Way back in the 1970's when I worked at a shop that was authorized to work on GM products, a fellow from GM came around and was real proud that they were going from over one hundred shops in the country, to six, to two. That is what they have now is two that you are tied to through the new-car dealers' parts departments. There are independent shops that have sprung up that you can find by doing an internet search, but they do not get any support from GM. Most of those shops only handle common, easily-repaired problems, or they just send you a different module.
My preferred GM-authorized shop is United Radio of New York, in Syracuse. Be aware though they do not work on anything that has parts no longer available. They refused to repair a module for an 1988 model about eight years ago.
Also, be aware GM was the first manufacturer to dream up the need to program computer modules to the vehicle as a way to make more money. Their 2002 trucks were the first to do that, but it did not apply to every model that year, and not to every computer on the truck. If that applies to your truck and module, the people at United Radio should be able to pre-program a new one so you just have to plug it in and you are done.
Sep 6, 2017 at 2:51 PM
