Hello everyone

I picked up my Octvia VRS today and have tried to use the sat nav thats built in. The car didn't come with the correct instruction book for the sat nav, does anyone know the best place to get hold of one?

Secondly, the sat nav always thinks I'm 'off road', when I press INFO it says I am not on a defined road when I always am! Any ideas on how to sort this out.

Annoyingly I need to use it to drive to London tomo afternoon!

Any help much appreciated,

is it the columbus rns 510?

If it is, have a look here

http://briskoda.net/ice-security-insurance/columbus-rns510-user-guide/148469/

If its the earlier MFD2 you need to calibrate your location.

Also, if the car is more than 100 miles or so from where the nav was last used it can take upto 20 mins to get a fix.

For calibration, look just over half way down this page.

Octavia-vRS.com - MFD2 Install Guide

If you press MAP then you should see a symbol in the top right that looks like a box with 4 arrows pointing in towards it. Press that and it forces the unit to show where it thinks you are. That usually gets mine back on track when it wanders.

Going from the pictures on that octavia brs.com website I think its the MFD1. Is ther an online manual for that anyone knows about. I'd much rather just save it on my laptop than buy one!

Hello again,

From what I can work out from messing around on googel its the 'Radio Navigation System DX'.

I've found a manual for it online but still can't get away from the 'OFF ROAD' problem!

Any help please,

When you say off road, is it that the road isnt on the map?

How old is the map disc inside it?

It could be something as simple as an old copy of the mapping.

OK - so just to confirm 100% - you have an Octavia Mk1 and it has a satnav that looks like the one below installed?

In which case can you see the bit on the direction arrow screen (on the left, about half-way up) where it has a little satellite dish and there should be several dots under that. That shows how many satellites are currently being received. It needs to be at least 5 or 6 to get a decent fix.

If it's a genuine factory installed unit it should have a BIG lump in the antenna on the back of the roof, and there is a fancy pictorial display in the dashboard that shows the arrow directions so you don't need to look down at the satnav. If it's been retrofitted then the horse-pill antenna may well be in a bad location under the dashboard and you may need to adjust that positioning or get an external antenna (it's MUCH better).

Is your indicated position even close to where you live? If it is, then you may just have an old map disk and you need a new one. They are quite expensive at about £115, but as the satnav was a £1500 extra when the car was new, I'm sure that seems like a reasonable price to VAG/Skoda/Blaupunkt. The streets are usually about 5 years behind on building plans - the street I live on was built in 2003 but it only appeared on the 2008/2009 disk and the street numbers have only just appeared on the 2009/2010 CD. I buy a new one every year and sell the old one for £50, which makes my upgrade cost £65. There are plenty of people looking to buy 1 or 2 year old CDs too!

It's probably also worth just trying a hard reset before you start pulling the dashboard to pieces. Disconnect power for 5 minutes then re-enter the 4-digit code on the screen. Obvioulsy, don't do this if you don't have the 4-digit code.

Thanks wja96 for all your input.

To summarise:

Its a Mark 1 Octy vrs and has a sat nav as the picture you gave.

When its up and running there are no dots illuminated under the satalite dish.

There is no big lump in the antenna - its just a normal car arial. I've seen no sign of a fancy pictorial display in the dashboard either. (Looking like a retro-fit!)

The indicated position is close to my house - 300yds awayish. It also followed me up the M3 and M25 yesterday - not perfectly but pretty close.

The CD I got with it is a copy that has 'UK '08' written on it - my road has been here for ever so no problems with date as far as I can see!

I also didnt receive a manual for it so its looking very certain to be a retro-fit.

I don't seem to be able to find the 4 digit code either!

The car is brilliant - the sat nav less so!

Thanks again for your help - trip back to the dealer for me tomo!

I have the same problems you have.

My Nav is a retro fit, I have no GPS aerial at all, not even one in the dash.

Every now and then I have to manually punch in my location and it will inertially track the car.

I also believe it uses the input from the rear ABS sensors to track the car.

I am going to get an aftermarket aerial for it.

I don't have the instructions and it pulled up two faults on my VAG COM scan.

One for incorrect coding of stereo, sorted that, and one for no TMC signal, I just told the computer that I don't have TMC, I'll see if that sorts it.

On that subject, can someone recommend me an aerial for the GPS and tell me what I need to sort out the TMC signal problem?

I wouldn't bet on the dealer being any too helpful as it will have been 4 years since they sold new cars with that navigation system, although he has supplied you with a pirated copy of the guidance disk, so I'd be looking for a new, genuine, one for a kick-off if it's a franchised Skoda dealer.

The antenna you want to get you running is one of these horsepill antennae;

But the right thing is called a Triplex antenna and looks like this;

You will need the correct antenna cable set to run the triplex antenna to the headunit.

If you want TMC then you'll need a TMC box. These come in two flavours; 3B0 919 894 and 3B0 919 894A. If you just want TMC then 3B0 919 894 will do, but if you want the dashboard mounted display or any steering wheel controls to work as well, then you'll need the 3B0 919 894A model. You then need a TMC Cable that goes from the headunit to the TMC box, and, on the Octavia, you need a further Cable that goes from the TMC box to the dashboard display. I don't have the part numbers for these for the Octavia, but they are not cheap, at approximately £50 each from Skoda or £30 each from ebay.

Finally, to make the dashboard display work, you'll need the correct FIS display dashpod and then you'll need to code it all up.

Following huge trouble buying used and supposedly new parts from ebay and the like, I now either use a franchised dealer or www.satnavsystems.com for my parts. If you don't know exactly what you're buying, get a dealer to do it, it's cheaper in the long run.

Brilliant.

I am not going to get the triplex antenna, I am going to remove the existing radio aerial for looks anyway.

This aerial will be OK right?

SMB - GPS ANTENNA AGB-002-149 Seat Skoda Aerial on eBay (end time 28-Jun-09 16:03:59 BST)

I have bought a second hand maxidot dash pod from a classified on here.

I will get the 3B0 919 894A TMC box and buy a wire and I'm away...

Many people that retro fit simply attached the mag GPS aerial to the crossbeam behind the dash. Yours will be this way unless you have a bulky aerial as posted above.

Could be yours has slipped down the dash, so whip the radio out and se if you can locate it.

Brilliant.

I am not going to get the triplex antenna, I am going to remove the existing radio aerial for looks anyway.

This aerial will be OK right?

SMB - GPS ANTENNA AGB-002-149 Seat Skoda Aerial on eBay (end time 28-Jun-09 16:03:59 BST)

I have bought a second hand maxidot dash pod from a classified on here.

I will get the 3B0 919 894A TMC box and buy a wire and I'm away...

The Maxidot dashboard will need to be coded to your car. That antenna looks fine. The TMC boxes are fairly rare. Oddly, when all those cars crash in Eastern Europe and we get the MFD1's from them, they never seem to salvage the TMC boxes or cables. It could be that they take too long to remove

You need a 3 wires for the TMC in the Octavia. The first one goes from the Triplex Antenna to the TMC so it gets an aerial feed. The second one goes from the MFD to the TMC and the last one goes from the TMC to the dashpod.

Finally, you need a specific TMC satnav CD.

I spent a FORTUNE retrofitting a complete MFD1 to my Fabia. I have never had the TMC re-route my car in 3 months of heavy use. I can only repeat the advice I was given before I installed mine. Don't bother.

TMC works great in my works Mondeo, but really only works for major A roads and motorways

Thank you very much, I'll not bother.

Just the retro fit GPS then.

If I code the dash pod to the car (I have VAG COM) I'll get turn directions on the dash even without TMC, right?

The Maxidot dashboard will need to be coded to your car. That antenna looks fine. The TMC boxes are fairly rare. Oddly, when all those cars crash in Eastern Europe and we get the MFD1's from them, they never seem to salvage the TMC boxes or cables. It could be that they take too long to remove

You need a 3 wires for the TMC in the Octavia. The first one goes from the Triplex Antenna to the TMC so it gets an aerial feed. The second one goes from the MFD to the TMC and the last one goes from the TMC to the dashpod.

Finally, you need a specific TMC satnav CD.

I spent a FORTUNE retrofitting a complete MFD1 to my Fabia. I have never had the TMC re-route my car in 3 months of heavy use. I can only repeat the advice I was given before I installed mine. Don't bother.

If I code the dash pod to the car (I have VAG COM) I'll get turn directions on the dash even without TMC, right?

No, I don't think so. I think you need the TMC to drive the multifunction display, but I'm not 100% as all my research was done on the Fabia system which is slightly different as it uses the CAN bus to talk to the screen.

Hmmm

I'll start there and if it doesn't work I'll know why.

Thank you very much.

A little update..

I sat in the Skoda maindealer for 3 hours last Friday whilst they tried to sort the sat nav. I now have the brand new cd for it (paid for by the dealer!) but the car is going back tomo so they can play with it some more!

From my own research I think it could be to do with the speed sensor that runs of the ABS. Who knows though!!

Another update tomo...

Update!

Finally the Main Dealer has replaced everything possible except the unit itself and it still won't work. Does anyone know someone that can repair Skoda DX sat nav units?

Many thanks