Bad Bluetooth behavior with iPhone 4S / iOS 5.0.1

Question

I'm having a very strange issue with my iPhone 4S the last few days. I own a Hyundai Sonata, which has built-in Bluetooth for hands-free use, and it's been paired with my 4S since the day I got it (and my old 3G before that).
Up until a few days ago, BT has worked flawlessly: Everything auto-connects when I start up the car, incoming and outgoing calls would automatically use the Sonata's BT system, and the Music app could independenty play audio over the Kensington AUX connector dock cable I own.
But the last few days, even though the phone shows the BT logo in the status bar and my car shows it's connected, and even though checking the Settings app shows everything is connected, calls refuse to use the BT audio (either incoming or outgoing). Even stranger is what happens I tap the Audio Sources button in the Phone app -- I see "Sonata" listed in the options, as well as "Dock Connector" and "Speaker". But tapping "Sonata" does absolutely nothing; it stays locked on "Dock Connector". Restarting the phone has no effect, and I've found I have to shut off BT in the Phone and turn it back on to get the phone working right again.
Even weirder was what happened this morning. I got another call, and again I had to shut off BT and turn it back on (after pulling over ). But then, when I went back to the Music app, I saw "Sonata", "Dock Connector", and another option I'd never seen before (can't remember the name now). This time, tapping "Dock Connector" was useless, and I had to play everything over BT for the Music app (but at least the phone was working).
My normal flow when I get into the car is this:
1) Start the car
2) Wait for BT to connect
3) Connect the AUX cable to the dock port for power and music playback
4) Fire up my music / podcasts
This saves me from having to use the AirPlay controls to select the audio source, since reversing steps 2 and 3 causes audio to play back over BT by default once that's connected, and I don't want to do that when I've got a nice AUX connection. I've been doing this for months without issue, so I don't think it's cause and effect.
Likewise, in all the cases where this has happened, I had the Music player open and playing a podcast at 2x, but again I don't think this is the cause, either -- I've played podcasts at 2x before and didn't have these connectivity problems when a call came in.
Are others having this issue? I haven't tried a "hard reboot" yet (holding Home and Sleep/Wake until screen goes dark and then comes back with the Apple logo), but I'm getting sorely tempted.
Thanks in advance!
- Joe -

Answer 1

If your phone was hacked to unlock from another carrer, when you updated it was re-locked to the original carrier.