[pdxnerd]

[Edit], the GPS might have an issue with this mod. i'm investigating. It worked for almost a week but i think that may have not been gps based but purely compass+speed based guesswork by the nav. [/Edit]

The last few years the onstar module was behind the infotainment screen, in the 2018 it was relocated to under the passengers seat, far right, behind the bose module. Here's my process for removing the antenna circuit board, which disables onstar by disabling the cellular modem and the wifi hotspot. Afterwards the Bluetooth works, the Nav still works, the mic still works for commands. What will Not work is onstar, wifi, the cellular modem (used for wifi and onstar), and the compass. The Nav shows GPS with a crossout but the nav still works, including traffic (that’s from the satellite data)



Step 1. Remove the glovebox. I had to squeeze the sides inwards, almost pushing one in until it clicked out of the groove then do the other side. There's a catch in the right side that needs to be slid towards you to free the tension cable. After that rotate it down and remove the 2 dowels holding the bottom in.



Step 2: Remove plastic covers. First there's a plastic panel that is held in by 5 screws (star bit needed), and 1 plastic push lock. Second plastic cover is the fuse bot cover. There's one fat thumb plastic screw on the back floor piece, then pop the plastic out, pulling inwards from the furthest back is the easiest if memory serves.

Step 3, Remove cabling. So there is adequate clearance, remove the two large cables going into the fuse box (front and back, one blue one white). As well as the hvac box cable just above those cables, and pull the clip off holding that cable up.

Step4. Remove the Bose box. There are 2 screws and 1 bolt to be removed to free the bracket holding the bose box. Once free reach through the top hole and remove the cables. the tabs are on the right side, there are 4 and the 3rd down has a red catch you'll have to pull towards you first. Once those cables are free work/slide the unit out the bottom. The cables should be able to move out of the way now to facilitate this.

Step 5. Remove onstar box. The onstar box should now be visible. its being held in by two plastic clips on top, and one on bottom. If you pull the bottom clip out of the way you can pull the box loose. On the backside there are 2 white cable brackets up top and two antenna connections on the bottom. Remove these and slide the box down passed the fuse box (like the bose box path).

Step 6. Open this box and remove the top board to access the smaller antenna board. Remove the smaller board and put the larger back in.

Step 7, reassemble in reverse order!

 

[BnLdamaxs]

What’s the benefit of this mod ?

 

[Koach]

Titled as 2018, but the spybox was in the same location on my 2017...FWIW.
Removed and haven't looked back!

 

[HOOLIGAN]

Why go through all this?
Whats the point to remove, paranoia of being followed?

 

[Koach]

Am I paranoid? I wouldn't consider myself to be...but I am opposed to certain aspects of their control and/or oversight.
Do I need GM calling me to schedule service even though I have another 20% before it's due? Nope.
Do I want/need them to feed my driving habits, even though I scored, based on their opinions, typically in the high 90's, to insurance companies? Nope.
Do I want them, as stated in the terms/conditions, to use this system to collect debts? Nope.
Do I want them to have the ability to listen to my conversations? Nope.
Do I believe that they should have the ability to control my vehicle? Nope.
Do I feel it's ok to use whatever data they've collected to be used in a court of law? Nope.
There are more, but you get the point.
Are there positives? Sure, but in the end it should ultimately be up to me. Unfortunately, unsubscribing does NOT completely sever the ties.
I'm old school and you can call it what you want, but I don't subscribe to the 'conditioning' that is taking place.
Why go through all this? Because I believe an hour to remove is well worth it to preserve what 'freedom' I have left without Big Brother's continual oversight.

 

[Rockcrawlerdude]

You guys are funny. I’m all about my freedoms and liberties but you guys sound like you live in gov’t proofed bunkers.

All you’ve really done here, in my opinion, is given the idiot bad guys the information needed to disable onstar when they steal one of these trucks.

Want to think up some scenarios? Let’s do that.. What about when insurance can’t recover your stolen truck because you tampered with it’s “tracker” and now they deny your claim. See, it’s silly to think of all the what if’s.

Besides, it’s kind of egotistical to think the government wants to watch you. I assure you, they care nothing about you. If you were on their “watch list” you’d have bigger problems than onstar.

Use a cell phone? They’re already capable of “listening”.

You can opt-in or out of the onstar/insurance information sharing. I opted out.

Manufacturers have always contacted owners about scheduling service using phone calls, email and coupon mailers.

They will still try and find you to collect debts like they have for many decades.

They’ll only control the vehicle if it’s stolen (limiting to 7mph, I believe is what I read) or it would be hilarious if they did it to a bad guy in a high speed chase.

You’ll still have limp mode if you forget your DEF, so that control is still there

Me, I use the onstar app to send gps coordinates to my truck for the nav system and unlock the vehicle with it quite often (yesterday, in fact. my FIL needed a receipt from my glovebox to pick up a surprise i had for my wife) Maybe it could help my family in an accident. Only negative I have ever experienced is once or twice in two years the vehicle has announced to me over intercom that it was connected to limited onstar (because I’m not subscribed) and I couldn’t skip the announcement.

 

[thx2net]

By doing that mod you no longer get WiFi capability. I would never give that up. Ha! For $20 month I get unlimited wifi and was able to reduce my cell phone data plan for my entire family. When we go camping, it's fantastic. Park right next to the RV and when needed, just turn it on. Since we have Verizon for cell phones, having AT&T for the truck gives us more hotspots. Long road trips, kids, and wifey all have access. It's the best deal going for data. We watch streaming movies with the new Anker Nebula wireless projector, right from my phone streaming Netflix in the great outdoors.

 

[Rockcrawlerdude]

Camping has changed a lot since I was a kid

 

[MadMac]

RCD, yes camping has changed. When the grandkids are with us in the truck, cell phones are OFF and we actually talk to each other and look out the windows. No streaming of movie's and/or games allowed, but I must admit it only lasts for a couple of hours on long trips, then I have to give in. On short trips, they are off until we arrive at the planned destination. Pis*%$ me off when I ask the gkids something and I get the response "HUH??".I must be a real As# of a grandpa!! Mac

 

[DutchJohn]

By doing that mod you no longer get WiFi capability. I would never give that up. Ha! For $20 month I get unlimited wifi and was able to reduce my cell phone data plan for my entire family. When we go camping, it's fantastic. Park right next to the RV and when needed, just turn it on. Since we have Verizon for cell phones, having AT&T for the truck gives us more hotspots. Long road trips, kids, and wifey all have access. It's the best deal going for data. We watch streaming movies with the new Anker Nebula wireless projector, right from my phone streaming Netflix in the great outdoors.

I seen the 20 buck thing for unlimited wifi.. is that through onstar ?? I have AT&T and my truck is added to my plan for 10 bucks a month..but its not unlimited,, to have unlimited for only 10 more then I send now might work better who do I call ?
thanks for any info DJ

 

[RollyPollieBenito]

You guys are funny. I’m all about my freedoms and liberties but you guys sound like you live in gov’t proofed bunkers.

All you’ve really done here, in my opinion, is given the idiot bad guys the information needed to disable onstar when they steal one of these trucks.

Want to think up some scenarios? Let’s do that.. What about when insurance can’t recover your stolen truck because you tampered with it’s “tracker” and now they deny your claim. See, it’s silly to think of all the what if’s.

Besides, it’s kind of egotistical to think the government wants to watch you. I assure you, they care nothing about you. If you were on their “watch list” you’d have bigger problems than onstar.

Use a cell phone? They’re already capable of “listening”.

You can opt-in or out of the onstar/insurance information sharing. I opted out.

Manufacturers have always contacted owners about scheduling service using phone calls, email and coupon mailers.

They will still try and find you to collect debts like they have for many decades.

They’ll only control the vehicle if it’s stolen (limiting to 7mph, I believe is what I read) or it would be hilarious if they did it to a bad guy in a high speed chase.

You’ll still have limp mode if you forget your DEF, so that control is still there

Me, I use the onstar app to send gps coordinates to my truck for the nav system and unlock the vehicle with it quite often (yesterday, in fact. my FIL needed a receipt from my glovebox to pick up a surprise i had for my wife) Maybe it could help my family in an accident. Only negative I have ever experienced is once or twice in two years the vehicle has announced to me over intercom that it was connected to limited onstar (because I’m not subscribed) and I couldn’t skip the announcement.

RCD, you can contact on star by pushing the button and have them turn off the announcement. That’s what I did and no more annoying announcement.

 

[thx2net]

I seen the 20 buck thing for unlimited wifi.. is that through onstar ?? I have AT&T and my truck is added to my plan for 10 bucks a month..but its not unlimited,, to have unlimited for only 10 more then I send now might work better who do I call ?
thanks for any info DJ

I do it through the my.GMC.com login. My phone automatically connects to my truck now. It's fantastic. I'm always on Wifi. I literally use less than 2GB of data per month now on my phone. No need for unlimited plans for my family phones.

 

[Coloradorob]

There is one other bad thing about this onstar setup.
I like to mess with things
I can’t leave well enough alone

While messing with my catch can install, and trying the open to atmosphere idea for the pcv I caused a cell.
Onstar promptly caught that and sent an email stating a serious issue with my truck.

I cleared the cell myself but there is now a record of it !!!
That I do NOT like....

Rob

 

[RendonBob]

There is a great article on GM taking 5 years to correct a simple hack of on-star that disabled the brakes. In the article there is a statement that approval of the fix was because on-star is able to push security fixes. Wonder if that is only subscribers. The fact that your vehicle is still connected to GM is a risk. Good, bad or indifferent, a personal choice needs to be made and not mocked. GM should be responsible for disabling this system at an owners request at no cost. When Jeep experienced a similar issue, Chrysler fixed it in less than 2 months and recalled 1.4 M vehicles to ensure the fix. The vehicle wi-fi opens other avenues to hackers. I am not paranoid, I am in the business of securing IT and know how vulnerable things can be. I do not trust GM to do the right thing for security, they will do what makes them the most money and if a couple of us get killed in a hack, oops.........

 

[Rcoal]

Reply to an old post, but thanks for providing information like this so that its readily available for thieves. I'm sure this post or one just like it was very helpful to the person that just stole my 2018 and now onstar is saying they can't get tracking information to provide to the police.

 

[Suburbangone]

Reply to an old post, but thanks for providing information like this so that its readily available for thieves. I'm sure this post or one just like it was very helpful to the person that just stole my 2018 and now onstar is saying they can't get tracking information to provide to the police.

Curious how you made out...it has been 7 days since my Suburban was stolen and Onstar is unable to track it down

 

[ZR2_Explorer]

By doing that mod you no longer get WiFi capability. I would never give that up. Ha! For $20 month I get unlimited wifi and was able to reduce my cell phone data plan for my entire family. When we go camping, it's fantastic. Park right next to the RV and when needed, just turn it on. Since we have Verizon for cell phones, having AT&T for the truck gives us more hotspots. Long road trips, kids, and wifey all have access. It's the best deal going for data. We watch streaming movies with the new Anker Nebula wireless projector, right from my phone streaming Netflix in the great outdoors.

Who the f%&$ goes out camping, only to project Netflix and watch movies?!?

 

[Koach]

funny, two years later and just received notification of your responses to this thread. and to your point, who needs all that crap when they go camping anyway.
i'm still just as against the spy-box and even more-so after learning that my smart-tv is probably the most vulnerable thing in my house.
from the subsequent post to mine in 2018- 'idiot bad guys information to steal my truck'. my response- do me the favor, i'm not that attached to a vehicle.
also from same post- 'insurance denies a claim cuz i tampered with its tracker'. my response- then GM can duke it out with the insurance company cuz it wasn't a legal requirement to have it nor am i 'forbidden' to 'tamper' with my own vehicle.
smiling as i type lol

 

[ZR2_Explorer]

I wonder if you could just splice the power lead to the box and then install a switch on the dash?

 

[thx2net]

Who the f%&$ goes out camping, only to project Netflix and watch movies?!?

Me and a bunch of old fuc$ers late in the evening.. plus my kids think it's really cool to have YouTube music videos at the campfire sometimes.