We just driving down the road tonight coming home from work when the high voltage circuit died. We had 8 miles left of charge and a full tank of gas. There was no warning, I had let off the accelerator for traffic and when I went to accelerate, nothing. At first I thought I somehow missed the pedal, but no, it just was not responding. The dash looked completely normal and the speedo was showing speed. I tried to turn the start button on and off to see if it would take off but nothing. I coasted and turned down a side street and stopped. Once stopped I noticed there was a check engine light. I also noticed at that point that the P/S no longer was working. Everything else seemed to work. I turned it off and it didn't turn off at first, I got a screen that looked like astroids circling a planet and it said something about trying to initialize something. Then I turned it back on and off again and it turned off. When I turned it back on again everything looked good but the CEL was still there, no P/S and no drive.
I called Onstar and they contacted GM Roadside Assistance, who sent out a tilt bed to pick her up. The driver was pretty amazed by the car and was really nice. My wife and I rode with him in the cab to the dealership where they had a new Impala waiting for us. They were already closed but had the keys stashed for us.
Get this though, a couple of minutes before the truck got there ( probably about 30 minutes after the initial failure) I got in the car and tried it one more time. The car came on like normal and the P/S and drive actually were working. The CEL was still there, and considering what all had transpired I wasn't about to drive it again until it is thoroughly checked out. Anyway, we already miss it and this has in no way affected my passion for this car. It is AMAZING and we LOVE it. We just are hoping not to have to put too much gas in the Impala while it gets fixed. I hope they can figure out what happened to it and can fix it correctly and quickly.

Sorry for the incident, but thanks for reporting your «experience» to us !!

What is your total mileage?

Right now it has about 1350 miles on it. I just connected to it on My Volt and the diagnostics say everything is fine. When the Onstar people connected to it they said it had two codes both were something with the main power circuit. I just hope they can figure it out and don't just say everything checks out ok.

what dealership did you get your car from?

Lee Chevrolet in Washington N.C. I've bought my last four vehicles from Steven Lee and would highly recommend them to anyone. They are great people there.

Sorry to hear about your Volt. Hopefully they'll figure it out and get you back on the road quickly. The CEL codes are definitely useful. Nothing worse than an intermittent problem you can't reproduce.

hopefully the part about it restarting means a quick fix, good luck

Get this though, a couple of minutes before the truck got there ( probably about 30 minutes after the initial failure) I got in the car and tried it one more time. The car came on like normal and the P/S and drive actually were working.

That is the worst part right there. It's one thing to have a problem. Cars get those. But it's just a whole other thing when it turns into a phantom issue that seems to show up at any time and then vanish.

I actually had a 2000 Impala where the electrical system would go out for no reason. First time it happened it was a moonless night on a back road and I was still 30 miles from home. I couldn't see anything when the dash, console, and headlights went off all at once. They came on after I punched my hazards. Go figure. Happened three more times and the dealer never found anything but I paid $95 each time (a fortune for me at the time) for their time. Frustrating.

I hope for your sake that this isn't "that type" of issue and I'll be disturbed if it is. Please keep us updated as things develop and let us know the ultimate resolution. Good luck!

Sorry to hear about this agggilli. Has your advisor been in contact with you yet?

Yes, intermittent problems are by far the worst. Way back in high school I did stereo repair for a living. Give me a dead one every time - those you can fix right now and be sure you fixed it. The other kind...you're never completely sure, and it's frustrating on both sides of the service counter. As a service guy, your costs don't go away just because the problem isn't happening, but the customer doesn't seem to realize that one. As the customer, you just know it's broke - and expect the service guy to magically know how to fix something he's never seen before.

While on that topic, something else people don't get about service situations. To give an estimate, you have to be really sure what's wrong - and that's 90% of the work of repair - sometimes you even have to try the fix to be sure - 100% of the cost of repair - yet people demand free estimates as if that should be easy to do. It's not (most of the time).

A further thing we learned in that business - never do it while a customer waits. They'll complain about the bill if you do.
Lets say I was getting 10/hour in my paycheck. Overhead made that about double for the shop. Every minute counts, from talking to the customer up front to making change at the register. So, a do a fix while you wait - total time an hour, and charge $25 (shop needs some profits, there are times when there is not enough business to cover costs). You make say, $20/hour at your paper pushing job and question why some grunt gets more than that. (even though that grunt obviously has skills and equipment you lack - why are you even there otherwise?) I don't. No one does. But yet, if I keep it a week, you'll somehow rationalize I spent most of that week working on just your problem and not complain! Seen that over and over, so we had to make a policy about it. Note - these are 1960's numbers...all the dollars today would be higher - you can thank the Fed and the politicians for that.

Why do you think they make you wait in the doctors office so long that by the time they get to you, you're glad to pay a half hour bill for 10 minutes of actual interaction?

Hope they get your car fixed and fixed right - I'm loving mine, and everyone who took the dive on these deserves what they usually deliver - maximum smiles per mile, not troubles.

Even if the problem seems intermittent and it's working normally now... The Volt probably recorded all of the error codes when the event happened. The technician should see those error codes and get a good clue as to what to look for. Hopefully they will find a definite problem and fix it.

Keep us updated on your situation. I'm sure we'd all be interested to know what the problem ended up being

Yes I was contacted by a Volt Adviser this morning. I called an left a message for her telling her what had happened. I whined a bit about having to now pay for gas while my baby is down. 20 minutes later my dealer called me and told me they had a new Volt for me to use while mine was being worked on. I guess GM called them and told them that if a Volt is down and they have one in stock they should have let the Volt owner use it. They even offered to deliver it. Now that is what I call service. Well I was appreciative that they were giving me a new Volt to drive, so I told them that I would just come and get it. I went and got it after work, so at least I'm back in a Volt.
This one has chrome wheels and Navigation, fully loaded. Anyway, I have to say that I am VERY impressed with the GM support I am receiving so far. A GM Volt advisor called me last night to ask me all about it. And then after I called and left the message it wasn.t 20 minutes until the dealer was calling me about the new Volt to use. An hour after that the Volt advisor called me to tell me they (GM) would be assisting the dealer to get to the bottom of it, and would keep me informed of the progress.
Last night the whole time we were waiting for the tilt bed, we got about 10 calls checking to make sure we were safe and updating us on the truck ETA. I still think the car is amazing and am not phased a bit by the issue. I just think the GM response has also been AMAZING as well. I will definitely let everyone know what they find. I'm just thrilled to have another Volt in the garage tonight.

Awesome story!
Just the kind of thing I have expected to hear about on the service side and it just re-affirms my decision to get a Volt!

I believe everything is gonna work out well here.

(I like the exclusivity at this stage, buy why isn't everyone getting a Volt?)

Yes, really. Almost makes me wish something went wrong with mine to experience that service - but darn, it's perfect.

My battery coolant rad had a pin hole in it and killed the battery coolant pump. Had to drive a piece of crap Mazda 3 for over a week while waiting for the part. I wined about paying for gas. They offered a free gas card. I said why not a free extended warranty? Guess what - they said ok. Now that's what I call service! They have gone well over and beyond for me. Unparalleled attention and service.

Ok all, I got my black Volt back tonight, and so far all is ok. The technician called me at work today to explain the repair. He said that on the High Voltage circuits there are covers over all of the junctions to protect the junction and also to prevent accidental shocks. He said that each cover has a sensor on it that if the sensor thinks the cover is loose will disconnect the high voltage batteries. Based on the codes stored they said it was a cover way up under the dash. He said he removed it, applied dielectric grease to the connections and securely reconnected it and securely replaced the cover. He said that since the car had not acted up since they had it, there was not a way to be completely sure, but that he had a pretty good confidence in the repair and that he had consulted with GM on it. He said they had run through three charge cycles without incident and I could either take it and drive it myself or leave it there for them to drive for a few more days. I told him I preferred to take it. So anyway after work my wife and I went to pick my black Volt up and then just went ahead and leased her the Silver one we have been using since the black one had the issue last week. So now we have a his and hers set. I am going to swap her polished wheels onto my black car this weekend. I told her that since she got Navigation and backup camera, I wanted her polished wheels. They are going to look great on my black car! I LOVE these Volts!

Wow. Great story and congrats on the second volt. Don't forget you'll have to train the TPMS on each car.

Nope still not right. She died again tonight about 100 feet from my driveway. I guess it is back to the dealer again tomorrow. It started right back up this time at least. It had 5 miles left on the charge and I'm wondering if this may be a clue, as it had 8 miles on it the last time. Maybe it has something to do with when the battery starts getting towards the end of the charge. Anyway, I'm charging it back up tonight and plan to take it to work tomorrow and call the dealer to have them come and get it. Well they still had a white one at the dealership, I wonder if I'll get that one this time?

This has to be frustrating. Keep us posted.

Ok, so the dealer did provide me with the white Volt, and I have been driving it since mine was picked up. They attempted to duplicate the issue and could not, however I told them not to give it back until they were sure it was fixed. The dealership has been excellent throughout this repair and staying in constant contact. That said, I felt the issue needed further horsepower than the support the dealer technician was receiving over the telephone with GM, so I made some calls and got Detroit's attention. After those discussions, they flew in a Field Service Engineer to work on the car on site. I also am corresponding with the actual engineer that designed the component that is at fault.
They have indeed determined the offending piece of hardware, and this is a partial excerpt from our conversation. "The information that we were able to obtain from the module was a limited timeline of when DTCs were set relative to one another. The good news is that we confirmed that all of the DTCs that were present when the vehicle got to the dealer were set at the same time – likely indicating a single point failure. I have taken each of these DTC’s and mapped it to the corresponding pin on the HPCM2. The good news from that investigation is that there are pins on both connectors on the HPCM2 that are impacted. When I look at the vehicle wiring, especially the wiring of the Charge Port Door and Fuel Fill Door Sensors, they do not share much in common. The only common location is the HPCM2 itself. Replacing the HPCM2 will solve the issue."
The good news is that this is the first failure they have seen of this component, so it is not a widespread problem and all you guys can rest easier. My guess is that it is a one off vendor issue such as a cold or incomplete solder joint on the PCB or something similar. The other good news is that they plan to "dog" the component to death in an environmental chamber and shaker table, as well as install it on a car and run it on the Milford Proving Grounds on their roughest roads/etc.until they find out exactly what the issue is. Once they know that, they will make improvements to it and we will all benefit from it in the future.
Bottom line is GM stepped up to the plate on this and got it resolved. I pick the car up on Monday, after they finish the battery structure upgrade that they are doing while the Field Service Engineer is in town to assist. I also now have a couple of new GM contacts that I can count on should I have any problems in the future. We should all be proud of GM and their commitment to make and keep this car the best it can be and have satisfied customers.

Ok, so the dealer did provide me with the white Volt,...

SNIP

Bottom line is GM stepped up to the plate on this and got it resolved. I pick the car up on Monday, after they finish the battery structure upgrade that they are doing while the Field Service Engineer is in town to assist. I also now have a couple of new GM contacts that I can count on should I have any problems in the future. We should all be proud of GM and their commitment to make and keep this car the best it can be and have satisfied customers.


Thanks, for the detailed update and glad to hear black beauty will be back in her owners stable next week.

Glad to see GM fixed your issue! It is certaintly cool to see them take our parts back to Detroit for testing. They took my charge relay back (it got water in there) to do further testing on it. So it is good to see them taking these failed parts, and trying to see what/where/how it happened. At least you got a Volt! I was stuck with an Impala that got 19mpg for 5 days. We only drove it barely over 30 miles (I drove the Prius instead) and it cost $10 to fill before taking it back to Enterprise! People talk about range anxiety, but what about pump anxiety. Especially when you haven't filled a gas tank in months.

Interesting though that they have switches on the covers. Makes one think they do not want us tampering in there, lol.. I am dreading being without the car for the battery upgrade. Luckily I have a week off between the 19th-24th so hopefully I can cram it in there so I will not have to drive much without it. Do keep up posted though when you get yours back tomorrow! Just sorry to hear you have had this issue in the first 1300 miles.

Ok, so the dealer did provide me with the white Volt, and I have been driving it since mine was picked up. They attempted to duplicate the issue and could not, however I told them not to give it back until they were sure it was fixed. The dealership has been excellent throughout this repair and staying in constant contact. That said, I felt the issue needed further horsepower than the support the dealer technician was receiving over the telephone with GM, so I made some calls and got Detroit's attention. After those discussions, they flew in a Field Service Engineer to work on the car on site. I also am corresponding with the actual engineer that designed the component that is at fault.
They have indeed determined the offending piece of hardware, and this is a partial excerpt from our conversation. "The information that we were able to obtain from the module was a limited timeline of when DTCs were set relative to one another. The good news is that we confirmed that all of the DTCs that were present when the vehicle got to the dealer were set at the same time – likely indicating a single point failure. I have taken each of these DTC’s and mapped it to the corresponding pin on the HPCM2. The good news from that investigation is that there are pins on both connectors on the HPCM2 that are impacted. When I look at the vehicle wiring, especially the wiring of the Charge Port Door and Fuel Fill Door Sensors, they do not share much in common. The only common location is the HPCM2 itself. Replacing the HPCM2 will solve the issue."
The good news is that this is the first failure they have seen of this component, so it is not a widespread problem and all you guys can rest easier. My guess is that it is a one off vendor issue such as a cold or incomplete solder joint on the PCB or something similar. The other good news is that they plan to "dog" the component to death in an environmental chamber and shaker table, as well as install it on a car and run it on the Milford Proving Grounds on their roughest roads/etc.until they find out exactly what the issue is. Once they know that, they will make improvements to it and we will all benefit from it in the future.
Bottom line is GM stepped up to the plate on this and got it resolved. I pick the car up on Monday, after they finish the battery structure upgrade that they are doing while the Field Service Engineer is in town to assist. I also now have a couple of new GM contacts that I can count on should I have any problems in the future. We should all be proud of GM and their commitment to make and keep this car the best it can be and have satisfied customers.

Awesome update. Your pushing of the issue is good for all of us. Thank you!

I really apprecaite your analytical approach to this issue, many of us would get emotional and start making rash statements and judgments. Both you and GM need to be commended.

I believe it is a "one off" problem and that GM is doing what they are not known for, moving heaven and earth to get to the source of the problem.

Thanks for the analytical and detailed explination of the failure, dealer efforts and now GM's intervention. From bad comes good.

Cheers

When I read accounts like this of difficult problems expertly handled and customers treated as people, not problems, I ask myself whether this behavior can be spread throughout GM and their dealer network.

NASA brought project scheduling to new heights with PERT and many organizations adopted their methods.

Just In Time scheduling was developed by Asian manufacturers like Toyota and is now widely used.

There are many unique aspects of Volt support such as Volt Advisors working for GM (not the dealer), customer access to real engineering expertise (including this board), and above all, treating a dead car as a major event requiring serious hand holding even though it may be routine to the dealer.

I realize the dealer-GM political implications of this but it doesn't require a 500 mile battery or a $20,000 EV to use the Volt project to catapult GM way beyond the competition. The Japanese pioneered zero-defects car manufacturing and captured huge market share. If GM takes it to the next level with zero-defects customer relations, they can dominate the market.

I've been in Jaguar and Lexus dealerships that were posh indeed and even offered hot food and massages while you wait, but they were no more expert or informative than any other dealerships. Can GM learn from the Volt experience how to break the customer relations barrier?

From my own experience and the experience of others I have read here, it's pretty clear that there is a right way to handle these problems. Keep the customer informed with detailed information, provide a reasonable rental car substitute, and reassure the customer that GM is working on improving reliability. Too many of us are experiencing the opposite because of uninformed dealers and poor communication from the dealer, GM, or both. Mikeg3, your comments are spot on.

This is a really interesting thread. Never heard of OTHER carmakers going to bat like this, to get to the bottom of a problem!

From my own experience and the experience of others I have read here, it's pretty clear that there is a right way to handle these problems. Keep the customer informed with detailed information, provide a reasonable rental car substitute, and reassure the customer that GM is working on improving reliability. Too many of us are experiencing the opposite because of uninformed dealers and poor communication from the dealer, GM, or both. Mikeg3, your comments are spot on.I'm not sure where exactly your getting your data in order to base such a staement on. Here on these forums? Not really much of a sample. Probably even less accurate than a primary polstering pundit!
Actually in the big scheme of things not very many are experiencing what you describe- statistically speaking.
In reality GM is providing unprecidented levels of support just as you describe and and appear to desire.
IMO people whining that they had to drive a current model year Impala, Tahoe, or an Aveo while their car was being serviced are just that... whiny!
JMO
WOT

Probably even less accurate than a primary polstering pundit!


And I thought Spiro Agnew was gone ... :D

He attacked his adversaries with relish, hurling unusual, often alliterative epithets including "pusillanimous pussyfooters", "nattering nabobs of negativism", and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history".

And I thought Spiro Agnew was gone ... :D

He attacked his adversaries with relish, hurling unusual, often alliterative epithets including "pusillanimous pussyfooters", "nattering nabobs of negativism", and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history".LOL good one!
WOT

Since My thread has been reopened for a time, I figured I would give an update. My black Volt is still running perfectly with over a thousand miles since the repair, so I'm feeling pretty good about it now. Also, the engineer in Detroit that I talked to by email, also called me personally a few weeks ago to let me know that they did finally get my returned module to fail. They put it in a a vehicle and ran it for 300 miles with no fault, then put it in a test chamber where it did fail. The next step was to contact the supplier with the results of that failure test, so the supplier can launch their own investigation to determine the root cause and fix it, whether it be a component or process issue.
My case is a little different than most in the fact that due to my own personal position in my place of employment I had the opportunity to delve slightly deeper into GM once I got the telephone number of my GM Regional Manager. I got this from the owner of my dealership and was able to parlay it into much deeper concern, by reaching higher people in the organization. I think a lot of the failures that occur never really get seen by anyone within GM fast enough for them to be real reactionary. This is probably due to the fact the dealer's just follow their normal processes with diagnostics, filing warranty claims, etc. without really pressing the envelope and demanding real assistance from GM. Most dealers still do not understand the VOLT or the significance and impact it has on the whole project when one is down.

I'm not sure where exactly your getting your data in order to base such a staement on. Here on these forums? Not really much of a sample. Probably even less accurate than a primary polstering pundit!
Actually in the big scheme of things not very many are experiencing what you describe- statistically speaking.
In reality GM is providing unprecidented levels of support just as you describe and and appear to desire.
IMO people whining that they had to drive a current model year Impala, Tahoe, or an Aveo while their car was being serviced are just that... whiny!
JMO
WOT

You are entitled to your opinion, but go look at my posted experience, or the one that PeterC recently posted. Not being able to get an update on what is going on with your car - from the dealer or from a Volt Advisor - for nearly a week is very frustrating. As for being "whiny" about a replacement car, I had no place to put the Yukon I was given. It wouldn't fit in my garage, and I couldn't park it in my driveway or on the street without preventing my wife from leaving the house in her car. While it's a small gesture to get a reasonably sized replacement, it is one that would have saved me a lot of effort. I wasn't asking for another Volt, just something I could fit inside or in the vicinity of my garage. But I was told the Yukon was my only option for a temporary replacement.



In reality GM is providing unprecidented levels of support just as you describe and and appear to desire.

You are right that many posts on this forum have described unprecedented support from GM. But my reality is that I received underwhelming support that was nothing like what has been described on this forum. I don't understand the need to criticize me because I haven't had a good experience thus far.

You are right that many posts on this forum have described unprecedented support from GM. But my reality is that I received underwhelming support that was nothing like what has been described on this forum. I don't understand the need to criticize me because I haven't had a good experience thus far.

GM has been awesome with me on all my GM cars since 2007.

I don't get that reception for my '08 Buick Enclave when performing warrnty work. I was told having a GM vehicle manufactured before the "New GM" makes it MUCH difficult to have GM assist in warranty repairs. Very unlikely to go above and beyond as some of you witnessed with your Volts. If major warranty repairs are needed for my Volt in the future I shall see if this is truly the new and improved GM.

Since someone reopened my old thread I'll provide an update. I've now got over 4000 miles on the Volt and so far have had NO further issues. I still have 5.6 gallons left of my original dealer tank of gas. Also, the Morimoto HID Headlights work great, so much better than stock.

Thank you for the update agggilli! That is very good to hear that everything is working with no further issues and you are back to enjoying your Volt!