Interesting GPS problem that also affects Android Auto

Eric_C_Boston

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I had an interesting problem with the MME's GPS that highlights linkage with my phone through Android Auto.

Several months ago I took a brief trip to Boston Metro West. I noticed the GPS should my location off the road. It drifted in directions unrelated to my real direction. When I got to my destination in Northboro, MA, the GPS located me in Boston Harbor. I though maybe it was a GPS problem as Waze on my phone acted in the same way. The GPS was okay when I turned on the car to head home a couple of hours later.

It happened again tonight on the way home from the office. I got home with both the MME and Waze showing me miles away in Tewksbury. I tried my phone in the house and it showed the right address. Fordpass still showed Tewksbury. I decided to troubleshoot the problem. I connected my phone to the car and turned the car on. The car still showed Tewksbury and Waze/Google Maps showed Tewksbury as well.

I went into APIM diagnostics and noticed the GPS VDOP and HDOP was high (over 50000). The satellite status showed visible satellites, but I did not see any signal strength bars on the GPS signal display. I reset the APIM (Vol Down and Right Seek) and things returned to normal. I was back at home with reasonable VDOP and HDOP values. I still can not seem to get any readings on the GPS signal strength display.

The takeaway from this is the phone will use the MME GPS position when using Android Auto. Now I know to disconnect the phone from Android Auto if the MME GPS shows the wrong position.
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Electric Goat

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Yeah the MME does this sometimes. It's annoying bug. The car doesnt accurately read the GPS signal and this also causes your location based charge preferences to fail also. For example, the car might charge to 100% at home (instead of your pre-set 80%/85%/90% threshold) because the car still thinks that it's the Boston Harbor. šŸ˜‚
 
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bshaw

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Mine did this once several weeks ago. Didnā€™t think much of it.
I ran another FDRS update tonight and one of updates was for telematics. Not sure if thatā€™s related to the GPS bugginess, but I feel better knowing I now have the latest for that module.
 

AZBill

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I had this happen to me on a trip home from Tucson, the Ford nav showed me driving through a golf course. I switched to CarPlay and Apple Maps, and that nav worked just fine. When I arrived home, the Ford nav showed me still in Tucson, over 100 miles away. I got the 21G01 update at the dealer and have not seen the GPS issue since then.

Someone showed me a link claiming CarPlay would use the car GPS, but for my case that did not happen.
 

mkhuffman

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This also happened to me once before I had the dealership update all my software modules the first week of February. Not sure if that is the reason, but it has never recurred.
 


nivlem

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I had something similar happen on my last two road trips. Each time NAV/GPS stopped displaying location and guidance after a rest stop. The vehicle Icon on the screen was stationary with a superimposed red "question mark". According to NAV/GPS the MME stayed at the rest stop; it never left. It was displayed as still at the rest stop when I ended the trip (~ 300 miles later). FordPass also showed it never leaving the rest stop. I took it to the Dealer after the first incident, but they did not find a problem. Maybe I'll try the reset if it happens again.
 

SPatil

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Mine did this once several weeks ago. Didnā€™t think much of it.
I ran another FDRS update tonight and one of updates was for telematics. Not sure if thatā€™s related to the GPS bugginess, but I feel better knowing I now have the latest for that module.
How do you run the FDRS update?
 

bshaw

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How do you run the FDRS update?
Search on the forum for the DIY FDRS thread. Itā€™s a huge thread, but the first couple of pages are still the way to get started. If you have questions or need help, posting to that thread and someone knowledgeable will reply. You have to invest a couple hundred $ in equipment, but for me itā€™s been definitely worth it to control my own update destiny.
 

mkhuffman

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Search on the forum for the DIY FDRS thread. Itā€™s a huge thread, but the first couple of pages are still the way to get started. If you have questions or need help, posting to that thread and someone knowledgeable will reply. You have to invest a couple hundred $ in equipment, but for me itā€™s been definitely worth it to control my own update destiny.
Just don't jump on new module versions too quickly. Give them a week to pull them back. Some forum members learned that the hard way...
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