Hi,

I have a 56 mondeo with a built in Sat Nav.

A couple of days ago I turned it on and it’s stopped working.
There is the position arrow with a circle round it which does change direction depending which way the car is facing.

There are no roads displayed and doesn’t find post codes locally I tried putting as destinations.
If i search around it does show some areas such as round Aberdeen, down south and europe. But nothing in central scotland.

I have looked on the net and checked for error messages by entering a code to unlock the features. No errors reported. There are what looks like 8 satellites active (although don’t know if this is actually working right) The rest of the unit CD, radio, sat nav menus working fine.

Does anyone have any ideas how to fix or had a similar problem?

Search www came up with some possibilities.

DVD map is screwed.
Antenna base / aerial faulty.

Any advice would be good, thanks Iain

I don’t think you’ll find a solution with it…

On a less serious note…does it require registration? Has it reached the end of it’s normally active life and now requires registration for a small fee to keep it working?

Sounds like a map database issue, if it appears to show eight satellites, then the antenna should be ok, there can be around eight to ten in view, usually, IIRC. Possibly the laser covered in dust or fluff, stopping it from reading the DVD? Is it possible to access the DVD and put a cleaning disk in? Or if the unit will come out, can you get the lid off and clean the lens with some isopropanol and a cotton bud?
Grasping at straws here, I’m afraid, just thinking about what I’d do, and have done with similar things.
If all else fails, then smartphone/windscreen mount/TomTom or CoPilot app time?

Hth

countzero thanks for the info.I did some more tests still no errors. Says antenna ok. so i will try looking at / cleaning the dvd, dvd drive see if that gets me anywhere.

I know someone with a Honda sat nav, twas the DVD that failed, very expensive to fix. I don’t understand OEM sat navs, I certainly wouldn’t pay a lot to get it fixed when you can buy a portable for £100.

There are nefarious ways to get the DVD image if you’re that way inclined… (involves software theft). Alternatively, you could get a new DVD from Ford or a used one from fleaBay.

Is it actually a DVD nav? You don’t say. Mine is an SD – take the SD card out and it has a similar flip.
Sounds like your GPS is working though – i’d be wheeling it into Ford.

DVD sounds like its had it , we’ve seen a few where the discs have white patches on them and won’t work correctly.Have you ejected it and had a look? .Bloody expensive to replace disc so i would recommend as others have said , smartphone/cheap sat nav tom tom