Okay imagine if you had a button on your steering wheel that you must never press, because when you do it kills all radio sound in your vehicle for the remainder of your drive (except a high pitched whine) and forces you to drive in near-silence (assuming your are by yourself). When you press this button, you also lose all power to your vehicle (not right away!) over the course of the day and you can't stop that process once accidentally started, though you can be sure you'll have to jump it off when you want to go somewhere.

Now this would be a bad button to have on your steering wheel. Now imagine if it was conveniently placed directly adjacent to the most commonly used button on your steering wheel. :banghead:

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I don't know anything about trucks really, I'm just here because I am a 2004 Chevy Silverado z71 owner and I have a huge frustration with this truck. The bad part is that the frustration isn't with chevy, it's with this stupid button.

The button I refer to is the god-forsaken OnStar Phone button. I don't care about a car phone, I think it's silly to pay way more for a cell phone that I can only use in my truck than I pay for my regular cellphone which I can still use in my truck (but other places too). So obviously I didn't renew the phone when the contract expired. Now enter the problem..

When I accidentally press the phone button, I see Phone displayed across the radio. The speakers switch over to a high pitched whine, like a tv that just came on (but isn't playing any sound yet). If I press the phone button again, the phone does not turn off. If I press the little white button on the rear-view mirror, the phone does not turn off. If I turn the power off to the vehicle the phone does not go off, and in fact the phone remains on until the battery runs out to the vehicle..

So my question is "How can I disable this phone?" What can a person with very little mechanical knowledge (although I have some electrical knowledge) do to disable this phone from activating when you press the button? I am skeptical of trying to start pulling things apart but this problem has frustrated me so much that I am about to.

Thanks for any help!!

I would think that this option is controlled by the BCM and perhaps may have to be de-activated there. IE Dealer has to it? What if you just put some Black electrical tape over the Phone Button?

Sorry to hear that your having problems with it.

Ahh that's too bad. I was hoping it would be like.. "Open this part and remove this wire and throw it out back and burn it and dance". That would be more alot fun than going to the dealer :P

I have avoided that so far because the truck was purchased from my Dad's dealership (he was not as the owner, but the GM) just before my Dad was killed in a car wreck. It still makes me very uncomfortable to go there because all of those guys were great friends of my Dad and it brings up some pretty bad emotions.

All that aside thanks a lot for your suggestion. I may try to tape it up but I'm not sure it would really prevent it from being mashed in. I wonder if there's anything I can do to turn the phone off once it's on?

I got back from lunch break not too long ago.. Phone was still on from my trip into work this morning but at least my truck still started. I fear the ride home through traffic though.. music always helps me get through traffic so much easier. :grinyes: Now I get to listen to a dentist drill in my ear that has an raising and lowering pitch.

You don't have to go to you dad's dealership.....any chevrolet, or for that matter, any GM dealership will service a gm vehicle. I wish I had an answer for you but I don't. Although I bet it would be fun to pull that button out and burning and dance around the fire!

Oh okay, awesome. Sorry, I didn't realize that. Like I said I don't know much about vehicles, fixing them or uh.. owning them. :D

Anyway thanks for the help, I will try this weekend. If anyone has any other suggestions for the meantime, I'd love to not have to jump my truck off in the morning tomorrow. :D

I poked through my owner's manual, there is a fuse for the onstar system in the under-hood fuse block, see pages 5-126 and 5-129. It is labeled as onstar/rear seat entertainment, hope you don't have a dvd player! Pulling it might work, I'd try it for you, but my truck doesn't have crapstar.

The other idea I had was to pull the steering wheel and cut the wires coming from the onstar buttons entirely. Don't really know how you get the sucker off, but I'm sure someone around here can tell you. Of course, the prior option is preferable if it works.

I poked through my owner's manual, there is a fuse for the onstar system in the under-hood fuse block, see pages 5-126 and 5-129. It is labeled as onstar/rear seat entertainment, hope you don't have a dvd player! Pulling it might work, I'd try it for you, but my truck doesn't have crapstar.

YES!! IT worked! THANKS!! Course my pages were a bit different but using your idea I looked up the underhood fuse block in my book and it told me exactly which fuse to pull! :D THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Should I save this fuse for anything? I hope not because I light it on fire and danced around it before feeding the ashes to a stray neighborhood dog. :screwy:

THANKS AGAIN!

Glad to hear it worked =). In the dashboard fuse box, there are a few storage slots for fuses, my truck came with fewer spare fuses than slots, could stick it in there, or toss it in your toolbox for a rainy day, but they cost next to nothing =).

Don't take this the wrong way; but you might kick yourself when you lock yourself out of the truck and OnStar can't unlock it for you.

Make sure you make a spare and do something with it (friend; or mag key thingy somewhere hidden)

Sorry to hear about your dad though.

Hmm that's a very good point. Thanks for bringing that up for me or anyone else who may search this thread in the future. I think I'm going to go with the mag thingy now, I just found my spare key set.. I had lost it since I broke up with my last girlfriend and I was worried it was still floating around somewhere, but I found it in the attic recently with a box of my stuff she packed :P

Also, I appreciate the concern but there is no need to feel sorry about my dad. He lived a good life and set us up well, and I have accepted his death.. also I didn't want to give the impression I brought that up for any sort of pity help or anything, I just wanted to offer the honest reasoning as to why I hadn't wanted to take the truck to the dealership.

Since I've removed this fuse, I have found great delight in pressing this button I both feared and hated only a few days ago. Now if I can just figure out what this damn mouse is doing squeeking under my steering wheel every now and then I would be one happy chevy truck driver.

They won't unlock your doors anyway unless you subscribe (to the tune of 16.95/month). I assume they have security measures in place to keep people from calling and subscribing to service for one month to get their doors unlocked once.. I mean, if you could call them up.. so could someone that wanted into your car =). Around here the cops are happy to jimmy your locks for you =).

I've seen wrecker companies use something that resembled a defibrilator to pop locks on cars with power locks. They did it so they could tow the illegally parked car, tho.

the mouse is probably your airbag thingy, gah cant remember the name of it. its basically a strip thats wrapped in a housing that fits on your steering shaft so you can turn your steering wheel and keep the airbag connected to its module so it can deploy when needed at any turn angle. if i think of the name of it ill edit this with the name. its no big deal and shouldnt worry about it unless the airbag light comes on. it good chance it wont tho.

Wow that's a good theory on the mouse squeeking. I just sort of mentioned it in passing, but let me see if this makes any sense..

When it starts squeeking, it's a short, high pitched repeating EEE! sound. (maybe a quarter second in length, then five second break til the next one) It starts after I have already been driving a few miles though, not when I start up the truck (and not every time I drive it) It's fairly consistent once started, as in it squeeks in a rythym. In doesn't happen often and when it does I can usually drown it out with the radio as it's not very loud. It also stops as soon as I turn the truck off (and will not usually come back on after I turn the truck on again, at least not for a few more miles but even that's not likely)


Anyway back to the Onstar stuff, now that I think about it I really don't think I have onstar any more anyway. The last time I used it was when I got in my only wreck, they sent a tow truck to my truck, but that was over a year ago and I definitely haven't renewed.

Also, this is a really awesome forum yall have here. Everyone is very helpful and all of your trucks are so bad ass. It really makes me want to look into improving my truck, seeing the pride that you guys take in yours. I've just never known what I was doing or where to go to get what done and what a good price for it would be, yada yada.. but this looks like such a great resource for learning where to start.

Thanks again!

Don't take this the wrong way; but you might kick yourself when you lock yourself out of the truck and OnStar can't unlock it for you.

I don't know what the thousands of us out here without onstar do in that case. ;)

I have a spare key of call the lock smith. I doubt onstar will unlock the doors if you don't have the thing turned on.

. Now if I can just figure out what this damn mouse is doing squeeking under my steering wheel every now and then I would be one happy chevy truck driver.

Plastic squeak. Mine had one, I found it and lubed it.

I don't know what the thousands of us out here without onstar do in that case. ;)

I have a spare key of call the lock smith. I doubt onstar will unlock the doors if you don't have the thing turned on.

Yeah, but for ever 1 person with OnStar on one of these, there's probably 10 without. In my truck, if the key is in the ignition and the truck is parked, you CAN'T lock the doors. So, you're fine unless you lay your key in your seat or something.