I am considering getting a heated windscreen for my landrover defender.

I just wondered if this will affect my portable Garmin Nuvi GPS ?
I have heard it might but not sure if it is an urban myth.

Ford heated screens are OK
It’s some of the French UV ones that cause issues

excellent – thx.

As I understand it the Landrover heated screen comes from the same stable as the Ford ones.

interestingly, my father in law asked if I could think why his sat nav might not be working. Firstly he had it somewhere daft like, on the arm rest, so not only could it not see the sky but IMHO he couldn’t use it safely.

Secondly, having moved to the dash so it can see the sky, I’ve just realised from this thread that they have recently bought a new Focus, which I think has a heated screen. I wonder if this is affecting it.

Mrs R uses a Tomtom stuck onto the heated windscreen of her Mini and it works fine. An earlier Tomtom we had wasn’t so good and we had to get a separate aerial that stuck onto a side window.

have had no problems with phone GPS going through a freelander heated windscreen (again ford stable – they own the patent on heated screens with embedded filaments. Not sure whether LR can still make vehicles with heated windscreens now that Tata own them)

just thought…. they might have the solar reflect screen as well, so that’s a double whammy why the GPS isn’t working.

of course, it might just be broken.

It’s as much a question of how good your GPS is, as much as the design of the windscreen. Probably no heated windscreen will have zero impact.

At best it’ll reduce performance (under trees etc). At worst it’ll stop it working. I have a couple of Garmin’s, one works the other doesn’t. – That’s in a Ford BTW.

Even if it does screw the signal, there’s always a clear bit behind the driving mirror
A cheap external antenna is an easy DIY fit

uplink – those external aerials, does a cable have to puncture the screen/rubber somewhere to pass the signal through or what?

Heated screens don’t normally cause problems, it’s the Solar Reflective coated screens that suffer..
Most of French Manufactuers(Ren/Cit/Peugeot) leave an area at the bottom of the glass for mounting Sat Nav’s, etc.
Haven’t seen this on the Ford/Jag/L Rover as they tend to have In-built systems.
Hope that helps…

uplink – those external aerials, does a cable have to puncture the screen/rubber somewhere to pass the signal through or what?

No – you just stick the antenna [about postage stamp size] on the inside of the screen when the clear bit is & run the cable back inside of the trim around the windscreen

aha – external to the gps, not the car. Got you.