merlin the wrench

OnStar unit went bad. $2200 from dealer (I am not interested in that). Even at my cost it is outrageous. Found 2 good units locally and OnStar isn't interested in configuring either. I've given them all that they need ESN, STID etc. One unit already had a MIN and the other needed an MIN as it was inactive and never used. OnStar called this morning on their tech ticket and said they aren't able to make used modules work. In reading the Internet this is not totally true it appears because some people have installed and activated a used one reprogrammed to their VIN by Onstar. My dealer is scared to death to spend hours on the phone with OnStar. I've already spent hours. Does anyone here have a success story about how they changed the module when theirs went bad? Supposedly with the ESN, STID OnStar is supposed to be able to generate a MIN which when programmed in via the overhead allows the two to talk but OnStar told me it was buy a new unit cause they don't know how to make a used one work. Both the blue and red buttons work but OnStar just seems incompetent if it is outside their normal day activities.

shahram72

I've never even pushed the button on mine. I'm scared to.

merlin the wrench

Just wanted to make a post on this today. We've had OnStar since we bought the 2006 RL in 2010. It has worked as well as the onboard phone thru OnStar. Several months ago the phone became unavailable and the light went red. We tried all the resets available, and tests. There was one antenna error. We replaced the box twice with used ones. One was green and one was no light. That indicated both worked. OnStar could still not see the car so we replaced the antenna. The cost of a new onstar module is prohibitive. In the end, even with the used box with the green light, OnStar support was terrible and they basically didn't want to mess with changing their STID and ESN to make it work. When we unsubscribed they pleaded with us to stay but were still unwilling to work with us to change the STID or ESN. They wanted the dealer to work on it - which would have cost $3000 and the dealer really did not want to mess with OnStar because their experience working with them was about like ours - hours of incompetence on the phone. In the end we turned it off and walked away. I replaced the sharkfin today in hopes that might be the issue because it had that one antenna error but that did not fix it either. My guess, and it is just a guess is that Verizon or OnStar has made changes in their system that makes the system no longer work with our car, and they are too incompetent to track down the problem. I could access OnStar by pressing the blue button and talk to them over satellite but without the phone they could not make their system operate. We are done wasting time on this - it is a 10 year old car and if paying someone $240 a year doesn't motivate them to work with me, they aren't worth working with in my book. I realize that $240 is chump change to the big Wall Street folks who have fancy homes in the Hamptons but $240 a year is a lot to us. The only downside is we lost the Acura link as well because it relied on the OnStar and phone since neither of us have data plans on our phones. Just posting this in case anyone else who has OnStar finds that theirs failed about the same time.

rlerman

ive never touched my onstar since owning the car from 2008. Would never pay for such a service. I don't know a single person who uses or has used onstar.

I Won't even pay for xm....useless when you have Pandora. How xm survives with customizable Internet radio is unclear to me. Sorry, off topic.

merlin the wrench

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlerman

ive never touched my onstar since owning the car from 2008. Would never pay for such a service. I don't know a single person who uses or has used onstar.

it is Ok. We use XM but that is only because the 2006 doesn't have Pandora or Bluetooth music option.


We drive with a lot of crazies here in Sacto and would like the OnStar to work but I have no idea who can fix it. The dealer is iffy only because they really don't see many 2005-2006 units anymore and the cost. OnStar is not helpful. This unit lost its MIN and acquisition number (whatever that is) while it sat on my workbench as OnStar more or less refused to work with a used unit. I have a new antenna but light is still solid red. All I can determine is

DTC log in NAV system: B2204, B1404, B2206

OnstarLight looks like 5 red, 2 green, 7 green (perhaps the first two green in the last green sequence of seven green might be a little slower so the last sequence could be 2 slow green then 5 fast green) If it is the latter it would make it 5 fast red, 2 fast green, 2 slow green 5 fast green. It repeats then goes back to solid red. None of the 4 buttons work other than to report unable to reach OnStar.


The dealer has yet to tell me what the codes mean. Until someone can show me where to look them up or what they mean, there isn't much hope of fixing it. The GPS, XM, AM, FM, Nav Traffic all work fine.

merlin the wrench

If the Onstar light is red try the following. If it is green and works do not do this as it may clear other things.
Turn ignition key off
Hold down white phone key with circle around it on overhead whileturning ignition to ACC then off 3 times within 6 seconds to ask system lightoverhead to reveal error codes.
Codes will repeat twice. When they finish the second time hit the blueand white Onstar button within 2 seconds. This will purge the codes and tellthe system to troubleshoot itself after clearing the codes. If the errors havecleared thesystem will come green again. If errors are detected it will go red again.
You may need to call Onstar to have them reset the systemfrom their end if the MIN has been lost.

oo7spy

Merging to keep all of the Onstar stuff in one place.

merlin the wrench

Just updating this thread. Happened to see a facebook thread from Onstar cust service where there were many subscribed and I cornered them for help. They got back to me and said the only people who can help me are Acura Customer Relations. I called the number - they took my VIN and did some research hoping to find the missing numbers I needed to reprogram the unit. What they said when they came back is what someone might have said a year ago to save time. The Onstar no longer works and Onstar won't make it active because Acura no longer supports it and they canceled their contract with Onstar about the time my unit died. If anyone still has a working unit it is because they are flying under the radar. Also the first generation Acuralink in my car was always an XM prooduct and not an Acura product. The XM NAV package was supposed to make that work. Acura doesn't support that either and if it doesn't work anymore it could be a Sirius thing. We had lots of trouble with the NAV package changing from XM the year during which the Acuralink also failed. So if neither of those items work on your early 2nd gen RL it is because Acura was putting other people's products in their car, and those other companies no longer support those products. Same kind of issue as the analog folks got wiped out about 2003 or so.

CFoote

Not to dig up a old thread, but I pushed the blue onstar button in my 05. It sat beeping for about 3 minutes but finally connected - I hung up after that. My module is the one the car came from at the factory. Onstar won't activate these units, even the originals, now?

rlx015

That is what I read couple of years ago as well - they're not interested in activating it whatsoever.
Quite honestly, I would never activate them anyway...