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Navigation Control Module

The satellite navigation computer — position, map database and route calculation — as distinct from the screen that displays it, which on many vehicles is a separate module.

What is worth knowing is that navigation data no longer only draws a map. Several systems consume the road ahead: the transmission holds a gear approaching a bend or selects down before a climb; adaptive cruise eases for a curve or a known limit change; adaptive headlamps begin bending before the steering does; stop-start stays running where the vehicle is about to move; a hybrid holds charge back for a city zone.

So bad navigation data produces driveability complaints that get attributed to everything else — odd gear changes, cruise slowing for nothing, headlamps swinging on a straight road — and the transmission is the expensive thing to be wrong about.

Most faults are the roof aerial, an interrupted map update leaving a partial database, or a module with no recent position after a long stand or a flat battery. The last clears itself after a few minutes driving in the open.

Also known as: sat nav, satnav, navigation module, nav module, navigation unit, gps module, sat nav module

Referenced by 6 codes

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Codes involving this component (6)

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