Entune GPS issue (my truck says it's in a field 5 miles away)

So. I know the navigation system on the third gens isn't very popular, but I'm not complaining about that.

Bear with me, I'm not at my truck right now.

A few weeks ago, my truck decided I was a few miles west of where I am. Needless to say, it made navigation a bit challenging. I've had the truck since late 2015, and it had never done that before. So I turned the truck off and the next time I drove it, it went back to normal and so I chose to ignore it as a maybe a fluke or a hiccup/bug/glitch in the software.

But of course, nothing is ever that easy. As of yesterday, the GPS is always showing me in the wrong place. It seems to understand the direction I'm travelling at any given time, so I'm hoping it's something simple (it seems like it's getting some information). A friend recommended I try to reboot the radio (apparently there's a combination of buttons I need to press when I start up), or disconnecting the battery (hard reboot).

If those easy steps don't work, are there other things I should check/try? Maybe there's a loose/frayed/shorted connection in an antenna line somewhere?

This seems like the kind of thing where the dealership is gonna charge me $300 to tell me that nothing is wrong and it works for them.

 

Don’t feel too bad. My fish finder gps lowrance hook 9 shows me on land in certain places 400 miles into Mexico. Land is a hazard to navigation afterall. Luckily it’s just a small fishing boat so not life and death.

 

Since it's Friday, I'll suggest a Figure-8 calibration. Used to work on my old handheld Garmin....Sorry....

 

Lots of things impact GPS regardless of how well you unit works. Weather, buildings, terrain etc can impact how quick or even if it sees satellites. Could also be something with satellites such as solar storm impacts or aliens.

 

Is there anywhere on the system to see the number of satellites it's receiving? I have a drone that relies on GPS data, if it doesn't have enough satellites it will think it's somewhere else but not by allot. I suspect that's a 3 satellite fix which isn't usable for GPS loc. The more of them it pics up the more accurate and interference proof the location data is.

"It takes four GPS satellites to calculate a precise location on the Earth using the Global Positioning System: three to determine a position on the Earth, and one to adjust for the error in the receiver's clock."

 

I live in Los Angeles and drive around Los Angeles. If our GPS suddenly doesn't work here, it means someone is jamming them or shooting them out of the sky And that means the Russian invasion is happening hahaha or aliens, sure. Probably would have been on CNN by now.

I joke, but it seems unlikely that GPS satellites are suddenly unreachable for a week. And like I said, sunny Los Angeles. Major urban metro area that runs on Uber drivers checking their GPS systems.

That's a good question. On my Garmin handheld radio, it tells you how many satellites its found and gives you way more information.

Additional information (not directly responding to the above quotes)

Satellite position and reception is kind of a text-book answer, but the situation doesn't really fit (I've lived in the same house since I bought the truck in 2015 - the likelihood that the san fernando valley has lost visibility to GPS satellites is nil. Also, I've got an old Garmin navigation unit, and a Garmin radio with GPS, and several cell phones with GPS, and a GPS dongle for my computer. None are having issues. And if it was environmental, I'd expect that it might recover if I drive 30 miles across town, if only for a minute). The problem is almost certainly either a software hiccup or a hardware failure in the unit itself, or (hopefully) some kind of short or failure in an antenna or something like that. I was hoping that someone had some tips or tricks to quickly debug it, so I wouldn't have to start from scratch. Longshot, I know.

 

Good points but it's not necessarily about blind spots, it's natural to assume that if the GPS satellite is up there broadcasting your system is going to receive it. The other important thing the # of satellites tells you is how well your receiver and antenna are performing, I'm not even sure if the truck's system will show it. The Garmin nav in my Kenwood does and I used it when I first put it in to find the best spot to put the antenna. The drone system I mentioned (skydio) fought with this same issue and I've seen it in mine. Occasionally the drone would have a GPS signal issue and think I was 500 yards away. It's follow me perfectly but at 500 yards off instead of 100', I live in open desert and GPS strength or # of satellites is never an issue here. In the case of the drone it was a gps glitch they (mostly) resolved with software. What I'm describing is more of a check then anything else, if the info is available. Anytime I have a RF system acting up I always try and verify signal strength, the # of satellites is a good indicator of that on a gps.

 

certain areas i've come to find the gps is always wrong, even in populated areas you will get the little GPS icon in the lower left corner with a slash through it. But the icon is happily cruising along the freeway on a road...just not the one i'm actually on. I thought my solar panels were the problem for a while and went out of the way to make the obtuse line of sight clear for the shark fin, still messes up.

 

Reminds of the time I was in Chicago using Garmin GPS and while in traffic literally looking directly at the Garmin Bldg, Garmin GPS showed my vehicle spinning in circles in the middle of the Chicago River.

 

Need timing signals from three satellites to triangulate two dimensional position. Four satellites to get position and altitude. When driving or riding in mountain roads with numerous curves, accuracy diminishes until I can drive or ride in a straight line for several seconds with a clear view of the sky.

 

For what it's worth, my Samsung Galaxy has been a bit wonky today with GPS tracking also and I'm in NY.

 

Yeah, GPS is great when it works. Funniest GPS incident we ever had, was 14 years ago driving from Vancouver BC to Phoenix AZ.

We are in the middle of Death Valley and we have taken a wrong turn as per the GPS. Now the GPS is telling us take a right turn, but there is nothing but desert and no road to turn at. So we backtrack to a junction where we had seen one home in the middle of nowhere. So, I figure go knock and ask. It looks like a deserted home out of a horror movie. A couple of pitbulls luckily leashed, and 2 guys straight out the movie Deliverance come walking up to me.

Turns out they were really nice guys and had no intention of chopping me up and putting me in their freezer. They told us to head back to the junction and what turn to take. They said the road sign was all messed up and got everyone confused.

GPS seems to work better these days…

 

Just use WAZE on your phone.
I just came back from a 5200 mile round-trip road trip. WAZE had me pegged to within 5-6' constantly. Greatest app I have/use to date..

 

Did you ever get this issue fixed? I have the same issue. I ordered a new Navigation map chip off Amazon with current roads but my location is still off. I did the manual calibration through Setup but then something happens after a day or so and I find the map has me in the middle of a lake or driving in a field a number of miles off.

 

Haha, nope. Never solved it. It just started working again and hasn't given me a problem in ages now. This is the only time I've ever ignored a problem and it really did go away. My next step was going to be checking the GPS antenna, but I never had to get that far. (FYI, I believe it's in the dash, so if you have anything obstructing it, that might be the source of your issues)

 

Great for you. I have no obstructions so I’ll hope for the same Devine intervention as you got. Did you try the driving in a figure 8? I’m going to try that in the local Wal Mart parking lot at midnight, hoping I don’t get taken in for driving under the influence.