"CAL" message for compass

[woodsdog]

Hi I have a 2016 Silverado LT and we went into the PA mountains on Columbus day weekend and on our way home the compass heading feature on the DIC went to "CAL" for calibrate.  I read my manual and it says to drive a short distance in an open area and the compass heading should return.  Well, it has not returned.  Any suggestions?  Is there a manual way to calibrate?  Thanks for any information or assistance you can provide.  

[2017Darkness]

Find a wide open parking lot and drive it in a circle. Doesn't need to be donuts, but keep the size of the circle consistent, should calibrate after about 2-3 circles. Feel free to cut a donut or two after it calibrates.

[1SLOW1500]

My other car said that I had to do circles in a parking lot.

[wforrest08]

“CAL” is for California not calibrate your truck wants to take you to Cali so you better just go...

 

Try the above first (big circles in the mall parking lot) if that don’t work unhook the negative on the batt wait a full minute then repeat the above. It’s amazing how much sh!t unhooking the batt will fix on these trucks.

 

If it still says CAL you just better plan that trip to Cali to make the truck happy enjoy your week in the sun on the beach! 

[MaverickZ71]

In the older models, the owner's manual had a map of the US showing what the magnetic zones were, and it said if your compass said CAL, you could manually change the zone of your location to set it right.  

[BigBlueLB756]

I've often wondered what those doofusses were doing in the Walmart parking lot.

Now I know.

[HawkeyeSierra]

Got this message once in my 2015 Sierra. After reading this thread I was excited to try it the next day and see if it actually worked. The next day, my compass was back to normal. I guess I'll never know.

[tbarn]

The system is self calibrating. No need for circles. Does OnStar work? Or if you have nav. try it. I suspect bad high frequency antenna.

[Lance Giannola]

On 10/24/2018 at 8:41 PM, tbarn said:

The system is self calibrating. No need for circles. Does OnStar work? Or if you have nav. try it. I suspect bad high frequency antenna.

So, if anybody is still paying attention to this thread after eighteen months...

 

Don't have Nav or OnStar, so I tugged a bit on the Hi-freq antenna. Water came out from underneath it. I'm guessing this is a clue? Any other insights?

Edited March 14, 2020 by Lance Giannola

[Grnphrog Freeman]

It has to do with the OnStar antenna.

My coworker had to have a leak repaired and the stealership forgot to reconnect the wire harness... got the CAL display.

Yesterday I unhooked mine and got the same message.

~Freeman