Installing Bluetooth Onstar (OEM) For Hands Free Phone (Easy, Cheap)

[Iwantone2]

There's got to be a better solution than eBay...

[Iwantone2]

Just to keep the ball rolling here, if a module has already been activated for OnStar, then it will not be useable in another vehicle for another year?

Answers, speculations, guesses anyone???

[VT2CA]

Originally Posted by Iwantone2

Just to keep the ball rolling here, if a module has already been activated for OnStar, then it will not be useable in another vehicle for another year?

Answers, speculations, guesses anyone???

Im guessing it doesnt matter if it was activated. Most of the info I got on the subject before attempting on my own came from the G8 and Chevy trucks forum and those guys were mostly picking them up at junkyards and I never heard any mention of someone not getting it to activate. again guessing why wouldnt onstar let you reactivate a used module, unless it were stolen or something...??

[Iwantone2]

Thanks VT2CA!!! hopefully more people can get in on this discussion! only a select few of us are brave enough to fiddle with such things!

[VT2CA]

OK I'm sorry if I shared any misinformation. All this talk of how the onstar is setup got me thinking, I havnt even looked at my account since I put in the new box.

So I pulled up my account and noticed that I now have two Camaros registered to my onstar account, and the new car was setup the day I called in to onstar to setup this box. While I thought they were merging this box with my car, actually what they did was add this box to my account as if I owned another car. each box is tied to a specific vin.

So I called up onstar and spoke with tech support and he told me he's not sure how to change the VIN # that is tied to the box, and this may affect my vehicle diagnostic report...we'll see about that as I now have signed up for diagnostics on this new box, but if it thinks my car is a SS it might give messed up reports as I am in a 1LT. (will report on that later)

From what I can determine, the box I purchased was never setup and since I was the first to set it up they were able to easily add this car to my account. This definitely lends to the idea that if a car were already setup and active that it would be hard if not impossible to cancel the original sub and you would have to wait for it to expire before you could setup the box in your name, even then it would still not be setup to your vin # rather it would be as if you purchased the whole car rather than just a new box.

For me I am fine with all this, onstar still works for what I would need it for (emergency sevices). Vehicle diagnostics are cool I guess but Ive never had nor felt I needed the car to tell me when to do regular maintenance. Turn by Turn again could be nice, but havnt used it, never use mapquest, already have iphone maps and compass...Having bluetooth connection to my phone trumps anything onstar are offering me and at the end of the year I will not be paying for onstar service anyway. That being said it is kinda nice that my free year with onstar actually started over the day I setup this new box.

Ill be interested to see what experience you guys who buy other used boxes have. It seem more apparant now that you could be running into an issue if the box is currently active on someone else's account, at least with getting specific vehicle information. But all other functions still work perfectly and more importantly the bluetooth functionality is there regardless of the onstar support.

[Iwantone2]

Okay, I think I've been convinced about this whole thing. I'm going to throw in the towel on this one

VT2CA, your help and work is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks for taking the time out of your day to get some answers. I'm definately NOT going to purchase the one that is available right now...oops!

Maybe GM/Chevrolet/OnStar will hear our plea someday and offer integrated Bluetooth for us non C&C package owners...(sigh)

[aldaran]

Would you get charged for 2 Subs when they expire?

[Iwantone2]

I think i'll just try to look for a receiver/mic bluetooth adapter and plug it into the aux port

[VT2CA]

Originally Posted by aldaran

Would you get charged for 2 Subs when they expire?

No, I cancelled the old account once I realized there were two, onstar were super cool and transferred the remaining onstar phone minutes I had left on my original box to the new one.

[VT2CA]

I just recieved the vehicle diagnostics report I requested this morning from the new box. It seems to be fully functional and tied to my car correctly. Came up with the correct total miles, oil life, tire pressure, everything was as normal with the diagnostic report and the box is fully functioning with my car. The only thing is onstar have it listed as a SS with a different VIN, but I can't see why that would matter. Im happy, in the end that is the only oddity is that it lists a different car in my account, but in reality it is all tied to my ride. Here are the things I have tested as far as the total functionality:
Green light on rearview mirror - check
Emergency Services - check (even tied to personal identity)
Vehicle Diagnostics - check (lists diff vin and model on onstar page)
Directions and Connections - work well check.
Onstar Phone - check
bluetooth phone - check (works independant of onstar service)

Everything checks out on my box, now the question still remains will a box that is linked to another onstar account be able to be activated by another user, my guess is yes but logistically it may be complicated. They must reprogram boxes all the time tho as people buy and sell used cars with these systems often.

[Iwantone2]

i see...i still dont want to risk "ruining" anything or making a huge mess out of things.

i think something like this:
http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/prod...iew=Bluetooth#

might be a better solution until we can have an official bluetooth accessory

[Iwantone2]

and...

i guess some of the Parrot devices also get hard-wired into the stereo system.

man...the things we go through to get what we want

[VT2CA]

Originally Posted by Iwantone2

and...

i guess some of the Parrot devices also get hard-wired into the stereo system.

man...the things we go through to get what we want

I'm tellin ya bro, the easiest thing is to just replace the box like I did, in most cases it's cheapest too....pricing an installed parrot system I was getting quotes anywhere from $200 - $500.

I don't see how doing this upgrade could possibly mess things up in your car, yeah the box can control some functions of your car (unlock doors, shutdown engine) but all it really does is allow your cars' computer/gps to communicate with GM, and for you to make phone calls.... it's not like installing it involves splicing into your cars stereo harness or anything of the like to get it to work like the parrot devices and others do, likely more of a chance of messing somehing up with an aftermarket solution...

[Iwantone2]

Originally Posted by VT2CA

I'm tellin ya bro, the easiest thing is to just replace the box like I did, in most cases it's cheapest too....pricing an installed parrot system I was getting quotes anywhere from $200 - $500.

I don't see how doing this upgrade could possibly mess things up in your car, yeah the box can control some functions of your car (unlock doors, shutdown engine) but all it really does is allow your cars' computer/gps to communicate with GM, and for you to make phone calls.... it's not like installing it involves splicing into your cars stereo harness or anything of the like to get it to work like the parrot devices and others do, likely more of a chance of messing somehing up with an aftermarket solution...

oh yea, i totally agree with you that it would be the easiest thing to do. but the onstar module having information from another car kind of bugs me a bit. and like was previously stated, we dont know what will happen if the "used" onstar module was activated. i would probably have a paper-weight for a year in that case