Nickjai

I need some help! my 04 rx330 gps is being really weird... im constantly losing signal i asume and when im driving and i have the gps map style to follow me instead of it pointed to north all the time, the location of my car on the gps just keeps spinning in circles. I've brought it back to the dealer and asked them if they knew whats wrong and they dont even have a clue so if anyone's experienced the same thing could you give me some advice? im currently still running the very original gps would you think it would have anything to do with it?

draco

Touch the compass/heading indicator icon on the top left (the one that has red on one side that points to north and white which points to south).

cjs18

Your system tells you when it is receiving GPS signals. There's an icon with letters "GPS" in it just below the north arrow on the left side of the screen that is shown when sufficient satellites are being received. Check your manual (pages vi and vii in '04 nav manual) to see what this looks like if it's not being displayed. If your screen doesn't display this your system is using autonomous navigation (dead reckoning for you pilots) to establish approximate location. Reason for this may be obstructed line-of-sight with satellites due to tree-lined street, tall buildings, etc. This mode will become much less accurate as time passes without the GPS signal to compare.

The map should still move when you drive even if it's in north up orientation but in that case it moves right / left and up / down as you drive. However, the map doesn't "rotate" as it will when you're in heading up mode and the car icon will in fact rotate instead as you change driving directions. As the previous poster noted, you can change from one mode to the other by touching the north arrow. It toggles from one mode to the other each time you touch it. I hope this is the issue you're experiencing.

Doubtful.

The nav system has an internal diagnostic capability that should enable your dealer's service people to quickly determine if there's a problem with it if they aren't able to tell by just looking at how the user displays are working. If they aren't familiar with the diagnostics it may be good to inquire at another dealer to see if they are up to speed on it. I hope your problem is the head-up / north-up switch as previously mentioned.

Nickjai

i also upload a video of what the gps is doing maybe it would make more sense if you watch the video?? lolz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdKlN-kjcPQ "I waesnt driving in circles either"

cjs18

You didn't clarify if the rotating symptom occurs when the vehicle isn't in motion (although it looked like it might have been moving in your video). That said, the service manual prescribes replacing the NAV ECU if the map or car icon rotates when the vehicle is stopped. This may be what's wrong with your navigation system.

I would approach the dealer and have a technician run the nav diagnostics to see what DTCs are present. There is a lengthy diagnostics section in the service manual that they should be able to use to correctly identify your problem and put it right. As you might expect any service to the navigation system may be expensive if it's not covered by warranty. Since you indicated earlier that your dealer didn't seem very knowledgeable I'd either find one that knows the system or at least make sure you're not paying for anybody to learn about nav systems using your car. If yours IS covered by a warranty I'd just tell them to fix it. If not, you may want to get an estimate or two and then make an informed decision.