Just finished up a 3 month, 8000 mile Northwest trip through Oregon and Washington. No issues with my 2020 F350 7.3 except the compass in the NAV system. Several times the compass started showing the wrong direction for several hours before correcting itself. We were using the NAV system to get through major cities, and when the compass started to indicate the wrong direction, the NAV system thought we were going the wrong direction (despite the GPS) and gave us crazy commands to turn and change direction. (It appears the the NAV system uses a complementary filter of GPS and heading, GPS for long term and heading for short term). Sooner or later, the compass figured out the right direction and corrected itself. I cannot find any compass calibration controls on the dash display or in the owners manual, although I don't think it's a calibration issue. We weren't using any electrical device that could have created some stray magnetic fields. I haven't bothered with the dealer yet because it's not doing it now and there were no error codes in the Forscan diagnostic. So, (the big question) has anyone else had erratic compass problems?
Thanks!

 

Welcome to the PNW....

 

That's a symptom of a failing APIM. Do you also have issues with callers reporting back they can barely hear you? On my 21 450 I had to replace the apim under warranty. When it would fail it would lose its place so to speak. Compass would be wrong, gps would be off, any nav would be off as well. I use carplay and google maps and it would start recalculating to get me back on the road I was already on. The temporary fix is to reboot the system by holding the power button and the > button together until the screens goes black. Most times that would correct it. Another way to see if it is the aim is to open google maps and set a destination. Let it begin working. Then plug the phone in. If the apim is on the fritz it will throw off the phone map as soon as you plug it in and it connects. Apparently Ford's GPS takes priority even with CarPlay/android auto. When you unplug the phone the phone map will recalculate and be correct again.
Hope that helps. Report back if you don't mind. It's a super common issue with the head units of these trucks. You can search for CarPlay mic issues. What is interesting is that via Bluetooth the mic volumes were fine but as soon as you plugged in the callers would report they could barely hear me.

 

Thank for responding! I haven't used my android for calls with it plugged in, but will give it a try. I didn't mention it in my post, but my screen went black for several hours one time, and then went back to normal, maybe the APIM also? Luckily I have the extended warranty, although it may be tough to get Ford to replace it if it is not hard failed. With elk season coming up, I may not get the truck into the dealer for a while. I will post an update later. Thanks again for a very helpful post!
Mark

 

I would say that it sounds like a failing apim.
Ford covered mine under the standard warranty. It was around 10k miles when I figured out what my issue was. They had to go through the paces of a factory reset, check for updates, etc. Once all of that was complete the problems persisted. They ordered the apim. It took a week or so for the part to arrive and about two hours in the shop to swap out and reprogram the new one.
Good luck during elk season.

 

I’ve had a compass issue on my 2017 SD seemingly only when our 5th wheel is attached. It thinks the truck is pointed 180 degrees the wrong way from actual. So headed north it says south & so on. I had it happen on my2001 Monte Carlo SS & the owners manual said drive the car in a 360 circle (parking lot or Cul de sac, etc) which worked. It just happened yesterday when I was towing our fifth wheel. Now that it’s unhooked I’ll check the heading to see if it auto corrected.

 

Yep have had this same issue on my 2021. Compass loses course. Restarting the truck fixes it for me. Doesn't happen very often. Guessing it is a bug. The BT mic issue in CarPlay was addressed in a software update and is unrelated (although CarPlay mic is still softer than BT phone call).

 

The symptoms are related to CarPlay. That has long ago been confirmed. You can do a hard reset to correct it temporarily vs restarting the truck.
There also was not a software update that ever addressed any of these issues.
Just making sure you are aware and not giving bad intel.

 

See https://www.fordtremor.com/threads/i...me.2731/page-6

Definitely fixed the mic issue but I don't think it has anything to do with the GPS issue. The GPS issue is 100% a sync issue though as the truck disregards the mobile device GPS.

 

Didn’t even make it down the page that link opened at before seeing posts saying that didn’t work. There are tons of threads here as well reporting the same.
The apim controls all of that and the only certain way to resolve it is to replace the faulty apim. If it were an iOS issue the problem would follow the phone to other CarPlay enabled vehicles and it doesn’t. If it were an iOS issue the problem would be present across all trucks and it isn’t. The truck gps isn’t affected by sync either. Sync is the software running the system. The apim is the head unit/hardware/brains of the entire radio system.
I spent a lot of time chasing this down back in early 21 on mine. My 18 was never a problem but there were many 18’s at that time reporting same mic issues. Again there are tons of threads in here that support what I’m telling you. It’s frustrating as heck to follow instructions to a t and it not work. That’s precisely what your instructions are going to lead to as evidenced by posts in your linked thread and here as well.
This is for the OP so he’s not chasing rabbits. No offense to you intended.

 

My compass got stuck on N. Then the AM radio would come on after a restart (that I never use), along with some other weird things like this. It was my APIM.

 

I checked the compass after I unhooked & it is now reading correctly.

 

Did the reboot, didn’t help. To try the suggestion with google maps, did you do that with your truck in motion? Will try that next.

 

Hello there. Feel free to send us over a DM with your vehicle's VIN and mileage and we'd be happy to look into this for you.

 

It seems like it’s a fairly common. Why do you need the VIN & mileage?