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Month-old 2017 Volt LT dead, towed for repairs

11K views 31 replies 21 participants last post by  Arcanox 
#1 ·

Barely 1300 miles. Luckily, the car simply refused to back out of a parking spot in a small, uncrowdee strip mall. "Propulsion power reduced" error on the dashboard appeared when I moved the transmission from Park to Reverse, with the Check Engine lamp activating.

OnStar remotely diagnosed it as requiring immediate service so they dispatched a tow truck to haul it away.

Local Chevy dealership tech says the power inverter failed so I'm pretty much SOL for a week. The Volt failed on a Sunday so I had to find myself a rental car, for which Chevrolet promises they'll reimburse me.

Two days later I call to check in on progress and they told me that parts arrived but "were damaged" prior to or during shipping. I had to extend my car rental and front the money myself. I am pressing the Chevy dealer to reiterate that this is all under warranty and that all expenses are covered. Heck, I still have to make the car payments.

This has created a lot of anxiety about the Volt. It's our family's first American car (we graduated from ten years with a Prius which served perfectly). You can imagine my frustration considering I've only had this brand new Volt for a month. Is this a common failure with this brand's hybrids?


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#3 ·
This is my second Volt and I've not experienced anything more than a flat tire. Sorry to hear you're have trouble with your new car. This can very frustrating for sure, but the tech is sound and is a great vehicle. I traded my prius for a 2012 Volt and haven't regretted it at all. My wife still has her prius but is planning to trade it in on a new Volt in December to pick up in January next year. Hang in there and keep us posted, Good luck..
 
#4 ·
Check with your dealer to take over the rental agreement so that you are not out of pocket. I am sure you will be covered without much fuss as long as you are not renting a Lamborghini etc!

There have been only a couple of such failures reported on this board and I do not recall there being any unsolved issues. It is a pretty straight forward repair I believe. GM does a decent job of honouring their warranties.
 
#5 ·
Thanks, good to know this is a covered repair. I'm pretty sure any parts failure in the first month would be!

Re: the rental… luckily the Hertz rep convinced me to take the Chevy Sonic over the Hyundai loaner. I initially said I was unsure about Chevy after this experience. The local dealership the next day told me that the rental would be 100% covered as long as I selected a GM car. Whew!


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#6 ·
Sorry to hear this happened. My 2017 broke down in flight after about a month of ownership. Thankfully it wasnt anything major and I had my car back in 4 days.
I've had 2 Priuses before that served perfectly as well.
At the dealer my car was at, another 2017 was there that broke down that needed the transmission replaced. He had to wait 2 weeks.
 
#7 ·
just a random question -- with an absolutely brand new car like this, say you are out of commission for 2 or 3 weeks while they are "waiting on parts"... wouldn't it be reasonable to ask them to pay for 1/2 your car note? I mean at that point you are paying for something that you can't use and you are having to cough up the money for a rental?
 
#8 ·
Wow, your story sounds so much like mine, except my power inverter module died on the Florida turnpike going 70. As with your story, my parts arrived damaged and had to be reordered causing another delay. Work order shows that they changed the "F" module that sits on the tranny along with various cooling line seals etc. I was also told that the new part is an "upgraded design" whatever that means ( bs?) for more details see the thread "My G2 dead on the road".

GM concierge service was terrible but GM Canada rep stepped in and made everything right, including all expenses.

Have seen several others with the same problem, beginning to smell the recall word.....
 
#11 · (Edited)
Update: Remember when I said the dealer received a broken replacement power inverter from GM on Tuesday? They received a second power inverter and it was also damaged. I'm told that the GM parts center is having staff inspect all their bins and how parts are handled as packaged. The power inverter has been ordered again, this time with "special handling" which to me means more delays. Add on the fact that it's a holiday weekend coming up, I may not hear anything back until next Tuesday. Good lord.


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#12 ·
What bad luck. Perhaps this particular part is easily damaged and as such, some were damaged during the build process. Could this be the reason why we have seen so many failures? Count so far is 3 that I know of
 
#15 ·
UPDATE: Repairs were completed and my Volt has a new TPIM. Dealer noted that the parts dept or the shipper had damaged the incoming part twice, requiring reorders.

Question: Have any of you with replaced Power Inverters noticed that recharging of your Volt is quicker? I need a few more days of testing but total recharge times for the same depletion _seems_ to be about 45 min-1hr less.


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#16 ·
I have not noticed any change in the recharging time, since the new module although the car has always finished charging 15-20 minutes faster than the car says, level 1& 2
 
#18 ·
I wonder if the Gen 2 Volt can be towed and lifted like a 'regular car'. This is something I was hoping they would improve over the Gen 1. I have not had to have my Gen 1 towed, but I keep the towing instructions in the glove box. And I have had it damaged by improper lifting (dealer repaired at no cost to me).
 
#20 ·
Exact same thing happened to my 2017 Volt.
Dead in a parking lot.
"Propulsion power reduced" error on the dashboard appeared when I moved the transmission from Park to Reverse, with the Check Engine lamp activating.'
Tha car vas able to jerk a foot forward and back with a full press on the accelerator. The nothing.
Towed and is at the dealership for 17 days (and counting).
First thet diagnosed electric engine shorted, allegedly changed engine + transmission, but after that the car still does not start.
They are consulting GM engineering.
 
#21 ·
My 2017 Volt also died on the road last night. Got "Propulsion power reduced" message, then engine light came on and car just stopped in the middle of the road. Got "shift to park" message and car didn't seem to be able to shut off. Called OnStar but they were not able to run diagnostics for some reason that even baffled them. Car was towed to dealer and I am awaiting a diagnosis. Just picked car up on Dec 21st, it has less than 600 miles on it. My 2013 Volt went 3 year maintenance free, so this is a disappointing experience from a great car.
 
#22 ·
A lot of new comers here it seems. Really hoping GM didn't cheap-out on Gen 2. I understand they over-engineered Gen 1. Here's hoping they didn't cheapen Gen 2 in some way to recoup costs over-engineering the Gen 2. I really like my Gen 2 aside from minor trim noises and the misfire sound when accelerating hard on ICE from full stop.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Tamas, Barbara. Please don't forget us and update us on what happens with your repairs!
 
#25 ·
and the misfire sound when accelerating hard on ICE from full stop.
I've almost gotten used to mine, but not entirely...sometimes it seems like it's trying to remind me extra hard that it still backfires because there will be two or three little pops instead...
 
#23 ·
Update: the dealer allegedly replaced one of the electric motors and transmission over two weeks.
Then they called me, that the car still does not start, no clues what is going on, they are consulting GE engineering again.

I got my 2017 Volt on October 29.
Dead in a parking lot on December 28, as describe earlier. 1224 miles on the car.
Today is January 15 and it is still at the dealership, with no clear diagnozis or expected repair date.
Deeply disappointed.
 
#27 ·
Once you hit that month mark... I'd start looking into some compensation, or them buying the car back. There's no excuse for a car that's less than 3 months old to spend 1/3rd of its service life sitting in a dealership garage.

I feel for you -- my 2017 died at 4000 miles (blown HV fuse), and again at 8000 miles (dead 12v system leaving me stranded on the side of the road)

The dealer was great, GM on the other hand via their reps here on the board and the volt advisors were "we are sorry" that's it. Asking any questions of them or to be put in touch with someone higher up that could address my issues? Yeah they wouldn't do that.

Again, the car is awesome, my dealer is awesome, GM as a company has made me excited for the Model 3 due to their craptastic customer support.
 
#24 ·
Will add that I have a new 2017 Premier with 4000 miles. The collision sensor on the front left went out (no, it was not covered in bug juice) and had to be replaced. Local dealer took care of it with no problem but again a question of initial quality control. Seems lots of small to larger problems being noted.
 
#26 ·
Yeah, mine still backfires after the "lost propulsion" software update. It's exactly the same as before: ambient about 50F, and if I accelerate so the "leaf" enters the "yellow" zone immediately on the Classic Enhanced DIC, I get the backfire. Happens in CS and HOLD mode. This is after I've ran the ICE on the freeway for a good 10 miles to get it warmed up to 186F (according to DIC).

If it hits 45F ambient, I can sometimes get a backfire if I mash the gas. In 38F and below, I can never get the backfire to occur. For all temperature ranges, it happens whether it's raining or dry.

When it gets warm again, I'll try to bring it into dealer since the warmer temps make it easily reproducible. But I don't want to waste vacation time just to be told "oh, it's normal".
 
#28 ·
The Gen 2 seems to be having all the "teething pains" of a brand new first year model car. Maybe it was that "clean sheet" design.
 
#32 ·
I do it to mine twice a week with no issues. The car's electronics are completely weatherproof and Neutral just turns the motors off and allows the wheels to free-wheel, so it's perfectly fine to send it through an automatic car wash.
 
#30 ·
When did some of you get your 2017's? I got mine at the end of Feb 2017 so I imagine it was built a few weeks or months prior? I am wondering if this was an end of year model run where lax QA let a bunch of cars through?

Quite disconcerting that such an important piece of hardware can't even be shipped properly and takes three attempts to get it right...pathetic indeed.
 
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