Stranded in Volt...twice

[David]

A long post, but I am describing in detail the situation where my Volt (#409) left me high and dry again yesterday in hopes that others in this forum can help trouble shoot the problem. I haven't had much luck to date with repair at my dealership:

Problem occurred when driving back from Bakersfield to Frazier Park, California. Outbound trip was mostly downhill and was entirely on battery. Return trip was entirely on ICE and coming up the Grape Vine (elevation gain of approx 3,000 feet) the reduced propulsion message came on (driving in normal mode…no A/C). Propulsion reduction did not seem apparent as I was traveling at only about 60mph, but could hear the engine working pretty hard.

At stop sign at base of freeway offramp to Frazier Park the engine made a clunk and turned off. Car would not move and efforts to restart were unsuccessful. Only “initializing…pleas wait” screen came on when trying to restart. Was in a dangerous location as a major truck stop is at this location and I was having to wave big rigs to go around as I attempted to restart.

OnStar reported error codes showing a problem with the lithium ion battery and the propulsion system.

OnStar offered to send CHP and a tow truck, but before CHP arrived, a motorist offered to push me beyond the stop sign to a frontage road. Tow truck tried jump start, but did not help immediately although a few minutes later I was able to start the engine briefly. I immediately put the car in Mountain Mode hoping to charge the battery. As soon as I put Volt in gear the engine stopped again and would not restart. The initialization screen came back with endless “please wait” message.

Volt…with my wife and I in truck…weas towed 35 miles to the nearest Chevy dealership. Service Department closed for weekend. Volt remains there. We rented car and returned to Frazier Park about 6 hours later than planned.

Interestingly when the tow truck driver took the car off his vehicle. He was able to start the engine and sales rep at dealership was able to move it to a parking spot. Had the engine cooled down enough to allow restarting?

Experienced a similar situation two months earlier…also resulting in being stranded far from home. Battery depleted, had driven the Volt using ICE from our hotel to neighboring city. It was a warm day and A/C was on. Stopped at McDonalds with no indication of any problem with Volt. Thirty minutes later came out to restart Volt and engine would not start. Car would not go in gear and just wanted to coast downhill from my slightly angled parking spot.

Got exact same error codes from OnStar (lithium ion battery and propulsion problems) and same screen as described earlier (initializing…please wait). While waiting for ONStar sent tow truck tried restarting many times without success. Tow truck driver tried jump start with portable device and the engine started, but check engine light remained on). Was able to return 20 miles to hotel and drive home the next day without incident although check engine light remained on.

Car was worked on at local Chevy dealer over several days, but discouragingly they could find nothing wrong and basically made no repairs. I told them and Volt Advisor I feared a repetition…and indeed it happened two months later in a far more dangerous situation

Common elements of two incidents: I don’t normally drive for long periods in ICE only. That only happens when I am far from home. In both cases problem occurred in ICE mode and only after working the engine fairly hard (prolonged uphill one time…hot day with A/C another). Yet the stress was nothing that a modern ICE shouldn’t be able to handle.

Layman’s gut feeling: some thermal interlock is activating and keeping the engine from restarting until sufficiently cooled. Even the successful jump start in first incident may have been just a coincidence in that an hour or so had passed at that point. A later battery check at dealership showed the 12 volt battery to be in excellent condition.

[RDO CA]

David,
Sorry about you problem with your "Volt. What was your thinking the second time to not be in Mountian mode going home? Also did GM contact you about the first problem or did dealer connect with the GM Volt experts?
Roy #272

[DonC]

I think you're right in thinking that it's a thermal issue with the engine and/or battery. Mountain Mode might avoid it but, since you shouldn't have to be in Mountain Mode, this could be a major issue with either the Volts in general or your Volt in particular. It would be interesting to know the error codes.

[scottf200]

Sorry for the troubles. I would be bummed as well and the second situation was not cool.

Tow truck tried jump start, but did not help immediately although a few minutes later I was able to start the engine briefly. I immediately put the car in Mountain Mode hoping to charge the battery. As soon as I put Volt in gear the engine stopped again and would not restart. The initialization screen came back with endless “please wait” message.

From the manual it is clear that the 360v battery will charge the 12v after the car starts. This analogy seems to be like an alternator but even with that there is an electronic regulator box that controls it. I've had to get them replaced a time or two on old cars. I wonder if there is something going wrong in the charging or sensing of the 12v battery charging.

Push the POWER O button to start. This will wake up the electronics on the Volt. After the instrument cluster initializes, the Volt will use power from the high voltage battery to charge the 12‐volt battery. The jumper cables can then be disconnected.

[Mybatcar]

There's not much opening area in the front grill, and a long hot climb with reduced airflow could get engine temps rising. I would expect some indication of that, but perhaps a generic shutdown happens once a particular threshold has been reached prior to venting coolant. The same thing seems to have happened in the McDs parking lot.....a hot day drive, park on hot asphalt, and shutting down the car turns off all cooling systems . The car gets heat soaked and perhaps the heat built up at some sensor point that normally would have a breeze if the car was moving.....just a thought.
Whatever the cause I hope you find it because the worse part is not knowing and anticipating that it might happen again at any time !

Steve in Boca Raton #313

[WopOnTour]

Scary story...

However, the exact Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) that were stored would be absolutely critical here. Otherwise, it's merely just wild speculation. The statement from Onstar that you were experiencing issues with the "lithium ion battery and the propulsion system" were unfortunately "generic" (besides being obvious).Again, thermal variations can occcur during ANY failure and without the fore-knowledge provided by the actual fault codes there is absolutely no way for anyone to be able to extrapolate a potential root cause.

WopOnTour

[RobertSullivan]

Today I drove 150 non-stop miles in 100-degree heat between Columbus and Atlanta all in CS mode. No issues.

[rtmey2000]

I just made a 900 mile journey in my volt in the Texas heat (103 Degrees for most of the drive - 400+ miles per day - only two short stops). Drove via ICE the entire time. This problem this gentleman is referring to is particular the his specific car. The grill and ventilation issues may play roles, but there has to be some sensor or other device that is faulty in this guys car.

The extensive testing that GM made prior to roll out has paid off. There is a specific fault in this car, and we should not generalize to all volts all over the country.

[LGA]

I have driven that same stretch of the Grapevine (I-5) in my Volt, with no problems. But I used Mountain Mode well in advance. Otherwise, I think you run the risk of further depleting the battery (below the 20% level) and running into problems. Remember, the Volt has a full-size electric motor, and a half-size ICE. On a steep grade, it needs help from the electric motor, which may cause it to discharge to the "reduced-propulsion" level.

[Sheffield]

For those out of area, driving south on the grapevine section of I5 is a 3000 foot gain in 12 miles. You routinely see cars overheating or otherwise failing on that stretch. The peak altitude is about 4500 ft elevation. The whole section is 40 miles of impressive grades at freeway speeds. This is what mountain mode was built for.