A second and more serious problem with my Volt

[voltage692]

faz, as long as the mechanics inspected all other similar bolts / joints, etc. in the vehicle, I would not be concerned, but would definitely take it out by myself first and ride it real hard - slalom cones, donuts, etc. - before handing the keys back to the wife.

What if Faz thrashed the car and fatigued all the bolts right up to the breaking point and then handed the keys to his wife and she had the wheel fall off on the next drive going on one of those 100ft high freeway spagetti curves at 65mph and then she and the kids flew off the curve and fell on top of an 18 wheeler loaded with flamable, caustic chemicals that was then rammed by 30 other cars in a huge fireball crash with 100's killed?

At least Faz would be able to say he "tested" the car beforehand.

[DonC]

With the wife, you are probably going to have to bit the bullet and trade the Volt in for something else like the PiP. You're just never going to hear the end of it.

Don't expect a GM refund on your Volt. I would mentally prepare to sell it for market value as a used car, which shouldn't be bad. You will be selling it in good working order now that the problems have been fixed.

Sage advice. Seems like the best course actually. Once you've lost confidence in a car you can't ever get it back.

[maynard]

Faz...You mentioned that you are not mechanically inclined. I can tell that from your posts. I am an airplane mechanic and I can assure you that if you saw some of the bolts etc. that we have to replace on airplanes you would never fly. But if you took that same attitude toward automobiles, you would never drive either. Let's see...that leaves trains and bicycles. Both of those are problem ladened also. What happened to your Volt has happened to thouisands of cars. Maybe not the same bolt, but a bolt, bearing, or other part that severly immobilized the car. My Ford F250 pickup had a sealed front wheel bearing fail. The slotted aluminum wheel locked up against the brake caliper and stopped NOW at 30 mph. Ugly, but those things happen to the best of families. I stood and watched a guy get hit by lightning. He died for sure, but the odds of that are uncanny. So, I recommend you fix your Volt, drive it, and enjoy. The car you replace your Volt with can have its own major problems.

[Slapshot28]

Faz...You mentioned that you are not mechanically inclined. I can tell that from your posts. I am an airplane mechanic and I can assure you that if you saw some of the bolts etc. that we have to replace on airplanes you would never fly. But if you took that same attitude toward automobiles, you would never drive either. Let's see...that leaves trains and bicycles. Both of those are problem ladened also. What happened to your Volt has happened to thouisands of cars. Maybe not the same bolt, but a bolt, bearing, or other part that severly immobilized the car. My Ford F250 pickup had a sealed front wheel bearing fail. The slotted aluminum wheel locked up against the brake caliper and stopped NOW at 30 mph. Ugly, but those things happen to the best of families. I stood and watched a guy get hit by lightning. He died for sure, but the odds of that are uncanny. So, I recommend you fix your Volt, drive it, and enjoy. The car you replace your Volt with can have its own major problems.

I agree. While the thought of this happening at highway speed surely is scary, these things do happen. And no-one is hurt. Think about the kind of accidents that actually do cause serious injury. Generally they are major head-on, high-speed collisions. These days cars are pretty safe, even with failures like highway blow-outs etc.

Your Volt is one of the safest cars ever built, and that's been proven. If you do switch to another car, odds are that it will not be as safe as your Volt.

Here's really the bottom line: driving is dangerous. We all need to be careful.

[mbelverud]

I have a bit of experience with wheels falling off various vehicles/machinery. In September of 1996 I had the entire passenger rear wheel assembly come off of a 89 Honda Accord while heading west on Hwy 9 between Waukon Ia and Decorah Ia. The incident happened at the same time a Bruning dump truck was passing in the opposing lane. Had the wheel come off 1 sec earlier I would have been crushed by that truck because I ended up sideways in the other lane. I also had one of the tandem axle shafts break on a 650 bushel Gehl manure spreader while going down the road at 20 mph (top speed of the tractor that was pulling it). The wheel that broke off was the leading wheel so the arm that it pivoted on went into the road, stopping the implements (~150,000 lbs combined weight) in about 5 or 6 feet. That incident left a huge hole in the road that the county had to fix.

I also had a steering arm break on a 700 bushel Brent gravity box which spilled 700+ bushels of wet corn on the road. And not six weeks ago there was a new Honda Accord blocking traffic into the apartment complex where I live that had the front end of the vehicle flat on the ground. The driver (my neighbor) later said the suspension had collapsed. I later learned that the problem had been recalled by Honda.

That said, I've never been afraid of driving anything. Life is too short to worry about what might happen.

[fishhawk]

...In September of 1996 I had the entire passenger rear wheel assembly come off of a 89 Honda Accord while heading west on Hwy 9 between Waukon Ia and Decorah Ia....

I lived in Iowa for 7 years, but that was 27 years ago. Didn't know Iowa was that dangerous

[solar_dave]

I had a 68 olds cutlass that dropped a rear axle at 70Mph, I knew it was a problem when the axle, brake drum & tire and wheel assembly passed me on the left and cut in front of me. It then proceeded to mow down a bunch of Farmers corn in a field. The spark trail in my rear view mirror was spectacular even in broad daylight.

We just fixed it and kept driving that Olds.

[Roadburner440]

Bolt failures can happen for a number of reasons.. On the Volt it should not happen, but depends on how common the type of bolt being used is. We have been having failures of certain bolts on the H-60 due to disimilar metal corrosion that is happening internally due to the different alloys that are used. These type of failures are undetectable until the bolt actually breaks, and you can see inside the bolt where the pitting has actually taken place. I am sure in cars they use much cheaper alloys/less stringent quality control so these type of failures are bound to happen. About the only way to catch it before it happens would be to NDI the bolt, but that would be far more expense than it would be worth. Hopefully GM can narrow down the exact cause and put controls in place to prevent it from happening again. Sorry to hear your luck with the car though has been not so good. Sadly these are the type of issues we have taken chance with being early adopters. I was also an early adopter on the Chrysler LX cars and those were very prone to ball joint seperation failures.. So for me this type of issue is not unheard of. Just sucks I have to worry about it happening again though.

[AllenL]

I had a 68 olds cutlass that dropped a rear axle at 70Mph, I knew it was a problem when the axle, brake drum & tire and wheel assembly passed me on the left and cut in front of me. It then proceeded to mow down a bunch of Farmers corn in a field. The spark trail in my rear view mirror was spectacular even in broad daylight.

We just fixed it and kept driving that Olds.

Im dying in laughter. Thats some funny story there. Im sure it wasn't at the time but the description..lol.

[ctdeng0]

I am not trying to discount your concern. I have experienced a tie rod bolt failure at 55 mph back in the 70's. It was exciting but not really that dangerous as the car came to a stop pretty quickly. I would not want to experience it again but it is not as dangerous a failure as it sounds.