onstar in a 01 suburban

We recently installed a pioneer indash in a 01 suburban with onstar. the customer brought us everything that came out of his other 01 suburban including the wiring harness that was already connected and ready to install. of course we checked all the connections and all was good so we put it in. everything worked great exept the onstar. we told him to have the onstar work he would have to buy an integrater harness. he said onstar worked perfect in his other sub. both have a standard gm 1858 style plug. i can't understand how it could work without the other harness but he said it did. he said it kinda works now, just everything doesn't mute when onstar button is pressed. nothing else was in the other truck so we're stuck on what to do unless someone out there has seen something like this done without an intergrater harness. any help would great. thanksWhatever you do, DO NOT let the white smoke leak out of the wires.....

You will need the Pac OS-1 or OS-1 Bose, depending if it is equipped with Bose system or not, OnStar will not work with an aftermarket headunit without some type of OnStar interface,,,,,

yes an intergration harness is needed for the 01 suburban to work correctly with factory door chimes, sensors, onstar, bose etc.  if you have a bose system then you can use metras GMOS-04 harness if there is no bose then use the GMOS-01 both will cost around $120.

thats kind of what i was thinking. my customer swears up and down he had nothing else hooked up as far as harnesses exept a 70-1858 so i told him i would see what i could find out. i thought it would be great to learn a new trick, but it sounded fishy to me. thanks for the feedback.Whatever you do, DO NOT let the white smoke leak out of the wires.....

It sounds to me that the previous installer or salesman told him he wouldn't lose any of these functions and he took their word for it, never trying to use the OnStar.My ex once told me I have a perfect face for radio.

The onstar audio comes in on a couple pins on the 1858. You could feed this into an Aux. input on the deck and get the OnStar audio into the system this way. Whenever the customer needs to use his OnStar, selects an Aux., and away they go. Of course, if they are in a firey heap, it won't switch automatically. Gus Wherever I go, that is where I end up......

true. i don't know how he had it done but i know how it WILL be done if he wants it to work. i'll sell him the integrater harness and be done with it. thanks for all the replys.Whatever you do, DO NOT let the white smoke leak out of the wires.....

I have a 2002 chevy tahoe with on star and had my kenwood excelon head unit installed by tweeter. They told me i would lose my on star without the extra kit you guys are talking about. Well Right when i tuned my unit on it worked great and sounded fine. I then pressed the on star button and everything muted just like with my factory unit, but no sound from the lady speaking. I then pressed it again to end the call, and now my head unit has no sound. Everything works great except no sound. Tweeter tested it outside the car and theres sound and it works fine. They even used a kenwood unit they have and it would sound in my tahoe either. Now the Factory unit works great when they put it back in. Why cant i get sound now? It worked the first time but ever since i pressed onstar 1 time it wont. Please help Thanks Tahoe18