I am now on my second 5 Series, and love it just like my first one. However, I have one issue with the 2008 528i (built Feb. '08), that is somewhat annoying.

Every morning, the Navigation system is "off" location for the first 5 to 10 minutes. System doesn't indicate the street name nor altitude and the position is off the actual road by some distance. After 5+ minutes, it locks in and is good to go. At noon, when I leave for lunch (5 1/2 hours later), it works fine. As soon as I start car, location is known. If I drive home for lunch, system is fine (locked on correct roads) when I return to work - same route as in the morning.

Obviously I don't need the Navigation system to go back and forth to work, but this should not happen. My 2005 530i Navigation never had this problem.

Anyone with any suggestions? I really hate just to take it to the local BMW dealer, without a good idea of what the problem is, as I don't want them thinking I am crazy.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

Maybe the nav system is correct and your car is in the wrong place??? LOL

 

This problem only happens at your house correct?
Does it take 5-10 minutes to lock while the car is not moving?
How long does it take to lock after you start moving?

I've seen this problem on my previous NAV system in Germany. It only happened at specific spots. My guess is that there is inteference which is making it difficult for the NAV system to get a strong signal from enough satellites to give you an accurate fix.

Hope this helps.

 

Go to the dealer, scream, yell, stomp your feet (if needed) and MAKE them fix it! This is a brand new car and it is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to repair it! So make some noise and they WILL take care of it, you paid a pretty penny for THEIR car, they should take care of you! Good Luck and let us all know how it turns out!!

 

Congrats on your new car....I agree with member flyingpuck..take it to the dealer and have them take a look at it. Any of your neighbors or friends vehicle's have a nav system in their cars? They have any problem with their nav systems at your house? If not, doubt it's a satellite thing and more a vehicle issue. Good luck with the problem, hope you get it resolved..keep us posted...

you've been a member since 12/2006 and this is your first post (according to your prof info)? wow...

 

Our E61 has similar issues.

I think that the E60 series takes longer to "wake" than either the E39 or E65. My E65 is ready to rock n roll within about 20 seconds of opening a door, trunk or unlocking. The E61 takes noticeably longer to do so.

 

I am still expecting for my e60 but i do have some "experience" with NAV systems. Depending on the GPS antenna that your car has, materials from which your garage is made, your reception inside a garage can be totally cut out. That would explain the difficulty to find the satellites in the morning. Remeber that are more sats involved, not only 1. The satellites have are not fully constant (direction wise or bands) making it for your nav to lock in even harder as time goes by... This is fixed by standard nav(TomTom like) by a QUICKGPS-fix with which you can update your nav over the internet. I do not know if this is available for BMW but nobody mentioned this. Example, not updating the TomTom for two month gives me a 5+ minutes delay time until the nav kicks in.

 

To clarify, the BMW Nav. does not lock in while driving to work in the morning until I have driven about 5 miles. The car sits in the garage over night. Works fine every subsequent time (same route) during the day, it is just that the car is in the garage only at night. My 2005 530i did not have this issue, nor does my wifes Lexus 2008 RX350 with Nav. (it also sits in the same garage over night).

I can understand that the GPS would not work correctly in the Garage - the satelite radio normally cuts out when I pull the car into the garage as well - however, it should not take nearly 10 minutes of driving for the Nav. to correctly find its' location.

I can try leaving the car sit out over night and see if there is any difference, but this isn't acceptable behaviour for a $1,900 option. By the way, the Lexus Nav. is much nicer, but I do not buy cars based on their Nav. systems.

 

04/23/08 Update - Left the 528i outside last night, as expected, the same problem with the Nav. System this morning. It takes approx. 5 miles before the Nav. system correctly indicates the cars position and reports what street (and exact position, including altitude) that the car is at. I also know that at anytime during the day today, it will work fine. My only thought, is that there is an internal memory in the Nav. system that is getting cleared after more than 6 hours of the car being turned off. Then it takes the Nav. system 5+ minutes to rebuild its' internal location tables.

 

Since your ex 530 was acquiring faster the satellites than your current 528 you can make some comparison, if you have the same type of NAV (prof or business, nothing built new around your residence). You can also look up what changed in between in the nav dvds (what did they upgrade - software and firmware). Hard to say what really change. Acquiring the satellites usually takes much longer during motion. Another thing you can do is to test the 6-10 hours theory in another location. Good luck!