# Having issues with Bluetooth (hands-free calling)



## Miek (Apr 29, 2014)

I have a 2014 Cruze LTZ.

I'm having an issue where my phone will connect to my car's Bluetooth, but when I make or receive a call, I get no call audio through my speakers and nothing I say registers through the microphone. A lot of the times music from the USB drive starts playing in place of the call audio. Sometimes everything will work fine, but most times I have this issue. My phone works flawlessly with every other Bluetooth device I've tried. Disconnecting and reconnecting doesn't help. Un-pairing and re-pairing doesn't help either. I've also noticed that audio playback over Bluetooth is, again, hit and miss. Sometimes it's perfect, but most times it's choppy and cuts in and out.

NOTE: The microphone itself works fine. I have no issues with voice commands registering.

Does anyone else have this issue, and more importantly, does anyone know how to fix it? I don't have another phone to try with my car, but I might be able to sweet talk one of my friends into helping me out during the coming week.

For what it's worth, my phone is an HTC One M8.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

I did have a couple of times where I'd answer a call and get blasted by distorted audio from my USB drive. It happened twice on the same drive from the same caller, but I've not been able to duplicate it. Other times, it's worked fine.

I don't stream tunes from my phone, so I can't comment on that. However, if you've got other items in the car using Bluetooth, it might be causing problems. I've heard reports on another forum that users of a particular smart watch were having problems using Bluetooth to stream their tunes.


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## Miek (Apr 29, 2014)

My phone is the only Bluetooth device connected. It's getting pretty frustrating when 9 times out of 10 my calling won't work.


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## pikeintheboat (Jun 8, 2015)

Miek said:


> My phone is the only Bluetooth device connected. It's getting pretty frustrating when 9 times out of 10 my calling won't work.


What happens to the call if you manually dial from the phone? You could always see if GM will re-flash the car CPU to update the Bluetooth Firmware. Has the hands free feature ever worked? Does it work well with other phones? I have a LG Optimus G Pro and it works great.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Miek said:


> I have a 2014 Cruze LTZ.
> 
> I'm having an issue where my phone will connect to my car's Bluetooth, but when I make or receive a call, I get no call audio through my speakers and nothing I say registers through the microphone. A lot of the times music from the USB drive starts playing in place of the call audio. Sometimes everything will work fine, but most times I have this issue. My phone works flawlessly with every other Bluetooth device I've tried. Disconnecting and reconnecting doesn't help. Un-pairing and re-pairing doesn't help either. I've also noticed that audio playback over Bluetooth is, again, hit and miss. Sometimes it's perfect, but most times it's choppy and cuts in and out.
> 
> ...


See if there's a firmware update from your carrier. My HTC One M9 works flawlessly with my 2012. I have the Bluetooth PDIM so both the OnStar module driven calling and the PDIM stereo work.


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## Miek (Apr 29, 2014)

pikeintheboat said:


> What happens to the call if you manually dial from the phone? You could always see if GM will re-flash the car CPU to update the Bluetooth Firmware. Has the hands free feature ever worked? Does it work well with other phones? I have a LG Optimus G Pro and it works great.


It still doesn't work even when I manually dial from my phone. I still haven't had a chance to try it with another phone, and the hands-free worked fine when I bought the car (just over a year ago). There are no updates from my carrier.

I called the dealership here, and I'm just waiting for a call back from an adviser to set up an appointment to get it looked at.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Miek said:


> My phone is the only Bluetooth device connected.


Is the car the only Bluetooth device connected (in range) of the phone?

Do you have anything connected to the diagnostic port of the car? Perhaps a car insurance device, or something to roll down the windows when you unlock the car?

Otherwise, given that you're getting USB audio when you should be getting phone audio, I'm inclined to think it's a problem with the car. You could try a reset of the radio. (You'll have to re-pair with the phone.) before taking it in.


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## Miek (Apr 29, 2014)

My phone is the only Bluetooth device in range and I don't have any other add-ons of any sort unless you count the built-in OnStar services (which I'm not currently subscribed to).


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

The Bluetooth calling interface is in the Onstar module. This sounds to me like either the Onstar module is bad or the connection between it and the radio head unit is bad.


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## Miek (Apr 29, 2014)

Got my car back, and all they did was delete my phone from the list of Bluetooth devices and tell me that it worked fine with all the phones they tried. I tried to replicate the problem and couldn't. Of course. But, they said that if the issue arises again to just drive straight to the maintenance bay and they'll look at it in greater detail.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Miek said:


> all they did was delete my phone from the list of Bluetooth devices


Odds are they ran the reset - the side effect is that it deleted all phones from the list.


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## mitchd123 (Jul 27, 2015)

I have a 2014 LTZ RS with <9k miles. The bluetooth will stutter, and then disconnect and go into a stupid state when streaming audio with my Motorola phone. I know it's the radio because after the connection fails when I go into the radio settings to configuration/phone, it show that no bluetooth devices are paired. The car radio has two devices paired in memory. The interesting part is the bluetooth icon on the screen will be greyed out, and I'm unable to connect bluetooth music, but the bluetooth for the phone will continue to operate flawlessly. 

I was reading in another post that if you turn the car off, and leave the door open for 2 minutes it will soft reset the radio. I haven't tried this yet. Normally once I lose connectivity for music, I'm not able to restore it until the car sits for a while. Turning the radio off, or turning the car off has no effect, with my phone or another phone. 

Another post also mentioned turning off the text to audio in the radio. I don't remember seeing that in the radio setting. 

If you come up with a solution, let me know. The radio is designed with separate modules for each function, so I'm hoping this is a software update which can be applied by the dealer. I sure wish someone would just hack the radio and provide an open source android like firmware for it so it operated like a cheap tablet.


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

mitchd123 said:


> I have a 2014 LTZ RS with <9k miles. The bluetooth will stutter, and then disconnect and go into a stupid state when streaming audio with my Motorola phone. I know it's the radio because after the connection fails when I go into the radio settings to configuration/phone, it show that no bluetooth devices are paired. The car radio has two devices paired in memory. The interesting part is the bluetooth icon on the screen will be greyed out, and I'm unable to connect bluetooth music, but the bluetooth for the phone will continue to operate flawlessly.
> 
> I was reading in another post that if you turn the car off, and leave the door open for 2 minutes it will soft reset the radio. I haven't tried this yet. Normally once I lose connectivity for music, I'm not able to restore it until the car sits for a while. Turning the radio off, or turning the car off has no effect, with my phone or another phone.
> 
> ...


Hi Mitchd123, 

Very sorry for this! Feel free to give our Infotainment Team a call regarding this. They will be able to walk you through the Bluetooth process step by step. Their number is 855-478-7767. If you are continuing to experience some additional issues, feel free to send me a private message along with your VIN, current mileage, contact information and preferred dealership. 

Patsy G
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## Miek (Apr 29, 2014)

Alright. I'm back, and the issue still isn't fixed. I had the chance to try out the Bluetooth hands-free calling with multiple phones, both old and new, and the same issue persists. The dealership hasn't offered any sort of solution either and now I'm not sure what to do. It still only works sporadically. I'm out of ideas.


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## Drew's Cruze (Jul 31, 2015)

The BT connection on my 1 week old 2015 1LT is flaky as well. The phone and text-to-voice functions seem to work fine (knock on wood) with rare exception, but the audio streaming is entirely undependable which is a drag since I listen to so many podcasts. I'd say it works 1 out of 5 times, if that much. The phone is a LG G2 running Lollipop. I have not been able to figure out the best routine for getting the audio streaming to work. I've had limited success rebooting the phone while the car is running, but that doesn't always work.

This is extra annoying since our 2012 (read: old-tech) Mazda 5 instantly connected via BT whether the phone was on at startup or not. 

Here is the advice I got from the OnStar rep:

RADIO RESTART
1. Turn the vehicle off and remove the keys from the ignition (or turn off using the pushbutton for keyless vehicles)
2. Open the door. (There is no need for the door to remain open)
3. If the vehicle has a Remote Start, lock the vehicle using the keyFOB once the door is closed 
4. Wait 2 minutes for the radio to complete the restart
5. Restart the vehicle

So this basically means, the radio (soft) resets anytime you get out of the car and lock the door. Obviously the favorites etc. don't reset.

Anyway, it hasn't worked for me. My streaming BT connection is still unpredictable, but more frequently does not work. And when it does work, I'd say the first 10 seconds or so sound "staticky," for lack of a better term. My OnStar rep, although courteous, was unable to further diagnose, and advised me to take the vehicle to a service dept. She also pronounced the brand, "Chevro-LETTE" as in rhymes with "MET". :uhh:


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