Now you are scaring me. I definately don't need any issues and I'm supposed to get my Onstar upgraded probably next week.

Let us know what the dealer tells you on what is actually done during an Onstar upgrade. When I first inquired about mine getting done, the service manager was saying they had to tear into the dash to change some wiring that goes into the back of the Radio. Whether or not that is true, I don't know. I guess its not something very simple if it takes them an hour or more to do the upgrade.

Wayne

 

My poor monte doesn't have a nice warm garage to sleep in. I wish she did lol. I have never driven my monte more than 40 miles at a time lol but I am sure she would be up to the challenge of a nice road trip after we figure out her issues. Which brings me to my next point.....it hit me today at work that when I bought her I remembered seeing a remote start box under her dash. They never gave me the remote to it and some of the wires were cut going to the box but it didn't seem to cause any problems with the car. I had plans to take it out but it wasn't high on my list. Well after my issues I decided now was the time to remove it. I just now got done and it's 11:30 at night. That evil little box tapped into almost every wire under my dash!!!! Luckily they didn't cut very many of the factory wires. They stripped the insulation off and wrapped the remote start wires around the factory wires and then elecrical taped it together. I removed all of the remote start wires and put electrical tape around the factory exposed wires to protect them. I also noticed that the connectors going to the ignition switch seemed loose. I pushed them and they did slide in more. So.....I am wondering if the evil remote start box made her sick or not. It was in there since I bought the car though so could it just now start causing issues?? Maybe the onstar being upgraded put more demand on the electrical system or used circuits that were previously not in use and the remote start box was causing issues. Any opinions on this? I am still praying it's not the BCM but am trying not to get my hopes up. But at least I got that box out and it won't be on my mind anymore.

 

I hope your update goes smooth. I am sure that it will. I don't think that the onstar upgrade caused my problems....but then again I think it is weird that the problems started right after it was done so I guess it is possible. From what I gathered from them all they do is mess with the wires in the trunk. I guess they still could have crossed wires or something though. I will report back with what they say after I take it in some time next week probably. Let us know how your upgrade goes. I definitely like having the onstar services. Don't let them sucker you into buying minutes outright like I did. Tell them you want the monthly plans. They are much cheaper. But if you don't think you will use the handsfree calling don't buy any lol. They give you 30 free minutes. Let us know how it goes!

 

I did some research online and supposedly all they do for my car is to replace the VCIM that is in the trunk and replace both the inside and outside antenna connectors as well as the antenna itself. Then they have to contact Onstar and tell them the VCIM has been upgraded and they also have to hook the Tech II scanner up to the car and do some other stuff. There was nothing about having to get inside the dash and mess with wires behind the radio.

I also found a chart that tells how long the upgrade procedure is supposed to be for the different vehicles and for the Monte Carlo's its 0.9 hrs. So them taking 2 hrs or more is BS.

I just hope they don't mess up anything when they remove the antenna stuff or screw up my rear leather seat when they are back there. I'm a little nervous about retaliation for the email I wrote even though I was not mean or nasty in it. The General Manager had the Service Manager call me to make things right. I doubt that he liked doing that.

They still haven't called me yet so I don't know if the parts have come in or not.

Wayne

 

You sound just like me. I was worried they would do something to my car because I called GM on them. It looked ok when I got it back but now that I am having these issues i'm not sure. You would like to think they are more professional than that and wouldn't do something so low but u never know. I'm taking her back tomorrow. I will report back with what they tell me.

 

Well, I hope that you can figure out whats wrong with your car. Hopefully its something simple.

I really don't think they will do anything to my car but you never know. I do know that if they do or I start having issues after taking the car to them, they will not like the results because I will call everyone and anyone I have to to get things resolved. I think the Service Manager has that figured out by now.

I work in Law Enforcement so I don't like people trying to screw me or BS me, especially when I know better. Good luck tomorrow.

Wayne

 

Well I took my car in and they said they could not find anything wrong. Of course......so anyway they were nice and didn't charge me anything and told me to bring it back if it keeps happening or if anything else weird happens. They took it for about a 10 minute test drive which isn't long enough to see the issues. They don't even have to drive it because it happens while it is parked running. I should have told them to sit in it with it running and stare at the guages until they do it. So at this point I guess I wait for the next weird thing to happen.

 

Well of course they could not find anything wrong.....LOL....sometimes the problems only occur when least expected?? Anyway...good luck and i am sure as the BCM begins to fail more often, you will have more issues...Mine didnt give a CEL when it failed......i just took a chance in replacing it and that was it even after the dealer mechanics told me it was fine...lol

 

I'm gonna go with it's the BCM, you should read my thread mostly the same stuff was going on with me. I bought an aftermarket BCM from Advanced for a little over $90 after core and payed a $152 for reprogramming and security relearn.

 

The instrument gauges are a know problem with these cars also. The stepper motors for the gauges go bad. That is one thing that I found out was replaced on my car when the original owners owned it.

Wayne