[johndenn]

I have a 2013 and a 2014 Volt and on both of them I want to do the following:

#1 - Not be forced into the default of XM/Sirius radio. I don't subscribe to XM radio and every time I unplug my iPhone boom back to advertisements trying to get me to buy XM radio. My car should NOT be a forced advertisement for the XM radio platform. I want this OFF, gone forever and to never return.

#2 - Be able to use the navigation system with the radio OFF. I'm very frustrated by being forced to turn on music to pull up a map. This is beyond stupid.

#3 - Be able to input an address while the car is moving. Seriously, there is a person sitting next to me. She's a "passenger" and would like to input the address while I'm driving.

#4 - My 2014 System likes to hang and reboot at random times. All buttons on the dash and all functions are hung for a good 10-15 minutes then the system will reboot. Is there an update I can download somewhere and fix this?

I'm coming from having owned BMW's and the wealth of modifications and ability to change everything yourself was fantastic on the BMW Nav system. I have a USB/Fibre converter to hook into the BMW "ibus" and an application I could run on a laptop and I could change any setting I pleased within the car. Things like #3 above could easily be changed. Does the same exist for the Volt?

 

[jg123]

#2 - You can turn the volume all the way down on the radio. Not perfect, but not bad.
#3 - Try the voice recognition on your car. The 2014 address voice recognition is pretty amazing.
Press the button on the steering wheel and say, "Navigation", then after the next beep, "Destination Address". Get ready to say the entire address in one breath, including the full state name, like "Massachusetts". Mine hasn't been wrong at recognizing in address in years. You can use this while moving.

 

[z80]

#1 - I'm curious where the XM ads appear. I don't have an iPhone but on my '13, I let the freebie subscription lapse and have not seen anything on the in-car screens. One thing I did do was to take XM off the first page of favorites.

#2 - I don't get any local radio stations worth anything. (Talk about ads!!) Therefore I tend to leave the audio system on the Aux input so that I don't turn the "wrong" volume down.

 

[bennetts77833]

#4 Mine did that actually seemed to be the Navigation System. Worked with a Volt Advisor & a couple of visits to dealers. My Nav System crashed when trying to add a intermediate destination. Call your Volt Advisor.

#1 Sirius expired without a peep? I added HD Radio & had it professionally installed. Great for classical music on PBS, Often on HD2 channel. Other HD Stations too offer much variety.
#2 When I talked to Volt Advisors about not turning on the Radio they explained one audio system instead a separate one for the Nav was a efficiency, cost, weight etc.
# 3 Using the voice recognition is a great idea. Now that I have Michelins the road noise decrease may allow it. I also send addresses to the Nav System using the My Chevrolet app.
The car is incredible & I hope you can adapt to the ways you need to interface with it. Best Wishes

 

[llninja]

#1 - I'm curious where the XM ads appear. I don't have an iPhone but on my '13, I let the freebie subscription lapse and have not seen anything on the in-car screens. One thing I did do was to take XM off the first page of favorites.

#2 - I don't get any local radio stations worth anything. (Talk about ads!!) Therefore I tend to leave the audio system on the Aux input so that I don't turn the "wrong" volume down.

+1 on using the Aux input. I'm not sure if you need to have a aux cable plugged in before it will stop there. I use the steering wheel controls to quickly change the audio input if the car decides to use Fm or XM first

The XM ad is the default station when it goes to XM. Nothing special show up on the screen. It is usually a menagerie of songs with ads interspersed to convince you to subscribe. The day after Prince passed away, they had a nice touch by playing only.

My solution for the NAV oddities, "Hey Siri, give me directions to...". Even though I have Nav, I prefer Siri despite the smaller screen. My phone floats over all the touch button controls using a CD slot smartphone mount.

 

[hellsop]

+1 on using the Aux input. I'm not sure if you need to have a aux cable plugged in before it will stop there. I use the steering wheel controls to quickly change the audio input if the car decides to use Fm or XM first

You will (probably -- def on pre-MyLink) need to plug in a cable to the aux port to turn on the aux as selectable. If you leave it selected, it SHOULD stay there when you turn the car back on. Blessed silence....

 

[llninja]

You will (probably -- def on pre-MyLink) need to plug in a cable to the aux port to turn on the aux as selectable. If you leave it selected, it SHOULD stay there when you turn the car back on. Blessed silence....

Sadly the MyLink in my volt doesn't seem to remember Bluetooth, so upon restart, it starts playing something else even though the last thing I was listening to was streaming Bluetooth. I guess it's a chicken/egg problem. Start the car, phone hasn't paired yet, car switches to some available audio source, then Bluetooth takes its old sweet time before connecting.

 

[johndenn]

Thanks for all the great suggestions so far! I've now setup the favorites list and removed XM and such and that helped. I also had the car in for service yesterday and they updated the Nav/Radio/etc software so hopefully the hang/reboot issue goes away.

I've also been looking for a way to make the radio go off when I turn the car off. It's annoying that it doesn't go off until you open the door. Seems Chevy/GM have some sort of dire insistence that there be music/audio playing at all times. To me off should be OFF. When I turn the car off it should all just go OFF. Seems this is a foreign concept to Chevy... These are my first Chevy vehicles after having owned BMW's for the last 30+ years. I've gotten very used to be able to set things the way I like.

@LLninja which cd phone mount do you use? How does it look? I've been trying to find a good way to mount my iPhone so I could use it for Waze.

Lastly, again coming from BMW and what I was able to do with BMW's nav/computer system... Are there any good mod sites? On BMW you could completely change everything. You could download the entire system to a USB stick, modify it and re-flash the car system. ie. remove the restrictions on the Nav system so that it could be used while driving. Others would modify it so you could play movies on the screen. All sorts of silliness can be had. I've not found a site where people are doing this on Chevy/Volt yet.

 

[llninja]

@LLninja which cd phone mount do you use? How does it look? I've been trying to find a good way to mount my iPhone so I could use it for Waze.

kookier pro cd (the one without the magnetic mount).

https://www.koomus.com

It has a much lower profile than many other phone mounts, but when inserted, it does touch the Tune knob in my gen 1 making it harder to turn. I don't use that knob much anyway. In fact most of the capacitive buttons go unused anyway, so it's not a big deal to cover them up. I use the config button once in a great while to change the time and setup warmer and colder erdtt. My daughter uses the home button all the time to flip between audio sources on the center console. The rest go relatively unused (what is the TP button for? Or AS1-2? Hey GM! Plain english please...)

 

[z80]

I've also been looking for a way to make the radio go off when I turn the car off. It's annoying that it doesn't go off until you open the door. Seems Chevy/GM have some sort of dire insistence that there be music/audio playing at all times. To me off should be OFF. When I turn the car off it should all just go OFF. Seems this is a foreign concept to Chevy... These are my first Chevy vehicles after having owned BMW's for the last 30+ years. I've gotten very used to be able to set things the way I like.

@LLninja which cd phone mount do you use? How does it look? I've been trying to find a good way to mount my iPhone so I could use it for Waze.

I'm using Scarlett1 VoltPhone mount.

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?286153

Note that I mounted mine on the passenger side and it still works fine. I decided that I wanted my BlackBerry to cover the rarely used parking brake rather than the power "Start" button.


Also, there are companies that can remove the in-motion restrictions on the nav by removing the radio unit and sending it in. This generation of MyLink is early days for integrated infotainment controls and things have progressed nicely since. In fact, Gen1 does operate a little different than my other GM vehicles have, perhaps partly due to how Volt was engineered over a longer period or such, but I still love the car (as I did my '96 M3!)

You might be interested that there are a few modules available let you pipe HDMI or MirrorLink if you are interested other mods. I am considering one of these at some point, myself.

 

[johndenn]

Anybody try this on a Volt?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/mylink-unlock-project/files/

 

[z80]

Anybody try this on a Volt?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/mylink-unlock-project/files/

I have that site bookmarked. My concern was that the sample images were from a different generation of MyLink however some people indicate that it worked on the 2013 Malibu which would be at least be the same generation.

My feeling is that the in motion restriction might be a possibility but the Mirror Link is unlikely since here is no embedded WiFi hardware.