Looking for a decent Tech II of some sort for unlocking a radio
Cost: Dealership will do it for $135, which isn’t bad too me compared to what i’ve seen others pay.
Tip and guide:
If your going to wrench on the car, then pick up a Tech II clone; since your going to need one for even simple things like when you go to flush the brake lines (cycle the ABS pump) or need to pull body codes that a standard scanner will not pull.
That link at $224 is a good deal. I thought they were more like the link below that one usually, closer to $300. I keep an eye out in the classifieds here but they always go very quickly
Here is how to unlock the radio with the clone Tech II
You need to find either a dealer or an independent shop that has a TECH II to “unlock” your nav unit. The GM radios are VIN specific, so the unlock process involves clearing the old VIN # from the nav unit, and allowing it to accept your VIN #. As I said, this can be done by anyone who has access to a TECH II. All GM dealers should have them, and if they tell you they can’t unlock the radio, they are not telling you the truth. I went to my local Chevrolet dealer when I installed the nav unit in my 08 base. It’s about a 5 minute job, but they charged me a 1 hour minimum labor $130.
I copied the how to shown below from a fellow forum member.
Here is how to use the TECH II to put the Nav unit into relearn mode:
Connect TECH II to car and put the car into acc. mode
At the main screen, select diagnostics
At systems selection menu screen, select body
At the VIN indent screen select
Appropriate model
Appropriate air conditioning
Nav radio
At the body screen, select Nav radio
At the radio screen, select special functions
At the special functions screen, select VIN relearn
At the VIN relearn screen, the scan tool will display, “do you want to clear the radio theft
information?”
To begin clearing, press the soft touch key on the top right of the scan tool. The TECH II will display “clearing theft in progress”
Once done, press exit on the GM MDI and cycle the ignition
It’s done and the Nav unit will now marry to your car.
NOTE:
If the radio is just in lock mode from it being in another vet first, then it just a mater of clearing the radio from it being married to another car’s BCM, then when you start the car, it will pair to register it to the BCM in your car.
As for the may not be able to, it just depends on the dealer, since some will want a bill of sale for the old Vet owner of the radio to verify that it not a stolen unit that they are marring to another car instead.
As for if this OEM radio has always been in the car, and went into lock mode, then there is a problem on the GM land bus or the radio itself that is causing the problem, and just clearing the old marriage so it can remarry to the car, may not fix the problem instead.
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