Ok, the Tahoe I bought for the wife has OnStar. According to what I've gathered thus far, it is a hybrid unit that operates on both analog and digital signals, so it should work on today's digital network.

Anway, when I press the blue button to activate the system, all it does is beep every couple of seconds, for a long time. I've driven it to work, which is about an hour away, and it beeped the entire way without connecting. I called the dealer, and they tell me that it should work...and tell me nothing else. This was a GM Certified Used Car, with warranty, and they are acting as if it's not their problem anymore.

There's two reasons why I'm willing to pay for the subscription...I have $14K in this truck, counting purchase price, and I want it to call the rescue squad if my wife is ever in an accident with it. I don't want to make phone calls with it.

I've unplugged the OnStar unit, and I've disconnected the battery, for 30 minutes each time in hopes that it would reset...but it didn't work.

Has anyone either had these problems, or have heard of this problem with OnStar?

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Congrats - you bought a vehicle that came pre-loaded with spyware. I'd suggest a solution, but it involves wire cutters, a sledgehammer, and some Thermite

Sounds like the antenna has been disconnected.

Probably deliberately, by someone who valued their privacy:

Changes to OnStar's Privacy Terms Rile Some Users - NYTimes.com

A 2012 CTX I just got has it for a year. I haven't used it since I drove the car home in early November. I didn't like the directions home the salesman asked it for as a demo.
I do kinda like getting emails telling me tire pressure, oil life, etc. That comes through Onstar, no?
I did buy 300 xtra phone minutes ...for 10.00. (sucker) With the blue tooth sync'd to my bberry I probably won't make one phone call on the onbloard tele...unless I have an accident...
Perish the thought.

Having it come up on the dash would accomplish the same thing, without the privacy-rape of having GM know your location 24/7.

On-Star is like any cell service; you must subscribe to it. Contact On-Star get the vehicle set up and you should be good to go. The On-Star people are (in my experiences) very helpful, know the system, and speak english.......

Onstar has been helpful,


but it required a analog to digital update a couple years ago. it was a couple hundred dollars (sorta the same scenario with MB's Teleaid-Mbrace update)


We elected not to.

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Matthew McIvor

2016 E350 4Matic Black/Black
2007 GL450 4Matic with Off-Road Pkg Silver/Black
1995 E300 Diesel White/Gray
1994 S600 Euro Black/ Black Velour
1986 560SL Blue/Blue/Gray
1986 190E Blue/Blue 93k

The year we have is a hybrid analog/digital unit.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Well...we got the issue resolved a few weeks ago, and they gave me 500 minutes of phone time until 2014, as well as 3 months free service.



I got a letter in the mail today, letting me know that there was a problem with them locating me, and that I needed to call them. Long story made short, they put me on a different network, tested the locator and direction system, then gave me another 3 months for free, as well as another 200 minutes.

i now have free service until June 26th of this year.

So far, their customer service has been decent, and what they have given me for issues they've had on their end has been appreciated.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

OK, call me paranoid if you will, but I DO NOT like the idea of having a system onboard my vehicle, where someone else can remotely disable/shut it off with the push of a button.

Besides the possibility of a malfunction, or someone at Onstar screws up and sends a shutoff command to the wrong vehicle - there seems to be a large potential for abuse of this system in other ways in the future.

One possibility is that a hacker might figure out a way to send a "universal" shutoff command to ALL Onstar-equipped vehicles within a certain radius at the same time - say I-10 thru downtown San Antonio at the height of rush hour - just for grins and giggles.

Or, given how are politicians are readily swayed by money and lobbyists, some time in the future we might see legislation allowing credit, debt collection agencies, other businesses, or even the government itself, to disable your vehicle until you pay up on any real or imagined debt.

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Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

They already do that in Ohio at some of the buy here/pay here companies...they've been doing it for years. I had a co-worker that was unable to re-start his car at lunch time because he was behind in his payments. I had to take him to the company so he could bing his account current before they would "unlock" his car.

He found out how the system was hooked up and ripped it out...only to have the vehicle towed away the following day because he tampered with the system.

The threat of, say Anonymous, getting their panties in a wad and doing just what you described is there, I'll give you that. But, I'm less concerned about that happening than my wife being unable to call for help in the case of an accident.

I could have really used it a few months ago when my wife and I had a gun pulled on us last year while driving on I-75. She ended up calling 911 on the phone and was transfered 4 times before she was connected to the proper number for the local authorities to intervene.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Apparently there's quite a few people with heartburn over this feature of the system.

A year or so ago, when they started running Onstar commercials about this particular function, at first they called it "remote vehicle shutoff".

After a couple weeks or so, I noticed they weren't showing these particular commercials any more. A couple weeks more, and these commercials reappeared - same exact commerical showing a cop car chasing a stolen vehicle and getting Onstar on line to shut it off - but now this feature was called "remote vehicle SLOWDOWN".

Apparently more than a few subscribers were nervous about the possible scenario of their vehicle being shut off on them at any time for whatever reason, whether by mistake or otherwise, and let Onstar know they didn't have a warm fuzzy about it - so Onstar changed the name of the feature to assuage their fears.

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Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Wouldn't it have been cheaper/safer to get a gun and a CCW license? If the SoB who pulled a gun on you ended up with a bullet through the head, he wouldn't be able to pull the same trick on someone else.

My CCW licenses are for UT and PA. I only carry the UT license when I'm in UT, and PA's isn't recognized in OH. This happened in Ohio Besides, we were headed back to Ohio for an emergency, and I left my gun at home. All I had on me was my dad's old Ka-Bar.

You don't bring a knife to a gunfight...

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles