Fiesta Mk8 Satnav GPS issues / fault

[Mavroz]

Latest update....

The satnav issue cannot be currently fixed. It is now a major issue for Ford.

We will be contacted by the dealership when they need to try further tests and fixes as advised by Ford.

They are working on a fix for the issue as we speak but it may take some time we are told.

We asked for a new/replacement vehicle that worked 100% but we were told they were relist and as they couldn't guarantee the fault wouldn't  be on the new vehicle..... strange.

Anyway, we have been offered a very good compensatory package via Ford customer relations and a very good package from the dealership regarding BOTH our vehicles.

Under no circumstances have we accepted this compensation as acceptance of the fault. We still want it fixing.

That is all there is for now. Will update if and when a fix is rolled out.

 

[Mavroz]

Quick update for anyone that is interested.

Dealership called earlier in the week to give an update on the faulty satnav issues.

Basically, Ford are no longer offering customers the "package" (very generous package) they gave us due to the on going satnav issues.

All they are prepared to do now is have the customer return the car, refund any deposit made and any payments that have been made for the vehicle.

They are not looking to find fixes any longer for the faulty vehicles.

The latest vehicles including the new focus do not suffer from the issue.

The dealer didn't know what was going to be done with the vehicles that are faulty. There appear to be quite a lot.

Anyway, that seems it..... until next time.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

@Mavroz Thanks for the update. Am I reading it wrong, or are Ford seriously offering to accept cars back and refund payments - seems uncharacteristically generous of them if so! 

Update on my car - made it's first trip outside our usual Yorkshire stamping ground with a holiday in Norfolk, travelling down and back via Humber Bridge (enjoying a bacon and egg bap from the van in the country park as we usually do when passing that way!) and Lincolnshire.

No issues with GPS during either journey or 10 days we were down there, except for a few minutes in deepest Norfolk when "no GPS" came up. (Locals told us that all forms of reception - TV, mobile etc - are hopeless in that area). So it's looking like, for me, it may be a reception issue in a few areas, rather than a problem with the car as such.

Mind you, I was under the impression that these things should work anywhere, but as I've reported previously I've found that where the GPS in the car won't work, then neither will other devices eg Google maps on the mobile.

[Mavroz]

No, according to the manager who has been dealing with our issue they are taking vehicles back and refunding.

They have no real choice in the matter if the car doesn't do what it has been sold to a customer to do.

Pretty sure we initially had the option as the issue had been reported within the first few months of having the car.

As he put it across to the Mrs we did well to get what we did as it is ultimately Ford who are footing the bill although the dealership are heavily involved. Compensatory "packages" are no longer being offers he has hinted, it is either return the car or put up with it.

I think the option to return for full refunds will get Ford out of compensation claims via the Ombudsman.

The manager did say he has moved to the new focus and the issue has NOT cropped up in these so hopefully the newer models will have any issues ironed out.

It suits us now how it has panned out and is in our favour, so I guess that is it until we change the Mrs car, potentially in 2 years time.

 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

On 9/14/2018 at 10:26 PM, Mavroz said:

No, according to the manager who has been dealing with our issue they are taking vehicles back and refunding.

 

I wonder what they will do with the cars they take back? If they put them on the second hand market through Ford Direct for example, they could have the same problem again -- they'd still be under warranty, unless they could specifically sell them as not having say nav? 

[Leonar07]

I have Ford Focus and I get issues with my sync screen also. It flickers and changes/or changes between day and night mode. 

Do you guys get anything similar to this as Well?

 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

Hi @Leonar07, nope, no problems with screen which switches between "day" and "night" view according to light level, as it should. Not experienced any flickering.

Issues on this thread mainly concern GPS signal on the Fiesta Mk 8.

[Leonar07]

Thanks for getting back. Have experienced your issues as well. Just trying to get a scope across the whole ford range as I’m having issues with the dealership regarding numerous faults

[Mavroz]

2 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I wonder what they will do with the cars they take back? If they put them on the second hand market through Ford Direct for example, they could have the same problem again -- they'd still be under warranty, unless they could specifically sell them as not having say nav? 

Yes they would have the on going issues but I reckon they will sell them with known sat nav issues at a reduced price.

They would disclose to avoid potential comeback and further claims....

[Mavroz]

No issues with day/night switchover issues, certainly no flickering.

As for GPS issues we were informed (detailed in the thread) that the problems were across the Sync 3 range.

This was from the Fiesta to the RS.

The new car sales manager who dealt with us had a Focus and he had exactly the same issue, so luckily thoroughly understood what we were experiencing.

Again as said previously he has just moved into one of the latest models of the focus and the issue is not there any longer, hopefully bottoming GPS loss on he new ranges.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

 

32 minutes ago, Mavroz said:

 

As for GPS issues we were informed (detailed in the thread) that the problems were across the Sync 3 range.

This was from the Fiesta to the RS.

Spotted a thread on (I think) Mk3 RS owners forum where the consensus seemed to be that Sync 3 nav performed worse than earlier versions. Most of the guys on there seemed to have given up on it and were using Waze through their phones.

Interesting that on various of Ford's own websites they now seem to be promoting the use of Waze through car play for i-phone, or Android auto for others. Have seen somewhere in one of the car mags that Waze may be incorporated in Sync as standard in future, presumably at that point they will ditch their own sat nav.

[Mavroz]

Yes, quite possibly.

Maybe that is what the dealership meant when they said there will probably be an upgraded mk8 model by time I am due my new car in 10 to 12 months...

Don't think there will be too much of an overall change but maybe they are already ironing out and tweaking issues on the current mk8s.

I can only guess if a customer ordered a fiesta now, the satnav issue will have already been bottomed on it either by software or hardware changes.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

Some sat-navs do work better than Sync 3! Card I received for my recent birthday made me smile 😃

[tef89]

Anyone with any updates on this issue? 

 

I've got my 2017 Fiesta booked in with Ford service next month to look at the problem (just bought the car used last week).  The service guy didn't seem that surprised when I mentioned the problem. 

 

I've read that the GPS failure is indicative of the APIM dying and replacement fixes the issue. 

[tef89]

Just an update. 

 

Returned my 2017 Fiesta and bought a 67 plate Ford Direct Fiesta (build date 6 months later). 

Test drive went fine,  driving home after picking it up = GPS failure. 

It seems this is may well be widespread problem. 

[Mavroz]

On 9/28/2018 at 8:54 AM, tef89 said:

Anyone with any updates on this issue? 

 

I've got my 2017 Fiesta booked in with Ford service next month to look at the problem (just bought the car used last week).  The service guy didn't seem that surprised when I mentioned the problem. 

 

I've read that the GPS failure is indicative of the APIM dying and replacement fixes the issue. 

On the Mk8 (2018 plate) for the issue we have, we have been told there is no current fix for the problem and they doubt there will be anytime soon. Replacement units, antennae and software have been tried on several cars to no avail.

 

[Mavroz]

42 minutes ago, tef89 said:

Just an update. 

 

Returned my 2017 Fiesta and bought a 67 plate Ford Direct Fiesta (build date 6 months later). 

Test drive went fine,  driving home after picking it up = GPS failure. 

It seems this is may well be widespread problem. 

It sure is widespread. Again I can only go by what the dealership say and that allegdly is now that anyone with the ongoing Satnav issues are being offered nothing more from Ford other than to return the car for some kind of a refund. What refund value i am not sure. Where this leaves unhappy customers i am not sure.

When we started our complaint it was insinuated that Ford were going to move towards "just return the car", instead of compensating customers, that is why we kept at them until we were satisfied with the outcome.

Obviously this was not an acceptance of the fault nor would we expect any reduction in future valuation of the car by a Ford dealership due to this issue. This, along with other terms, conditions and offers they made us is all officially recorded.

I think in one sense we were one of the luckier customers from what we have heard.

[tef89]

12 hours ago, Mavroz said:

It sure is widespread. Again I can only go by what the dealership say and that allegdly is now that anyone with the ongoing Satnav issues are being offered nothing more from Ford other than to return the car for some kind of a refund. What refund value i am not sure. Where this leaves unhappy customers i am not sure.

When we started our complaint it was insinuated that Ford were going to move towards "just return the car", instead of compensating customers, that is why we kept at them until we were satisfied with the outcome.

Obviously this was not an acceptance of the fault nor would we expect any reduction in future valuation of the car by a Ford dealership due to this issue. This, along with other terms, conditions and offers they made us is all officially recorded.

I think in one sense we were one of the luckier customers from what we have heard.

Thanks for the reply.  When I bought the second one I'd hoped the issue wasn't present, but suspected it might be, hence the annoyance that it only appeared once purchased. 

I tried to buy one without Sat Nav but its standard on the trim level I wanted. 

If there is no fix the thing that annoys me is I didn't pay a reduced cost, in fact I paid a premium for it being a Ford Direct car. 

I know if I go back to the dealer he'll just suggest the warranty route. I don't want to reject the car as the issue will be likely in the replacement (again). 

I think the hope that Ford are buying these back and selling them at a reduced price advising customers of the issue just isn't happening, even through official schemes such as Ford Direct. 

[Mavroz]

Yes, it is very frustrating. 

Initially we asked if we could return the car after several weeks, having a replacement built for us that has a guaranteed working satnav system.

Obviously we though a brand new car, newly built would have a guaranteed working satnav..... but no! It didn't.

When requesting a new car, the dealership advised Ford were reluctant to go down this route as they couldn't guarantee the problem would not be in a new car they made for us.

Eventually an outcome was reached that we were satisfied with.

We certainly thought replacing modules for newer variants would have fixed but we're again told by Ford that the problem isn't as simple as this nor is it just a simple software re-write.

If your dealer suggests the warranty route, it will be interesting to know what action they are going to take to remedy the fault for you. If not you are going to be stuck with a car that an issue may present itself randomly at any time.

Again we were told that the issue hasn't migrated to the newer build models after early to mid 2018. Maybe this is an option for you.... 

Whatever the dealer says, they have sold you a car that ultimately may not be fit for purpose along with the fact your car may have known issues that they have not declared to you, nor have they priced the car to reflect such fault(s) it seems.

In a sense, again, we were lucky in the fact that the new car sales manager at our dealership had a Focus that had exactly the same issue along with the fact that the salesman who picked our car up to take it back to the dealership for diagnostics had the issue happen to him on several occasions whilst he was driving the car. They could not say they didnt know what the issue was nor deny they knew anything about it.

It certainly seems that more and more of these issues are coming to light now , especially when many owners thought their car wasn't affected with the issue.

 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

Ah, if only we'd waited another 6 months for our cars...........!

It does seem rather baffling that, if the issue has apparently been resolved on later build cars, whatever changes have been made cannot be applied retrospectively. Surely Ford would record specification changes during production, to ensure traceability, as with any competent manufacturing process? But apparently not😠

And if the issue is not hardware or software what else is there? 

 

[Mavroz]

Not sure as everything has been tried and tested but failed apparently.

[tef89]

12 hours ago, Mavroz said:

Yes, it is very frustrating. 

Initially we asked if we could return the car after several weeks, having a replacement built for us that has a guaranteed working satnav system.

Obviously we though a brand new car, newly built would have a guaranteed working satnav..... but no! It didn't.

When requesting a new car, the dealership advised Ford were reluctant to go down this route as they couldn't guarantee the problem would not be in a new car they made for us.

Eventually an outcome was reached that we were satisfied with.

We certainly thought replacing modules for newer variants would have fixed but we're again told by Ford that the problem isn't as simple as this nor is it just a simple software re-write.

If your dealer suggests the warranty route, it will be interesting to know what action they are going to take to remedy the fault for you. If not you are going to be stuck with a car that an issue may present itself randomly at any time.

Again we were told that the issue hasn't migrated to the newer build models after early to mid 2018. Maybe this is an option for you.... 

Whatever the dealer says, they have sold you a car that ultimately may not be fit for purpose along with the fact your car may have known issues that they have not declared to you, nor have they priced the car to reflect such fault(s) it seems.

In a sense, again, we were lucky in the fact that the new car sales manager at our dealership had a Focus that had exactly the same issue along with the fact that the salesman who picked our car up to take it back to the dealership for diagnostics had the issue happen to him on several occasions whilst he was driving the car. They could not say they didnt know what the issue was nor deny they knew anything about it.

It certainly seems that more and more of these issues are coming to light now , especially when many owners thought their car wasn't affected with the issue.

 

The selling dealer is a fair distance from me so I've booked it in with my local dealer.  He suggests it may be a software issue - I obviously mentioned the previous car and the same fault and added regarding the worrying information available on the web.  I didn't push it too far as I  realise I have to let them try (and most probably fail) to fix the issue.

 

I understand completely what you're saying regarding the possibility of rejecting the car as not fit for purpose but, in my case at least, I still wanted a to buy the car, even with the possibility of the issue being present, albeit paying over the odds unforunately.

I couldn't wait for new so this was the best option for me, especially as the Nav is just a nice to have feature that won't get used much in my use of the car.  I took a chance that issue wasn't widespread as much as it seems to be.  I'd be really ***** off if I'd bought this new and not known about the problem though.

 

I'll continue with the warranty route and see what the outcome ends up as being.  It's booked in for the middle of November (delayed at my request).

 

Hopefully in 2 years when I want a new ST Line the issue will be sorted ... and no doubt something else introduced lol.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

15 hours ago, tef89 said:

 

 the Nav is just a nice to have feature that won't get used much in my use of the car. 

 

Yes, same with me - I only have the Nav as it came bundled with other things I did want. That said, having been on a course for naughty boys and girls last year I do find the traffic sign recognition and associated speed warning helpful in hopefully avoiding any further misdemeanours! Unfortunately they're also affected if the GPS signal is lost.

Strange thing about mine is that it only seems to occur in one area, near Bedale in North Yorks, and then only when travelling south, never had it happen going north. Once the signal is lost the screen then wanders off the road** etc until the car is stopped, locked and then unlocked and restarted, which seems to reset things. So as it's a fairly limited issue for me, I'm leaving it until next dealer visit for service etc before pursuing it further.

Look forward to hearing how you get on when you take the car in next month.

(**Ps last time it happened I thought we were going to visit Mavroz's neck of the woods as at one point the screen showed us going down the Humber, before doubling back through North Lincs and ending up in Skipton by the time we parked up at home south of York!)

[tef89]

That's a good point,  I think I'll turn the traffic sign recognition off as my GPS fails at random times (even when heading north back to East Yorkshire lol). 

[Mick_Delinquent]

Sorry to hear about the problem you guys are having with your SatNavs. If you've paid for them then they should work and if they can't be fixed, then compen should be made.

However, my sympathy will get you nowhere when you're as frustrated as a very frustrated thing. All I can usefully suggest is that you try the latest Ford updates - apologies if you've already done so. Ford have just released a new SatNav update (F7) and maybe this will rectify matters IF this turns out to be a software/firmware issue.

You need to follow the destructions to the letter around USB stick formatting etc. Just DON'T expect the xml file to be written back to the stick on completion - there's a fault here and it won't happen. However, after updating using the USB stick as directed, the workaround is to connect to WiFi on your Sync 3 and attempt a software update via Sync 3. The Ford system will check your software, see that it's the latest version and update your on-line records. This negates the need to update it yourself using the (missing) xml file. Hope that makes sense.

Hope this is useful and fingers crossed.