Reduced Propulsion Message and Engine Check Light

[ClarksonCote]

So I took delivery of my Volt on Thursday, and through part of my journey back to see family, I turned off the car. When I turned it back on, it said something to the effect of "Reduced Propulsion" and the check engine light came on too. With this message, the generator was always running, and it seemed that the "indirect" mechanical link between the generator and the wheels were all that were driving my car. Mountain mode could also no longer be enabled when this problem presented itself.

I tried powering on and off again, and got the problem to go away. It then happened later on in the trip too when I went to gas up.

It turns out that, with my Volt anyway, if after pressing the power button to turn the vehicle on, I continue to have my foot on the brake, some Voltec electronics diagnostic seems to fail. If I remove my foot from the brake immediately after pressing the power button, this problem doesn't occur.

If I had to take a stab at what's happening, perhaps there's some diagnostic test that monitors current draw or something to that effect, and the brake system is drawing too much during that test if I'm pushing on the brake, causing it to fail.

I've noticed from time to time a small pulsating on the brakes, and a small noise that occurs for about 3 or 4 seconds that seems to involve the brake/regen system when driving. I wonder if that's normal, and if it's that same behavior that's causing my propulsion message to appear.

[rhellie]

That is an interesting problem. Yesterday I was talking with my sales rep at the dealer, while waiting for my Volt's purchase papers to be prepared, and mentioned that someone else on this site had had a barke issue with a Volt delivered from the dealership the week before. The sales rep said that, evidently, the barke problem was caused by another sales rep pushing too hard on the brake pedal (he pushed on the brake pedal to get out of the car) after holding it down for a long period while explaining features of the Volt to the new owner. Upon discovering the problem the new owner returned the car and a whole new brake switch was installed to fix the problem (delaying the owner from taking is Volt home for a couple days).

I also discovered that the hourly charge for working on the Volt at my dealership is $183, up from $150 for any other Chevy, because of all the special equipment that had to be purchased for servicing. Lot's of nuances to owning a Volt I'm learning.

Good luck,ClarksonCote,on fixing all the issues with your Volt. I will be interested to see how it turns out.

[ChasSidwa]

Any update on your brake issue, keep us posted.

[ClarksonCote]

Any update on your brake issue, keep us posted.

Hi Chad,

Nothing yet; My "work-around" seems to avoid it for the time being, and I have an FSE driving up here to look at it tomorrow. They were supposed to come today, but there's a Long Island blizzard warning keeping him off the streets.

Side note: GM Corporate FSE's driving 7 hours to ensure satisfied customers is very impressive IMHO.

[D-fiant]

So, park at work today with 37 mile range remaining. (41 to start). Get back in car to drop off something at a friends house. 36 miles remaining on shut-off. A minute later, I get in to show him the interior and start the car. 36 mile range still. Turn off the car without moving a few minutes later.

Go to leave in about 10 minutes, and "reduced propulsion" pops up, battery indicator goes "dark" and the gas engine clicks on immediately. The little yellow check-engine light remains illuminated. Also, couldn't get the A/C to click on or the heat - regardless if I it was on "comfort" or not and no matter if I moved the blue arrow all the way to "low" and the red all the way to "high." The main screen still showed A/C and heat icons as "off."

Tried off/on reboot a few times, nothing worked. Hit OnStar and they did a remote-diag and told me to get it to the dealer. That part was pretty awesome - they called the dealer for me and had a gratis rental (CTS - nice) waiting. I dropped off the car this afternoon.

I understand that with every new product roll-out there's bound to be random issues. I'm trying to see here if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Please feel free to move this to whatever is the most appropriate forum. I did a search with "reduced propulsion" and this thread came up.

Regards,

#838

[Stilgar99]

D-fiant,
Please ensure you find out what the DTC codes are. That helps all of us. Also when you call onstar make sure you ask them what the DTC codes are. They can see them. Then post them here for advice/info.

Stilgar

[?'smyvolt]

So, park at work today with 37 mile range remaining. (41 to start). Get back in car to drop off something at a friends house. 36 miles remaining on shut-off. A minute later, I get in to show him the interior and start the car. 36 mile range still. Turn off the car without moving a few minutes later.

Go to leave in about 10 minutes, and "reduced propulsion" pops up, battery indicator goes "dark" and the gas engine clicks on immediately. The little yellow check-engine light remains illuminated. Also, couldn't get the A/C to click on or the heat - regardless if I it was on "comfort" or not and no matter if I moved the blue arrow all the way to "low" and the red all the way to "high." The main screen still showed A/C and heat icons as "off."

Tried off/on reboot a few times, nothing worked. Hit OnStar and they did a remote-diag and told me to get it to the dealer. That part was pretty awesome - they called the dealer for me and had a gratis rental (CTS - nice) waiting. I dropped off the car this afternoon.

I understand that with every new product roll-out there's bound to be random issues. I'm trying to see here if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Please feel free to move this to whatever is the most appropriate forum. I did a search with "reduced propulsion" and this thread came up.

Regards,

#838

Somewhere on this GM-Volt forum I recall reading about an early Volt that had the same problem with the "reduced propulsion" notification. My recollection is that a GM engineer came out and did some tests and then installed an entirely new battery assembly.

HTH

# 565

[ClarksonCote]

I had a front page blog about this, but I guess I never posted my final outcome here in the forum (apologies)... My reduced propulsion problem was related to something within the battery, and they did swap it out for me. I think it was a particular internal bank's voltage sensor. The swap was pretty painless, with the car just spending a day at the dealership. I got it back the same day, and haven't seen the problem since.

My workaround was to only tap the brake to push the power button, then immediately off the brake after the power button was pressed. In my particular case, that prevented the issue from appearing until I could get the battery swapped.

[D-fiant]

HTH & ClarksonCote,

It was a battery malfunction. A few of the cells went kaput. A GM tech came down with a new battery and requisite tools and replaced the battery component. All's well now.

I was pleasantly surprised by the level of service & attention I received from the local servicing dealer; it was wonderful! Having come from German & Japanese makes, I was expecting lesser service with Chevy, but it was exactly the opposite - the service was better! A truly nice surprise!

Regards,

[WopOnTour]

HTH & ClarksonCote,

It was a battery malfunction. A few of the cells went kaput. A GM tech came down with a new battery and requisite tools and replaced the battery component. All's well now.

I was pleasantly surprised by the level of service & attention I received from the local servicing dealer; it was wonderful! Having come from German & Japanese makes, I was expecting lesser service with Chevy, but it was exactly the opposite - the service was better! A truly nice surprise!

Regards,

It's great to hear that this issue was rectified in a timely manner and to your (apparent) satisfaction. Would you mind taking a quick look at the repair order paperwork you received from teh dealerhip and let us know exactly what DTCs the documentation indicates?

It should be in the format of a 5-digit alpha-numeric code such as P1E00 (there may be more than one)

Thanks!
WopOnTour