally Posted by vette-oholic
GPS antenna inside mirror???
Is this new for 06??
On my 05, the antenna is at the top of the windshield.
Is this new for 06??
On my 05, the antenna is at the top of the windshield.
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Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2000
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From: Far NW 'burbs of Chicago
St. Jude Donor '13
Wait, I thought that the GPS antenna was not moved for 2006, only the XM antenna was moved from the exterior "wart" to the outside rearview mirrors.
The mechanic's summary that the tech's get for changes said nothing about moving the GPS antenna to the mirrors, only that the XM antenna had been moved to two antennas (one in each outside mirror).
The mechanic's summary that the tech's get for changes said nothing about moving the GPS antenna to the mirrors, only that the XM antenna had been moved to two antennas (one in each outside mirror).
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 10,089
Likes: 13
Originally Posted by Shawn S
2006
XM Antenna is in the exterior mirrors
GPS is in the top of the dash
OnStar is that box next to the rear view mirror
2005 is the same, except for the XM is on the roof .
Correct ???
XM Antenna is in the exterior mirrors
GPS is in the top of the dash
OnStar is that box next to the rear view mirror
2005 is the same, except for the XM is on the roof .
Correct ???
However, if the GPS receiver has a corrupt or out of date ephemeris, downloading a fresh one can take up to an hour. The ephemeris is a table containing the current orbital elements of all the GPS satellites. The GPS receiver needs to update this table periodically by downloading a fresh one from the satellites. If it is in the process of doing this when signal is lost, the table can be corrupted, and a complete reload will be needed to restore GPS function. Since that takes about an hour, the GPS won't be able to navigate until the fresh download is completed.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 7,588
Likes: 6
From: Montreal Qc
Originally Posted by shopdog
Correct. The GPS Nav antenna is under the dash pad just above the two center A/C vents in both the 2005 and 2006 cars. A car wash should not affect it, unless you have a really bad leak.
However, if the GPS receiver has a corrupt or out of date ephemeris, downloading a fresh one can take up to an hour. The ephemeris is a table containing the current orbital elements of all the GPS satellites. The GPS receiver needs to update this table periodically by downloading a fresh one from the satellites. If it is in the process of doing this when signal is lost, the table can be corrupted, and a complete reload will be needed to restore GPS function. Since that takes about an hour, the GPS won't be able to navigate until the fresh download is completed.
However, if the GPS receiver has a corrupt or out of date ephemeris, downloading a fresh one can take up to an hour. The ephemeris is a table containing the current orbital elements of all the GPS satellites. The GPS receiver needs to update this table periodically by downloading a fresh one from the satellites. If it is in the process of doing this when signal is lost, the table can be corrupted, and a complete reload will be needed to restore GPS function. Since that takes about an hour, the GPS won't be able to navigate until the fresh download is completed.
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 24,977
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From: Far NW 'burbs of Chicago
St. Jude Donor '13
We were driving in a suburban area today, some low buildings but always had good GPS signals there before. Then I noticed the slash through the GPS indicating no signal. The location moved along properly for a couple of minutes but then showed us getting off the road we were actually on. It started directing turns to get us "back on" the road we were still on. The voice prompts got annoying so i cancelled the guidance, drove for about 15 minutes more with no GPS signal. Parked in an underground garage for about an hour, everything worked fine within a minute of leaving the garage when we left.
Drifting
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,301
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From: Queen Creek AZ
I just did this same swap a few months ago. Most of the wiring is already there and plugs into the Nav unit. However you will need to add a vehicle speed sensor wire to get the Nav to operate correctly. You will also need to buy the Nav antenna and install that in the dash above the where the radio goes. If you do a search for Ray Kawal either on the forum or on the internet, you will find all the info you need, as well as any wire harnesses you need. I followed his instructions when I did my swap and it works great. The last thing you will need to do (if you buy a used Nav unit) is to take the car to a dealer or independent shop if they have a Tech II and get the Nav unit unlocked. Corvette radios are VIN specific and need to be reset to the new cars VIN which requires the use of the Tech II. Dealers usually charge 1 hour minimum labor to do this so be prepared for that.
