OnStar LED is red all the time now

[ehoff121]

The status LED on the rear view mirror for my OnStar has been red for over a week now. A couple of years ago, it went red for a day or so then cleared up on its own.

When I called their tech support to run a diagnostic, they said it was a communications failure with the Airbags and, in the event of a crash, might not signal OnStar. I had the airbag recall done last week and the light was red before that.

I stopped in to a local Chevy dealer and they wanted $129 just to diagnose the problem, but the service writer said usually the whole module needs to be replaced and they could do that for $569.

Now that my AWD is turning 11, I'm not sure I want to put that much into the car.

Any thoughts?

[BenWA]

Take the risk that you won't have OnStar in a crash?

[tpollauf]

Take the risk that you won't have OnStar in a crash?

X2 Drive like we did 20-30 & beyond years ago when every car made did NOT have airbags ... did NOT have OnStar ... Did NOT have ABS brakes or stabilitrack .... etc! That is way too much to invest in something that you likely will never use.

[BenWA]

My '03 lacks OnStar, so..... yeah.

Perhaps it made sense when a much smaller percent of people had cellphones, and smartphones didn't exist yet in the early 2000s, but now it's one of those mostly useless, redundant features that is pretty pointless for most people.

[Vulcan05]

OnStar is a GM part, so it probably wouldn't work anyway.