I think I know why the stock Nav system loses signal for some folks.

All you have to do is remove the radio to find out why.



IF you dig back to Walt's pic of the back of the radio, I was able to easily find the single lead for the antenna for the GPS. I was SHOCKED to find that they mounted it about 1/2 up between the top and the bottom of the radio directly BEHIND the radio!!! NO WONDER the thing looses signal!!! There is an easy fix I think tho. and there appears to be enough cable to do it. If you unscrew the antenna, and position it higher, it would not get blocked as bad by the a pillars and the back of the radio!!

The other problem with the unit resetting I found was due to fingerprints on the CD's IF it can't read the CD, the unit restarts. PERIOD Clean the CD, and it works great.

Course that doesn't fix the other limitations, but hey...

 

The problem is that the NAV system is a big flaming POS! I can't believe that I paid almost 2K extra for this trash. There are times where it has been more of a hinderence than benefit to use this system. This is without a doubt my biggest complaint of the vehicle. My Ford dealer has been able to do nothing about it either.

 

Well, after looking at the antenna, I think they mounted it upside down...

 

Look at the angle of the antenna. It sure looks to me that its upside down....

 

If that is the way they are all installed maybe something can be done about it as the coax bend diameter is definitely way shorter then specs of any coax I have ever worked with. To me that means these were installed in a manner that WILL lead to degradation of the coax and eventual failure. The coax has specs as to bend radius and that photo shows it being bend so tight that the center lead will work it's way trough the dielectric until it shorts against the braid leading to complete failure to receive.

 

well, you have to have signal first. I think that its upside down... All the GPS antenna's I have seen are flipped over compared to what I found. That plus it being hidden behind the metal radio blocking the signal, sheesh its a miracle it works at all!

 

I agree 100%, I can't believe Ford ever used that Visteon junk(they must have gotten one heck of a deal on them)

John

 

Keep to the topic onhand.

If someone else can open theirs up, please share if theirs too is upside down as well, or if this is a fluke.

 

I'm going to have mine out this week to do some other work so I will check it.

I replaced the factory NAV in mine with an aftermarket unit, but the stock antenna is still there under the dash(I used a different antenna with the new unit, but I didn't bother removing the stock one)

~John

 

What you can't see in the pic is that the cable does not come straight up it is at an angle, so if you looked at it from the side, it would appear like ' \ '