WK2 Sat Nav losing its way

[smarovitch]

Just wondering if anyone else out there is experiencing problems with their Sat Nav. I've been driving a new WK2 Grand Cherokee now for 5 weeks and have noticed that the Sat Nav often loses it's way and won't immediately recover. I've encountered the following quirks:

• Sat Nav takes 10 minutes to recover (or does not recover at all) when exiting the Burnley tunnel.
• When Sat Nav is out of whack it doesn't recover when the vehicle is restarted.
• Sat Nav jumping suburbs in Albert Park
• Sat Nav heading south when vehicle is traveling north through Yarraville.
• My personal favourite: Sat Nav had me about 300m off shore in Port Phillip bay, some where out from Mornington. I was in South Yarra at the time (I should have taken a snap rod).

I took the vehicle in to Essendon Jeep to get them to try and fix it to which they had no answer other than someone from Jeep Head office was coming out to them for a chat, as they'd have a number of similar issues.

On the day the guys at Essendon Jeep were looking at the car I had one of their loan cars; a Patriot which also a Uconnect system it. I took the liberty of taking this through Burnley tunnel to see if it suffered from the same issues. Lo and behold! It had me driving down the Yarra and wouldn't recover despite the vehicle being restarted.

I'm starting to think Jeep's Uconnect sat navs have a systemic problem.

[AJ]

This doesn't sound good, let us know how it goes

[marcopiat]

Not a WK, but our WH sat nav was so bad at losing it's way and going through a weird looping procedure whenever we drove from Port Douglas to Cairns that we had it removed (needing a total dash replacement). I now have a Navman so can use it in either of our Jeeps...much better IMHO.

[multihull]

I had the same problem with my XH Commander. I found that the problem was with these early units was they had a built in antenna which had trouble finding and locking onto satellites. When I started the car in the morning it always took 5 minutes to lock in and always got lost as I drove along before it had a fix. Then when driving down roads with heaps of trees either side or through the city with high rise building such as the heart of Sydney or Melbourne areas it would also lose the satellites. This was proven by unmounting the unit and shoving it towards the front of the windscreen area and immediately the satellite strength improved and it never lost reception but it was out of reach to operate. A major problem. My Garmin 276C GSP never had trouble when mounted on the dash. I have now removed the Jeep Commander Nuvi (Garmin built)Navigator and installed an aftermarket CD/DVD/Navigator (See other thread) which comes with an external antenna which is hidden under the dash but is fully capable of receiving excellent satellite reception.
Now it sounds like the current Uconnect/MyGig Navigator may also have an internal antenna. Is there a connection port for an external antenna on these newer units, if so plug one in and mount it in a position that’ll pick up satellites.

[marcopiat]

Good to hear that someone else has had similar issues. When they removed our unit and replaced our dash, our dealer asked us not to publically discuss the issues we had with our WH sat nav and I haven't heard anyone else bitching about these units. Ours used to not only lose satellites but then went crazy like it was re-booting constantly...we used to put a cap over it to avoid distraction, particularly at night. An after-market unit is the way to go definitely.

[multihull]

Originally Posted by marcopiat

Ours used to not only lose satellites but then went crazy like it was re-booting constantly...we used to put a cap over it to avoid distraction, particularly at night.

Yep mine did the same constant reboot.
Has anyone got a picture or a diagram of the back of these new MyGig units and if so is there an input for an external antenna if so plug one in and the problems fixed. The earlier 06 to 08 models pre MyGig didn't so there was no fix.

[smarovitch]

No new news as yet. I've been in touch with Essendon Jeep since they inspected the car and was promised a call back which hasn't occurred as yet.

I'll call Essendon again tomorrow. Failing that I'll call head office.