X7 satnav fault. Can I swap it for a used one?

[Peter.N.]

Marc. There is a 2009 head unit and display on ebay for a starting bid of £75 which sounds more like it, no bids yet. Its not the same as mine but there seem to be several different types. Do you think it would work in mine, are all the connectors the same?

Thanks

Peter.

[GiveMeABreak]

Can you provide the link (or PM me with it Peter) then I can see what system we are talking about.

[Peter.N.]

I sent a link Marc, don't know what happened to it, anyway here it is again:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384466280245 ... Swhb9hQMZs

I have found several much cheaper ones but all different. The facia on mine looks as though its one piece with the heater controls. Would you like me to send a photo of mine?

Thanks again

Peter

[Peter.N.]

Hi Marc (if you are still talking to me)

It has been suggested to me that if you delete all the traffic information it will stop blanking the map out, that works to a degree and will display navigation for a few minutes, then the info comes back and takes over.

I have discovered that if you search the 'auction only' section of ebay you can obtain a head unit and screen for under £100 and I am prepared to have a go at that.

Unfortunately there are several different head units that come with satnav and screen, mostly different to mine, can you tell me if the leads and connections are common to all of them or do I need the identical unit to the one in my car?

Thanks

Peter

[GiveMeABreak]

The units are different and may have different connections - depends on what you are getting Peter.

Your X7 ending 133 has a standard RD4 Head unit - no sat nav.
Your X7 ending 006 has an RT4 Telematics unit.

The ebay link you provided was for MyWay (RNEG) telematics unit.

For info Peter, the following systems no longer have new releases of maps:

MyWay
RT4
NG4

So if you were looking to upgrade you may need to consider an RT6 (eMyWay) as this still gets map updates, but apart from VIN coding, it will need configuring for your vehicle (some options may need changing. Further the later screen for the RT6 are slightly bigger, so there will be a few mm around the edge you may be missing. There is a larger fascia unit some have bought when performing this upgrade.

The last telematics system implemented in the C5 X7 before it's demise was the Touchscreen system - but again, this had a different centre console as it removed some of the physical buttons seeing as the touchscreen display controlled some of these functions now. This can be expensive to get the replacement plugs and fascia, so not a cheap route and all the coding to do.

The last option it to get an independent system fitted by an audio specialist - something like an Android Touch screen unit perhaps.

The problem now is replacing ageing equipment with ageing equipment and we're not sure how much longer PSA will licence further map upgrades if you were to go for an RT6, which have their fair share of problems.

I can suggest one last thing - maybe you should try a re-initialisation on your RT4. With the engine running, hold the 'DARK' button down for at least 10 seconds. This should reinitialise the RT4. It may put the settings back to defaults or may just restart the system, but I can't be sure on this model.

[Peter.N.]

Thank for all that Marc, very helpful. My head unit has two concentric knobs with push buttons in the centre, there don't seem to be many about like that, it an early car but with a higher than normal spec. I will certainly try the rest procedure, I've got to go out this afternoon so I will give it a go. I can't afford to spend a lot of money on it so if all else fails I will fit a stand alone satnav.

Thanks again

Peter

[myglaren]

Have you considered using your phone?

My kids all do. I intend to use my new one as the satnav is fifteen years old, never registered and never updated.

I had intended using Google maps but #1 son says it is crap now and Waze is a better option.

[Peter.N.]

Only just recently, I have only had a working smartphone for about a week and my son, who got it for me suggested the same and he has installed Waze on it. The only problem is that the satnav display is also used by the radio and parking sensors among others and when the traffic info comes up it obscures everything.

I have found that if I delete all the bulletins or at least as many as I can the satnav will work for a few minutes before some more come up. I have tried the reset that Marc suggested but that doesn't seemed to have cured it but I will experiment some more.

Peter

[GiveMeABreak]

Not sure I understand what you are saying Peter. Waze is a smartphone App as you have mentioned - but will need to be operated from and remain on the smartphone itself. There is no way to get any apps like this displayed on your vehicle multifunction display without Android Auto or Apple CarPlay which is only supported on later Touchscreen systems like the older SMEG or the latest Connected NAV systems.

So I don't understand why this will be an issue for your other vehicle functions as Waze won't have anything to do with your vehicle systems or displays.

The only way to use Waze will be from the phone screen. Obviously you can set the journey up in advance and just listen to voice instructions from the App as you can't keep looking at the app for safety reasons, unless you mount it somewhere on the windscreen or dash that isn't going to obscure your view.

The other thing you need to consider is data use. Apps like Waze generally work in internet connected mode in order to pick up alerts from other users and live changes to data. So you are going to need a mobile data plan with plenty of data allowance. As far as I'm aware at present, Waze doesn't allow downloading of maps to work in offline mode (without a data connection) so the only way around this is to plan the route in connected mode and get it to navigate from the cached map on the phone.

Google maps allows you to plan a route on your PC and download the map to your phone - but of course this again won't be able to offer detours if necessary en route whilst in offline mode.

Some info here on Google and Waze maps in Offline mode:
https://techcult.com/use-waze-and-google-maps-offline/

Of course, there's always the stand alone Tom Tom or other system that you can use.

[Peter.N.]

Sorry if I did not make myself clear Marc. What I am saying is that I am quite prepared to use the phone navigation, although being a small screen I really need the wife in the car, My son has explained it to me but he will probably have to do it again. I only have an allowance of 7Gb of data but then I don't very often need satnav, I can find my way to the north of Scotland without it.

The display problem is a separate issue, the traffic info constantly invades it and prevents me seeing other info such as the radio settings and parking sensor information and even the time, if I could disable the satnav altogether that would help - but I can't. Whatever is displayed on the screen is obliterated by the traffic info. I do have a TomTom that I have used in the car but it is very old and not updateable.

Peter

[GiveMeABreak]

It would really help if you could go through the TMC settings with some screenshots so I can see what you do and don't have enabled. It's hard to diagnose without seeing the TMC options you have set or the screen shots.

[Peter.N.]

Pardon my ignorance but what are the TMC settings?

Peter

[GiveMeABreak]

TMC stands for 'Traffic Message Channel' Peter, I think I explained the gist of it in my previous post:

viewtopic.php?p=698353#p698353

This can work in conjunction with the sat nav to detect issues en route of journeys an display traffic messages that pop up. It can be disabled easily enough by turning off the traffic info again.

It would really help me to see your issue if you can take a picture of the screen when it has all this 'info' on you mention, so I can try and determine what it is you are seeing and how to turn it off. I suspect you have too many POIs enabled which can basically flood the map.

POIs or Places Of Interest are things like museums, parking places, garages, petrol stations, schools, civic buildings, shopping centres, police stations, schools etc etc. If you have enabled ALL these then of course ion a large town or city your map will be swamped with little icons and if you are zoomed right out, you won't see much of any map - it will be one huge mess.

These are the POI symbols / options:

If this is the case and you have too many of these displaying you need to go into your map settings:

Press the MENU button
Use the Dial to select the MAP Icon and press the dial to select this option
You should have an option like or similar to 'Map Details'
Highlight this option and press to select.
From here look for the POIs or if it already lists the types of POIs, start deselecting them one by one (or there may be an option to turn them all off).

DO this and when completed, return back out to the main menu and go into navigation - if this was the issue, you won't see all the POIs cluttering up the screen!

It's all on page 20 or thereabouts of the Navidrive Manual. If you don't have a copy let me know.

[Peter.N.]

OK thanks Marc, you probably did tell me before but my 82 year old memory is declining rapidly . I will take some photo's and let you have them. The situation is that whatever is on the screen is being swamped with road bulletins regardless of what is selected on the menu. I will try and do that today, its cold out there now.

Peter

[Peter.N.]

Hi Marc

Sorry about all the pictures, I had trouble uploading them and that was the best result I could get

Pic 1 as I turned the ignition on with it set to 'navigate'

Pic 2 appeared after a few seconds

Pic 3 appeared a little later

Whatever menu choice I set it to, 6 choices? after a few seconds it reverts to the traffic info.

Peter