rbcook

Hi everybody!
Just looking for some advice/help.
Today the Navigation on my 08 528i started doing random, and rather strange things. On my way to work, without guidance on, the map facing direction of travel was completely wrong. What I mean is, it was pointing the wrong direction as North, and it was showing the map from somewhere else. So, I popped the nav disc out, and checked for scratches - looks fine. So, when I got to work, it showed me in the correct location, but as my car was facing East, the onboard info. section showed facing North. OK, fine, possibly a bad GPS gyro/compass. Driving home, set it to guide me back home, and it gave me completely wrong directions. Told me to turn at the wrong streets, make u-turns, and the map even showed the white route in the shape of a circle(indicating that I should just drive in circles and I would get home). My current position on the map would also freeze every few seconds, and then jump back to my current position.

Went out tonight, and set it to map my route home, just to check on this ridiculous super bowl traffic. Halfway home, it still shows the map from downtown Dallas, even though I am way out of downtown. It does this several times. As I am about to take a pic. to show the dealer, it jumps right back to normal. But, it wants me to go out of my way to get home, ironically past the BMW collision center who fixed my car after being wrecked last summer! So, I went ahead and took my normal route home, not following the guided directions, but the car thinks I am following its directions given the wrong streets. Maybe bad gyro/compass. and bad CCC?

My car was rear-ended pretty badly last summer, and I was concerned because of the number of electronic modules in the trunk area(I think?). But, the BMW collision place said that all of that was OK. Plus, that was months ago, and the nav has been fine since. So, I have no clue! Just looking for advice/opinions from all you helpful folks! The car is under warranty, so I'll take add that to the long list of stuff for them to look at when they finally get an appointment. Since BMW of Dallas moved, I found out my service adviser quit(not shocking, there's a definite revolving door on those positions), and got a new service advisor. He told me that they would call me when the first appointment with a loaner car became available. That was 3 weeks ago - and that was when I reported that the car lunged forward in neutral nearly running into my garage door, a couple of times. Oh well! Thanks guys for your help!

Dutch 530i

I have the same problem at the moment. Spoken with a specialist and the E60's antennas are often the culprit. Mines booked in soon to have a better antenna fitted and hopefully problem will be gone.

vkhong

a couple of times after service at BMW Center (software update, new battery), the CCC navigation lost its bearings. Driving in a circle a couple of times in an open parking lot fixes the problem each time for me.

rbcook

Thanks guys for your tips! I took my car to the mall parking lot and drove the car in circles. I didn't know if I was supposed to do big circles, or little circles(steering locked to one side), so I did both - for awhile - almost to the point of my getting dizzy. I set it to guide me home, and it seemed OK. I'll have to try a longer trip to check it out. Thanks again!

luigi524td

I am told your NAV needed to regain it's "bearings" by communicating with satellites whilst you drove in circles. Worse case is the mall goers thought you were either lost or crazy

vkhong

For me, one or two small circles works.

AchtungE60

Is your car factory nav or retrofitted? And if retrofitted, was your car pre-wired for nav? I am not sure about factory nav antennae wiring but the retrofit on a pre-wire vehicle has the GPS antennae lead going from the sharkfin to a dead plug by the TCU buried in felt cable in the wheel well. The blue fakra is then taken from the TCU and connected to the dead plug which goes to the sharkfin in order to complete the antennae. Therefore the antennae runs through the rear quarter panel and the rear driver's side pillar. I bring this up because you had an accident. ...it very well could be that you have a crimped wire or something.

However if this happens again, try to reboot your CCC by holding the volume and both eject buttons at the same time until it reboots then release....Wait for bootup and then drive in 2-3 circles to the right and then 2-3 circles to the left.

rbcook

Thanks for your tips and hints. The nav. in my car is factory. Turns out the "re-calibrating" by driving around the mall parking lot in circles didn't help. Nor did resetting iDrive using the eject button and the audio mute button. In fact the problem is actually worse today. Not only does it randomly switch places on the map, sometimes the compass shows me driving in circles on the map - maybe it thinks I am still driving in circles

Today, it even stopped showing me driving on streets on the map, just driving haphazardly through Dallas. The route directions it gives don't make any sense, and the current position data randomly appears and disappears from the assist window. Funny thing is, the map likes to jump back to where I started my route. I start out to work from the suburbs, and the map appears OK. Then, 10 or so miles into my drive to work, the map switches back to showing me back at my house.

I don't know if this is wreck-related, because that was almost 8 months ago, and everything was fine until recently. I know it's under warranty, but it's really weird. Other than having transmission problems(who really hasn't), the car has had nothing wrong with it. So, I know they can fix it - be it the antennas, the CCC, or whatever else! BTW, what really controls the nav.? - Is it the nav-enbaled CCC, or the TCU? Or does the TCU simply handle the communications portion?

The more I deal with this car, I more I realize how complicated it is, from an electronics standpoint. I mean, I was digging in the spare tire well, and found modules stuck inside of there under the spare tire. Weird place, but OK!

healthservices

My vote is on the antenna. My SIL ran her E series thru a car wash and somehow the shark fin got damaged. From then on the GPS did a lot of wacky stuff similar to what you are saying. She had it replaced and all is good.