Dealer killed my NAV?

Rustynuts · #1 09-01-2010, 09:11 AM

Took my 2006 X3 (Mk4 Nav unit) in for an ongoing door leak problem. Told me it was actually the sunroof drains. They fix it and next day pick up the car and the Nav screen is down (I ALWAYS leave it on, so it normally pops up upon car start). Nav worked fine when I brought it in, now dead, and naturally the Dealer says "tough luck, not our fault. Nothing we did on the leak would affect the Nav"

After a day it came back on briefly for about two starts, then stopped again for good. After reading some forums that recommended pulling the battery for 15 min., I tried unplugging the Nav unit itself in the trunk (blue plug). If I do that and plug back it, the unit will boot itself and work fine, maybe for 1 or 2 starts again, sometimes not. Seems to be some sort of I-buss wake on start problem? Would this still be in the Nav unit itself, or could something else on the I-buss cause this? Do I need to actually pull the battery or will the plug do the same thing (as in maybe the entire I-buss needs reset)?

Then my leak started again, went back to the dealer and talked with the service manager and apparently when it leaked before they had found some water in the bottom of the battery well!!!? I asked about them pulling the battery and frying the unti, but he said they just vacuumed out the water. Riiiiight! I say that's where the frying occurred, but no way to really prove it. Service manager naturally wanted to charge $4,000 to replace everything!

In the midst of all this, I also was able to update the firmware to V32 (4-1/60 to 4-1/100) in hopes of somehow fixing the Wake up problem, but didn't help.

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ccfj1 · #2 09-01-2010, 09:15 AM

At a guess, your dealer is at fault, it sounds like they did not do the correct power down procedure on you nav unit.

They must have disconnected the battery while the unit was writing to flash, this will have corrupted the flash memory on the unit, its now toast.

Rustynuts · #3 09-01-2010, 09:26 AM

Just reading another thread below where it's possible to reflash the unit (not easily I guess). However, when the unit wasn't working, the power LED on the unit was still on steady, not flashing or off, which they say is an indicator of a bad flash. The display is also completely black, no backlight or wavy white lines.

ccfj1 · #4 09-01-2010, 09:28 AM

There are 2 places that I know, 1 in Australia and one in Germany, both will reflash the nav unit, but its not cheap i suspect.

Is it a mk3 or a mk4?

Rustynuts · #5 09-01-2010, 09:39 AM

Mk4, w/ upgrade to v. 4-1/100 software.

incidentally, what is the purple plug for? Radio controls and/or vid signals to display?

Roy in GA · #6 09-01-2010, 03:29 PM

I thought the power down thing was just for MKIIIs and that MKIVs were not a problem. Where did the water leak to? Did it get near any of the modules or cable plugs?

Rustynuts · #7 09-01-2010, 05:14 PM

Car is at the dealers getting another leak fixed! Replacing BOTH rear door liners this time. I did not see any signs of leaks into or on the Nav unit, but I wasn't really checking for that at the time. I only found out about the wet battery well when I dropped it off this time. Will pull unit and open it up later.

Rustynuts · #8 09-03-2010, 12:43 PM

OK, good news for now. It appears my problems were due to a water leak or condensation. Two fairly small areas or corrosion in opposite corners of the PCB (sorry, no pics!). A little work with q-tips, alcohol, eraser tip, DeOxit cleaner, and so far all is well. Unit wakes up as intended. Now just have to see if the fix holds. If this happens again, I may try coating the PCB in epoxy or something.

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