resetting command sat nav

[nick7nick7]

Hi, i recently bought a 53 plate r230 sl 350. I have tried to make the sat nav work, but its way off. and i mean way off. its at least 60 miles out.

I have tried to recalibrate it, but all it asked for was tyre sizes.

Am i missing something? is there chance the aerial has come adrift?
Any advice is greatly accepted.

 

[whitenemesis]

Every chance the GPS antenna is either disconnected or failed.

On one of the Map screens it should show you how many satellites the system is "seeing".

 

[nick7nick7]

indeed it is not seeing any satellites.

it says on screen 00 sat.

how and where do i check that?

 

[Robbostanhill]

Look on this forum for the Comand guys and ask the best way to achieve the reset and where to look into connections etc

 

[whitenemesis]

I think you need to pull the COMAND unit out and check the GPS connector and perhaps have a replacement antenna ready to plug in.

As above check out the Comandonline website for replacement antenna. The cheap Ebay offerings don't last long but may be useful in diagnosing the problem.

 

[Lowe712131]

Comand GPS Antenna

As Whitenemesis, almost certainly the GPS antenna - mine went west (or south .... or east ..... or north ..... difficult to tell!) on me a couple of weeks ago. I replaced it with another GPS antenna I had lying around from the old nav system in my works van, now works perfectly, always 5 or 6 SAT showing and is pinpoint.
There is a connection into the COMAND on the back - grey in colour if I recall correctly, which is routed through the windscreen surround trim, up to the centre of the windscreen at the top, behind the plastic cowl around the rear view mirror. here there is a connector to which the GPS antenna plugs into (the antenna itself only has a very short flying lead). I ended up robbing the connector off my old antenna and CAREFULLY soldering that onto the co-ax cable from the new antenna - purists would maybe argue you shouldn't do this, but I did and it works perfectly - better than it ever has! The alternative is an £85 replacement from MB or cheap eBay job, however the latter normally come with a long flying lead and the connector into the back of the COMAND, leaving you the ball-ache of re-routing the lead around the trim, o I quite like my solution
There are a couple of other units behind the rear-view mirror trim, so be careful when dismantling. The GPS antenna part number is A230 820 08 75 if you want an MB part, it is gold in colour and has the part number, plus mine had AG03R and WISI printed on it (might be year related though, so may be differnet on yours).
Hope that helps
Cheers
Simon

 

[nick7nick7]

thanks guys, very helpful of you. i will have to try and dissect the head unit and go from there. any tips on how to remove it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWZkyJG89Cwi

found this video on youtube, seems easy enough

 

[Lowe712131]

COMAND removal

It is pretty straightforward, just be very careful when removing, and more importantly, refitting and tightening the 6 x torx head screws that hold the centre console in. I replaced my centre console as almost ALL the plastic 'turrets' that the fixing screws go into had been broken off by some ham-fisted article in the past! they don't need to be that tight, just enough to hold it in place. When you get the two side pieces of leather trim off, it is the smaller torx-heads you need to remove - they are set back a little way and are not the most prominent screws you can see, so just make sure - there are 3 on each side that need to come out. Also, gear lever in neutral, etc.. the video is spot on anyway. I had dodgy switches on my cluster at the same time, so I took the opportunity to swap them out as well, the Germans are quite clever in that regard - it's all very easy to dismantle & work on .... a bit like the Maginot Line.
Any problems give me a shout - I've also got a couple of bits and bobs knocking around if you need anything, you never know your luck I have a spare antenna with the correct connector on the end (one of the ebay specials), if you want it so you can test yours? There is always the chance the actual head unit has gone screwy, so if you have an antenna you can at least narrow it down to just being the antenna (which I'm 99.9% sure it will be anyway). I don't want anything for it - just email me your address and I'll post it to you.
Cheers
Simon

 

[nick7nick7]

thanks for that simon, i'll hopefully get chance to look at it this week. im in no rush as i use sat nav on my phone. but it would be nice to have that working too. The radio reception is awful, so im hoping its just a loose plug somewhere.