Unstabil Comand - trouble to find satelites

[Norseman]

Hello again, forum - long time no see
I still have my 2004 E320CDI Wagon. During this summer I have discovered some problems with my Comand.

Problem 1
Sometimes my GPS works, the head unit tells me that i`ve contact with 4-5 satelites. The funny thing is that my TomTom find 7-8 satelites at the same spot.

From time to time the number of satelites found drops to 1-2, which means that it can`t tell the position of the car. Other time it can`t find any satelites at all, I`ve seen both "0" and "-" on my Comand (while my TomTom still find satelites...)

I suspect it can be bad connection or a broken antenna, but i don`t know where to start.

Problem 2
When i was driving in Sweden this summer, with the navigation on, the headunit suddenly went off before it startedstarting again - this continued several times every 1 or 2 minutes, until i aborted the nav-session. Then it went back to normal. Back in Norway i tried the nav-session again, and it worked perfectly.

I don`t have any clue what this can be, but i`m speculate if it can be anything with different TMC-system in these two countries... Any one knows??

My appology for not writing fluent english....

 

[Norseman]

***dump***

 

[Diesel Benz]

You should check your GPS antenna and the wiring (I cannot remember if the wagon has an intermediate connector too), specifically when you see "-" occasionally at the Comand GPS status display.

The TMC system should be the same in Sweden and Norway, based on RDS. Odd if TMC would make a difference. Do you have a good DVD, perhaps some issues with the data for Sweden? Could be just a coincidence too.

 

[npuk]

GPSantenna is prone to failure on the w211. Plenty of threads about it in the past and how to replace it use the search. Buy a cheap one from ebay to try out and confirm it is faulty.

 

[Norseman]

thx for good answers, I`ll try to chech it out. Have searched for how to replace the antenna, but can anyone help me with a good DIY?

Have a new, original dvd back in the boot (cost me apx £320). Maybe the on/off issue is a warning that my nav is on its way to say goodbye for good??