[exE36M3]

Gentlemen and Ladies:
Thought I'd share a fun experience.

First off...
Why I hate going to the dealer these days.

These are my GPS coordinates in my car. This is important because these read BLANK after a ONE WEEK visit to BMW Pleasanton. I told them GPS was off. My car spent a week in their shop. They replaced the entire head unit to the tune of over $3000, extended warranty covered that. But guess what, the GPS was STILL not working. The repair order says "GPS Antenna working"

On a hunch, I bought a $15 GPS antenna off ebay.
(https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-GPS-ANT...72.m2749.l2649)

I removed the headunit (found some weird extra pieces), unplugged the GPS plug (blue connector in photo). Plugged in the "OEM" BMW GPS antenna I got off EBAY.

I put the new GPS antenna right behind the instrument cluster (two screws).
Fired the car up. Accessed the Service Menu and punched in my location.

And voila... GPS is back.
About 2 hours in total, and most of that just driving around to see if the GPS coordinates changed as a I moved.

My BEST guess is that the GPS shark fin is OK. The pickup for the GPS antenna looks like it is in the trunk just above the battery. BUT, it looks like it's part of GPS, radio, SOS, and cellular as it's a 4 prong deal (which is maybe why the dealer thought headunit).

In my case the issue looks like wiring from the head unit to the trunk. Which would be nightmarish to trace let along repair/replace.

By using my method, it just makes the GPS antenna A LOT more serviceable/accessible.

Hope this helps someone here!

WORKING COORDINATES


LOCATION OF ANTENNA BEHIND SPEEDO CLUSTER


BACK OF THE NBT HEADUNIT. Blue plug is the GPS.

[ooshnoo]

Nice. Good find!

[RocketRobbo]

Ensure, your clock is set to ‘auto-update’ and not defaulted to manual.
Secondly, ensure GPS tracking is enabled in your Idrive settings.

This fixed mine after 6 months of utter frustration and changing out an £80 ATM battery in the sharkfin.