Nuvi 660 suction arm keeps falling off Sun May 06, 2007 6:47 pm
I have had a Nuvi 660 for the last 6 months. Its a fine product so far worked accurately for getting directions. But I have a major problem having it stay put on the dash with the hardware supplied. I have discs fixed in both my cars but the suction arm on which the Nuvi is attached keeps falling off. I am now on my 4th suction arm and they only work for about 4/5 days and after that when you take it off for any reason and apply it back on to the dash disc they tend to fall off after about 5 minutes.
I have constantly complained to Garmin who have sent me replacements but they stop working after a while.
Does anyone else have the same problem? Its a shame to pay $800 for a nice gps but a suction arm makes the product useless. Its makes no sense to keep the Nuvi at the bottom near the gear stick when ideally it shoud be near eye level on the dash. I do not want to stick it on the windscreen as it is illegal to have it there here in California.
Are there any other better product options that I can look into??
Thanks for your inputs in advance.
I've heard from a few people who have had good success with beanbag mounts. I think one person told me they had complained to Garmin about the suction cup mount and they offered to send them a beanbag mount. I've heard from a few people who have also had good success with third party "vent mounts".
A few suction cup tips. Make sure the windhield is cleaned and the suction cup is cleaned. Make sure the winshield is dry, and apply some moisture to the suction before mounting. I've heard people using Vaseline for the moisture part with good success. If nobody is looking a little spit can work well too. Also try to make sure the windshield and suction cup are of a reasonable temperature (maybe 50-80° F) during application.
Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Baltimore, MD
Tue May 08, 2007 9:00 pm
I emailed tech support at Garmin, and someone there suggested using a tiny bit of water to wet the suction cup prior to sticking it on. I found that it works very well - almost too well, and some of the "rubber" stays on the windshield when I remove the mount (takes a lot of force to pry it off).
Sticking to the windshield is never a problem. Its staying stuck on the round disk supplied by Garmin which is the problem. Here in California it is illegal to stick it on the windshield and I do not want to get into an argument with a cop, so I stuck the round disk on a flat area on the dash and then stuck the Garmin supplied suction cup arm on the the disk. But as I said earlier, this arm does not stay stuck on the disk for long.
Now I am trying what is suggested by you and Tim.
Thanks.
For those of you experiencing problems with the OEM Garmin suction cup mount, this might help.
I previously owned a Panavise product similar to the PV-809 AMP (see link below) for my old Magellan Roadmate 700 series GPS. This is an extremely sturdy product that appears to made with glass fibre plastic resins. It is adjustable across all axises and has an oversize suction plate with a positive lock. It held the heavy Magellan w/o problem, so a lightweight Nuvi series should present no problem.
My experience has been that ALL of these suction mount devices can fail if care is not taken when they are attached. 1) Both the glass and suction cup must be clean - I carry some alcohol wipes if I think there is going to be a problem. 2) The temperature of both the suction cup and the glass must be similar. I keep all components in the car so this is rarely a problem. 3) If you press the assembly too hard against the glass when locking the suction cup, you actually inhibit the creation of the vacuum. You essentially deprive the cup from flexing enough to create the suction necessary for the mount to work. If you press too lightly, a proper seal won't form and the suction will fail. It took a bit of practice, but I find I now rarely have a problem anymore - and I'm using the OEM mount that came with my 660.
Here is one link to the Panavise product. I recommend checking around for price/service if interested.
PV-809 AMP Vacuum Window Mount
(purchased for a Magellan Roadmate 700 - mount for Nuvi will differ)
http://www.panaviseonline.com/search.php?category=45&search=*
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370 with beanbag 'holder'/mount Thu May 10, 2007 12:01 am
So, just yesterday, I had the opportunity to try out the beanbag mount with the 370. I went and acquired all the necessary extra attachment needed, since the one that came with the unit is larger in diameter than what fits into the beanbag's receptacle.
I went up into the Los Altos hills in CA, Bay Area FYI, on some winding roads and the thing didn't budge or nothing. Granted, I wasn't trying to make it fall off, just doing what I'd normally do when on a trip like that.
So, my verdict is, if you can afford the extra expense, invest in the beanbag combo and it should work just fine. Its non-skid features seem to work as designed. I've taken some pictures, but some are a bit fuzzy, still, once I've got home, I'll post them here, if pictures are allowed, or put it on my blog and link to it.
Great to hear. Others have had similar success stories with the bean bag mounts.
You can link to photos, but not upload. So you can add them to your blog and then display them here in the posts. I'm sure people would like to see it who have not seen them before.
Last edited by Tim on Thu May 10, 2007 3:46 am; edited 1 time in total
If the Garmin suction mount does not like to stay put on the metal disk, I'm wondering if anyone has tried having a piece of glass cut to size (and edges rounded) and then adhering it to the top of the metal disk? I can't see why the suction cup would work on the windshield, but not on glass glued to the metal disk....Just a thought.
Thanks for your input. Actually, I tried what others here suggested and applied a little moisture (vasaline, water, but no spit yet) and it worked!!
Surprisingly, when I had complained to Garmin about it, no one there suggested applying moisture. Perhaps they read this column and can learn.
Try cleaning both the window and suction cup thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol. That cured the problem for me. Now I don't have to wet the cup. It stays on tightly and releases easily when I want it to.
The problem was so bad before that I thought I needed a new suction cup, but now no problems.
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