Navigation (GPS) issue

43792 Views 41 Replies 18 Participants Last post by copbait, Jan 30, 2021

Steven

Discussion Starter · Oct 29, 2014

My Parents took delivery of their new MKC last week, and overall they love it. But right from day one they have been having an issue with the GPS navigation system.

It frequently shows the MKC in the wrong location from where it really is. Either it will show them one street over, or on the same street, but one or two blocks ahead from where they actually are. This of course makes the directions wrong and useless. About 60% of the time it will show the correct location.

I know that their previous vehicle never had any issues driving in the same areas.

They did bring it to the dealer two days after buying it, but when they got there it was working fine so nothing was done. But the problem continues.

Anyone ever experience this? Is it working well for everyone else?

-Steven

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1 - 20 of 42 Posts

laurel

· #2 · Oct 29, 2014

Steven with our Ford C-Max with MyFordTouch (same as MyLincolnTouch) in the last couple of months we ran into a problem where the position icon was always off the road. Especially after we would make a turn, it the icon would be off in a field instead of the road or highway. We took it in and they did a master reset. I think there may have even been a TSB addressing the problems as lots of of C-Max owners had the same problem. I used my iphone to take a couple of pictures of the navigation screen with the icon being off course and showed it to the service dept. as proof of what was happening.

Reactions: 3

Gerry

· #3 · Oct 29, 2014

Laurel, was the master reset done by disconnecting the battery and running the headlights for a time?

Did the master reset resolve the issue of the gps position icon being off the road?

laurel

· #4 · Oct 29, 2014

4

Gerry I looked at the paper work and I they actually fixed it with the following TSB. It worked fine after. I think they didn't actually do a master reset as all of our favorites were still there, and generally they are lost with the master reset. A few C-Maxers had no resolution of the problem with the TSB and they had new GPS Modules installed. But here is the TSB that worked for us. 14-0037
TSB 14-0037

GLOBAL POSITIONING SATELLITE MODULE (GPSM) - NAVIGATION DISPLAY OFFSET OR INCORRECT POSITION BUILT ON OR BEFORE 1/6/2014

Publication Date: February 21, 2014

FORD: 2013 Fiesta, 2013-2014: C-MAX, Focus, Fusion, Mustang, Taurus
LINCOLN: 2013-2014 MKS, MKZ
FORD: 2013-2014 E-Series, Edge, Escape, Expedition, Explorer, F-Super Duty, Flex
LINCOLN: 2013-2014 MKT, MKX, Navigator

ISSUE:

Some 2013-2014 vehicles equipped with SYNC® and/or MyFord Touch®, MyLincoln Touch® and built on or before 1/6/2014 may exhibit navigation display offset or incorrect position. The last known vehicle location may be displayed instead of current location, or the vehicle location may be displayed as off road from the current vehicle position.

ACTION:

Reprogram the GPSM to the latest calibration using IDS release 89.02 or higher. Calibration files may also be obtained at www.motorcraft.com.

OPERATION DESCRIPTION TIME
140037A Reprogram The GPSM Following The Service Procedure (Do Not Use With Any Other Labor Operations) 0.3 Hr.

WARRANTY STATUS

Eligible Under Provisions Of New Vehicle

Limited Warranty Coverage.
Warranty/ESP coverage limits/policies/prior approvals are not altered by a TSB. Warranty/ESP coverage limits are determined by the identified causal part

and verified using the OASIS part coverage tool.

DEALER CODING

BASIC PART NO. CONDITION CODE 10E893 04
Last edited by DanMc85; 04-03-2014 at 08:08 PM.

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Reactions: 1

Gerry

· #5 · Oct 29, 2014

laurel said:
Gerry I looked at the paper work and I they actually fixed it with the following TSB. It worked fine after. I think they didn't actually do a master reset as all of our favorites were still there, and generally they are lost with the master reset. A few C-Maxers had no resolution of the problem with the TSB and they had new GPS Modules installed. But here is the TSB that worked for us. 14-0037
TSB 14-0037

GLOBAL POSITIONING SATELLITE MODULE (GPSM) - NAVIGATION DISPLAY OFFSET OR INCORRECT POSITION BUILT ON OR BEFORE 1/6/2014

Publication Date: February 21, 2014

FORD: 2013 Fiesta, 2013-2014: C-MAX, Focus, Fusion, Mustang, Taurus
LINCOLN: 2013-2014 MKS, MKZ
FORD: 2013-2014 E-Series, Edge, Escape, Expedition, Explorer, F-Super Duty, Flex
LINCOLN: 2013-2014 MKT, MKX, Navigator

ISSUE:

Some 2013-2014 vehicles equipped with SYNC® and/or MyFord Touch®, MyLincoln Touch® and built on or before 1/6/2014 may exhibit navigation display offset or incorrect position. The last known vehicle location may be displayed instead of current location, or the vehicle location may be displayed as off road from the current vehicle position.

ACTION:

Reprogram the GPSM to the latest calibration using IDS release 89.02 or higher. Calibration files may also be obtained at www.motorcraft.com.

OPERATION DESCRIPTION TIME
140037A Reprogram The GPSM Following The Service Procedure (Do Not Use With Any Other Labor Operations) 0.3 Hr.

WARRANTY STATUS

Eligible Under Provisions Of New Vehicle Limited Warranty Coverage.
Warranty/ESP coverage limits/policies/prior approvals are not altered by a TSB. Warranty/ESP coverage limits are determined by the identified causal part and verified using the OASIS part coverage tool.

DEALER CODING

BASIC PART NO. CONDITION CODE 10E893 04
Last edited by DanMc85; 04-03-2014 at 08:08 PM.

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Laurel, thanks for this detailed and useful reply. Much appreciated!

I have an appointment at the dealer later today and will keep you posted.

Best regards,
Gerry

todd92

· #6 · Oct 29, 2014

Ours randomly does the same thing, infrequently. Glad to know there is a fix.

laurel

· #7 · Oct 29, 2014

Remember to take a photo! With the C-Max, a photo was necessary as the service dept. seemed to ignore my concerns unless I had proof positive.

DeMarco

· #8 · Oct 29, 2014

laurel said:
Remember to take a photo! With the C-Max, a photo was necessary as the service dept. seemed to ignore my concerns unless I had proof positive.

can't blame them, i used to work in a dealership and a lot of the customers are idiots. but clearly being on a forum, you're a different customer a much more well informed and engaged owner.

kensgranam

· #9 · Oct 30, 2014

Voice recognition

I havent had the problem described but when voicing an address it get wrong address sometimes, maybe its my NY accent ?

Kenny

Gerry

· #10 · Oct 30, 2014

Good news. The issue is now resolved and our MKC Navigation works perfectly.
We took it to the dealer today. They ran computer checks and did a hard reset by removing a the negative battery terminal and running the headlights for 15 minutes. This corrected the map offset position problem. All the settings, favorites, etc were preserved.

The soft reset from the touch screen is intended for use when you sell your car to wipe out all personal information.

We took photos of the map offsets on the way to the dealer and they demonstrated the problem very clearly. The dealer will now report to Ford Engineering who are very sensitive to any problem with this new model MKC and want reports for all problems.

laurel

· #11 · Oct 30, 2014

Thanks for the info. Gerry. I wonder how they preserved all your favorites etc. ? We always lost everything with hard resets with our C-Max.

Mbaker3771

· #12 · Dec 19, 2014

I am currently having issues with my MKC navigation system. After driving about 10-15 miles at a fast speed (approx 70 mph), the navigation system shows that I am behind where I actual location. When I turn, the navigation system then puts me in a field then on a different road that I'm actually on. When the directions are on, it keeps recalculating. I brought my vehicle into the dealership and they told me that they could not duplicate the issue. I then left the dealership, drove about 10 miles, and the issue started again. I turned on breadcrumbs, then immediately drove back to the dealership and showed them what it was doing. They kept the vehicle for a couple of hours and called me back and told me that they could not duplicate the issue. They told me that it was my iPhone 6 that was causing the issue. I then disconnected my phone, unpaired it to the vehicle and reset the navigation. I drove my MKC and the navigation continued to have the same issue. I then went back to the dealership, without my cell phone with me and the navigation system still shows that I'm off the road. This is so frustrating!! Now I get an email from the service manager, stating that they want to take my car for a couple of days so that they can reproduce the problem. How many times do I have to show them that this is happening. They have seen it three times already by numerous dealership staff members.

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laurel

· #13 · Dec 20, 2014

We had that problem with MyFordTouch in our C-Max Hybrid. I took a couple of pictures of the nav. screen that showed the icon off route and when I took the car in for regular maintenance, showed it to them. They fixed it --no problem and kept the car for under a couple of hours. On the C-Max Forum it was a common problem and there was a technical service bulletin out with the fix on the bulletin. Probably the same thing is happening with MyLincolnTouch. Tell them MFT has the same issues with a TSB out.

Steven

Discussion Starter · #14 · Dec 22, 2014

Mbaker,
That sounds like the exact same issue that affected my Parents MKC, which was fixed by performing a master reset (disconnecting the battery with the lights on for 15min).

Agree with Laurel that taking a picture of the screen will help a lot to convince the dealer to do something. Preferably one where the GPS shows you driving through the woods, or on water as there can be no doubt it's wrong.

In my parents case the dealer said there was no TSB applicable for the MKC GPS. But that was two months ago.

-Steven

FRITZ

· #15 · Jul 15, 2015

I have an early 2015 MKC and the GPS frequently showed my car being about 50 yards to the side of the highway. This seemed to lessen some later, but now it is completely out of sinc. Sometimes it will tell me to turn right in 50 feet and if I did I would be driving into someone's driveway. Other times I am on a main highway almost home and it tells me to make a left turn, right turn or even a legal u turn to a street I have never heard of. Then it displays "OFF ROUTE" for awhile and sometimes recovers and works as it should. I took the car to Akron last week and luckily my wife had her cell phone GPS, as we were in unfamiliar territory and being routed all over the place. I have never had this with any other car and all my previous cars had GPS for the past 10 years. While I love the MKC, I am very unhappy about this issue. Would the battery disconnect with lights on for 15 minutes be an option? My dealer is not close to my home and I don't have time to take it in.

Fritz

DoJo

· #16 · Jul 15, 2015

I rarely use the Nav but I have noticed that the maps have missing highways. I've never been told to make bogus turns but have on occasion appeared to be driving in a corn field or pasture etc. when I was actually on a State highway. For serious travel I'll take my $120 Garmin any day. I like to make my own routes and download them to the Garmin. Although I have searched online for restaurants and sent the address to the car nav and that's pretty neat. I guess I should use it more often just to find out if it is actually operating the way it should.

FRITZ

· #17 · Jul 15, 2015

DoJo said:
I rarely use the Nav but I have noticed that the maps have missing highways. I've never been told to make bogus turns but have on occasion appeared to be driving in a corn field or pasture etc. when I was actually on a State highway. For serious travel I'll take my $120 Garmin any day. I like to make my own routes and download them to the Garmin. Although I have searched online for restaurants and sent the address to the car nav and that's pretty neat. I guess I should use it more often just to find out if it is actually operating the way it should.

Although I never had past experiences with any previous car GPS, such as I am currently experiencing with my MKC (which I am sure Lincoln will resolve when I find time to take it to the dealer), I agree 100% with your observation on your Garmin, especially when it is turned on and asks, "Where do you want to go". Love it! I still have (and use) my old Garmin when needed for my Florida car. It is simple to operate, very dependable, accurate and was low in cost.

I have often said to my wife that it is too bad that all of the car manufacturers don't just equip their cars with a Garmin, giving us something simpler, and at affordable low cost. Sometimes in trying to do too many things with today's electronics (and that includes phones), the complication and possible bugs that we sometimes experience make it more sensible to get back to basics. Everything in our lives seems to be getting more complicated and takes far too much of our time.

Fritz

LeeB

· #18 · Jul 15, 2015

FRITZ said:
I have an early 2015 MKC and the GPS frequently showed my car being about 50 yards to the side of the highway. This seemed to lessen some later, but now it is completely out of sinc. Sometimes it will tell me to turn right in 50 feet and if I did I would be driving into someone's driveway. Other times I am on a main highway almost home and it tells me to make a left turn, right turn or even a legal u turn to a street I have never heard of. Then it displays "OFF ROUTE" for awhile and sometimes recovers and works as it should. I took the car to Akron last week and luckily my wife had her cell phone GPS, as we were in unfamiliar territory and being routed all over the place. I have never had this with any other car and all my previous cars had GPS for the past 10 years. While I love the MKC, I am very unhappy about this issue. Would the battery disconnect with lights on for 15 minutes be an option? My dealer is not close to my home and I don't have time to take it in.

Fritz

Fritz, my I use the navagation quite a bit, and it seems to work great. I've only had the MKC for about 6 weeks, so the data period is not very long, but so far the navigation is very accurate. Somewhere on this forum or another, I read that the SYNC software (the entire system, not just navigation) is sometimes beset with an unexplained error, probably meaning that it is not the most bug-free system ever designed. If I was experiencing the nav errors, I'd try disconnecting the battery since that resolved a similar issue for someone else. I don't see any downside of doing so, and the effort involved is less than traveling to the dealer an hour away and trying to convince them that there is a problem. If you try it, let us know if it helps.--Lee

FRITZ

· #19 · Jul 16, 2015

This morning on the way to work, the GPS clearly showed the correct route as a line leading me from home to work. What did not work was the turn-by-turn direction prompts, and at one time it displayed "Off Route", even though I was definitely on my regular route to work and the red arrow showed my correct position (moving) and the green line was perfect. It later tried to tell me to turn right or something (away from my normal route). The bad news is that it isn't working properly. The good news is that I found my way to work! (Lucky me).

After work, my wife and I stopped for dinner at our usual Wednesday night restaurant, and to give it another chance, I put our home address into the GPS and it worked flawlessly. So I guess I will try the disconnect battery with headlights on for 15 minutes, as suggested by several on this forum. It might save me a trip to the dealer - thanks for this suggestion.

Fritz

FRITZ

· #20 · Jul 16, 2015

Gerry said:
Good news. The issue is now resolved and our MKC Navigation works perfectly.
We took it to the dealer today. They ran computer checks and did a hard reset by removing a the negative battery terminal and running the headlights for 15 minutes. This corrected the map offset position problem. All the settings, favorites, etc were preserved.

I have a question. Once the battery is disconnected for 15 minutes, what difference does it make to leave the headlights on, as they will be off the entire 15 minutes, since no battery.

Fritz

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