Satnav goes off piste

[la14oldie]

Hi Mac, to answer your questions about map updates.

1. My car was registered only two months before yours and it had 2015 maps installed - which were presumably first made available in December 2014. So you could say well out of date! You can tell by going into Settings, Map & Vehicle, My Maps.

2. The map update process is easier than you might think.
a) you need Garmin Express on your computer. This is downloaded from the Garmin website in a matter of seconds. You also need a min 16GB memory stick.
b) First stage is to get info about your current map versions on your memory stick. This takes seconds.
c) Second stage is to insert the memory stick into your computer and Garmin Express will read what map versions you have and tell you if there are newer ones. This again is very quick.
d) It will tell you that 2017 maps are available and you should download them to the memory stick. For me, using slow rural broadband, this took 2 1/2 hours.
e) Then upload the new maps into your car's satnav from the stick. This only took 20 minutes. I had the ignition key in the first "on" position i.e. ignition lights etc not lit. Because the upload is so quick, I maintain that it is not necessary to have the engine running - but maybe some people have had a different experience?

Hope this helps.

[guest6570]

Hi Mac, to answer your questions about map updates.

1. My car was registered only two months before yours and it had 2015 maps installed - which were presumably first made available in December 2014. So you could say well out of date! You can tell by going into Settings, Map & Vehicle, My Maps.

2. The map update process is easier than you might think.
a) you need Garmin Express on your computer. This is downloaded from the Garmin website in a matter of seconds. You also need a min 16GB memory stick.
b) First stage is to get info about your current map versions on your memory stick. This takes seconds.
c) Second stage is to insert the memory stick into your computer and Garmin Express will read what map versions you have and tell you if there are newer ones. This again is very quick.
d) It will tell you that 2017 maps are available and you should download them to the memory stick. For me, using slow rural broadband, this took 2 1/2 hours.
e) Then upload the new maps into your car's satnav from the stick. This only took 20 minutes. I had the ignition key in the first "on" position i.e. ignition lights etc not lit. Because the upload is so quick, I maintain that it is not necessary to have the engine running - but maybe some people have had a different experience?

Hope this helps.

Many thanks for the very comprehensive instructions that make it sound a much simpler process than described on the Honda Garmin website. Hopefully having quite fast fibre broadband where I live it might be an even quicker task to download the maps and shorten the overall update process.

As the EX Navi has keyless access and start I'll have to give the start button a single press (I think) to get it into the equivalent of your key in the first position, this tip certainly seems much more sensible than Honda's instructions.

Thanks again for the very helpful instructions.

[guest6570]

I maintain that it is not necessary to have the engine running - but maybe some people have had a different experience?

I just remembered that when I first got the car I was playing around with the infotainment system with the engine not running and after a certain length of time the system informed me it needed to shut down as the battery was low. This may be because it was sat in the dealership unused for several months bar the odd couple of miles for demos to customers (only had 39 miles on the clock when I bought it). Now the battery may be nearer to fully charged as I've had it for just about a month now but I think I will do the map updates with the engine running just in case. I don't want the system shutting down in the middle of the update. Maybe your car was fully charged when you did your update and so didn't cause any issues.

By the way, the superfast fibre broadband in my area meant it took only 40 minutes to download the maps which is quite pleasing. I now need to find time to finish off the in car update which I hope is a quick a task as you found.

[guest6570]

Thanks to everybody who replied to my original post.

I have now found a way of avoiding the "off piste" problem. On setting off from rest, if I wait until all the satellite bars turn green then the problem does not occur. But if I set off with the bars greyed out then the unit seems to have difficulty in discovering its position while the car is in motion.

Don't understand this, but it does work.

Thanks again!

Having now upgraded my maps to the 2017 version I have found no difference in the SatNav going "off piste" it still goes haywire even if I wait for the satellite signal bars to go fully green! I thought your suggestion was going to be the answer but unfortunately not 

Anyway thank you again for the advice on updating the maps it was very helpful.

[John Ratsey]

If it is any comfort, the latest Which? lists satnavs as the number one problems with new cars (4.6% of all vehicles with Suzuki SXX S-Cross, Hyundai i40 tourer and the Ford Mondeo Estate as the 3 worst offenders).  Factory-supplied in-car entertainment systems were the next most common problem (I'm not sure how one can separate the two since they share the same system).