Stereo froze - Dealer says Subwoofer - Help

[nashstat]

My car stereo froze on me. No matter what buttons I would press, nothing would happen. Even when I parked, and locked the car, the stereo (without any sound) would still be on and frozen.

I have an aftermarket JBL Woofer powered by a Pioneer amp.

I took the car to the dealer. They called GM, GM said to disconnect the amp, re-flash the stereo and see if that would work. That did work.

Now the dealership says that it is the subwoofer that caused this and that GM won't pay for it since voided the warranty.

Does this make sense?

[Darth Martel]

Unless you hooked up the amp completely wrong, that's what we call BULLSHIT.





Do you have the BA system and just replaced the BA amp with a new amp or did you have a regular system and use the ******** harness to add an amp? In either case, unless you completely hooked that stuff up wrong and were sending power back to the head unit, adding an amp/sub will not affect the stock radio. Was the system working after you installed the new sub/amp?

[justa25thTA]

since he has a 2SS, I would assume that he has the BA system. If you used the ******** harness, I would call BS as well, if you did your own wiring, no telling.

[nashstat]

Used the ******** harness and had a pro do the installation. It worked fine for 1.5 years, then all of a sudden the stereo stopped working.

Gotta argue with this dealership now.

[Decibel JJ]

Warranty work doesn't pay the dealer or the tech doing the work squat, that's why they will try to blame it on ANYTHING aftermarket they can so it's a cash repair for them.

It's a play on the customers ignorance and the hassle it would be to prove them wrong and sue them for damages VS. The payout of "maybe" the occasional court loss

The psychology of it is also you have anxiety and want your car back that is hiding "somewhere" in the back lot and people pay up and figure it's not worth it/ just move on.

[Sterling]

Wow... what a load of crap. If your amp was really to blame, I don't think a simple re-flash would have fixed the problem.

[VaderSS]

My stereo unit failed earlier this year. No ******** or other add-ons...completely stock. Dealer worked on it for days, then had to wait days for a vin-specific radio they ordered to replace.

[nashstat]

Originally Posted by Darth Martel

Unless you hooked up the amp completely wrong, that's what we call BULLSHIT.





Do you have the BA system and just replaced the BA amp with a new amp or did you have a regular system and use the ******** harness to add an amp? In either case, unless you completely hooked that stuff up wrong and were sending power back to the head unit, adding an amp/sub will not affect the stock radio. Was the system working after you installed the new sub/amp?

I have a BA system and a JBl MS-8. The pioneer sub amp connects to the JBL unit. I got a call from GM.

I told them to prove it to me that it was the subwoofer. GM says they will get back to me. They say that anything aftermarket voids the warranty on the stereo.

[Darth Martel]

typical... anything to get out of warranty work. pickle-smokers

[nashstat]

So they reprogrammed the Radio without disconnecting anything and it worked. GM/dealership said that they will cover the costs for this ONE TIME only.

They re-iterated that they are not supposed to work on anything with aftermarket equipment.

Basically I told GM to prove it to me that it was the sub-woofer and then they called me back saying that they will take care of it this one time.

Thx so much for your help on this guys.

[vuduman67]

that same thing happened to me on tuesday around 5pm, and it was during the onstar outage. I tried contacting them for directions and everything locked up. with the key off the radio stayed on and would not shut off and would not work. I disconnected the battery and reconnected and it has been fine since. Never had a problem before.

[hot_rod]

um...sounds very familiar to an Onstar problem that a number of members experienced...

Might want to check this thread out, there are some short term fixes discussed in it:

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162177

Onstar did fix mine and I have not experienced any problems since.

Note: Jeff - Chevrolet Customer Service is/was monitoring the above linked thread for updates.

[nashstat]

Originally Posted by hot_rod

um...sounds very familiar to an Onstar problem that a number of members experienced...

Might want to check this thread out, there are some short term fixes discussed in it:

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162177

Onstar did fix mine and I have not experienced any problems since.

Note: Jeff - Chevrolet Customer Service is/was monitoring the above linked thread for updates.

Thx - That was helpful, seems like I am not the only one. This whole issue started when I pressed the OnStar button.

[agkelly73]

I had the same problem and it was locked out upon using the Onstar. I couldn't turn the radio off, change stations, sources or anything. I was on my way out of town for a weekend trip and stopped by the dealer for them to take a look. Basically all I wanted them to do was disconnect the battery for a few mins if they couldn't figure it out quickly. I don't have ANY aftermarket stereo gear in the car so the fact they are saying it's your sub/amp is BS. Basically the tech messed around for a few mins and for some reason, Onstar was stuck in the "call" mode even though I had hit the button to end the call. Basically he pressed the Onstar button again and then cancelled the call once it started again. This worked to return the system to normal. On the trip the same thing happened again, and I hit the Onstar button and then cancelled once the new call started and that worked. The problem is still there and my bluetooth stays connected when the car is off, so my next step is to disconnect the battery for a couple of hours. Folks say they have had results from that.