Cowmeat learns to drive the Volt

[cowmeat]

I got the Volt back today - it turned out to be an engine control ignition relay that shorted out. It had thrown the code P16A7, so says the warranty paperwork.
I drove it back from the shop with no issues and I'll leave it at work tonight to charge

Your not using that low quality FPL fuel are you?

Probably Duke or TECO lol, I really don't know what they use here a work. Beggars can't be choosers!


Here's what the code said in GM's code book

[cowmeat]

The Volt's back in the shop, it's been there since last Friday. This time they haven't been so quick to diagnose it, I honestly think they have no idea what's wrong.

It has the same symptoms as the first go-around with it just losing all power and control, but this time I was exiting the interstate at a high rate of speed, so it was a lot dicier trying to get it stopped and keep it in the lane

They were thinking wheel motors and transmission replacements over the week, and they said they'd (try to) have some concrete plan of action by this evening. In the meantime they lent me a brand new truck for the duration until they get Ruby sorted out, so this might be a long haul waiting for a fix!

I love the Volt, but this is the second one I've owned and I've had issues with both even though I've absolutely babied both of them. The first one they replaced the entire traction battery under warranty, and this one is only a year old and is already having issues.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Sell it and get a Honda Clarity PHEV.

IIRC don't both have an estimated 50 mile range?

What are you driving now while it's in the shop?

[cowmeat]

Sell it and get a Honda Clarity PHEV.

Other than the absolute homeliness of the Clarity I'd think about it. The front end is so long it looks like if you stood on the front bumper the rear of the car would come off the ground, and for some reason they forgot to put the wheel skirts on the rear wheel wells at the factory

IIRC don't both have an estimated 50 mile range?

I believe the Clarity has more range out of the box, but unfortunately it's butt ugly. The Volt 53 miles of EV range out of the box, and normally mine shows way over 70 miles after charging it, and it looks like a car.

What are you driving now while it's in the shop?

They lent me a 2019 Colorado. It does have AC and a stereo so I'm not complaining, it's just a little girly feeling considering I usually drive my C3500 on the weekends

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

The Volt's back in the shop, it's been there since last Friday. This time they haven't been so quick to diagnose it, I honestly think they have no idea what's wrong.

It has the same symptoms as the first go-around with it just losing all power and control, but this time I was exiting the interstate at a high rate of speed, so it was a lot dicier trying to get it stopped and keep it in the lane

They were thinking wheel motors and transmission replacements over the week, and they said they'd (try to) have some concrete plan of action by this evening. In the meantime they lent me a brand new truck for the duration until they get Ruby sorted out, so this might be a long haul waiting for a fix!

I love the Volt, but this is the second one I've owned and I've had issues with both even though I've absolutely babied both of them. The first one they replaced the entire traction battery under warranty, and this one is only a year old and is already having issues.

Many times the dealer doesn’t have a clue, shorts, broken cables, bad sensors and even an air bubbles have been misdiagnosed driven thousands of dollars of unnecessary repairs .

Unfortunately besides a couple resources the dealership experience is a crap shoot

I recommend joining diy Chevy volt repair and mod group on Facebook.

[cowmeat]

I recommend joining diy Chevy volt repair and mod group on Facebook.

I don't do Facebook, but it probably wouldn't hurt for me to forward this info to my Volt tech! Might help him diagnose the problem since I think at this point he's just checking youtube for possible fixes

I am on the Volt Owners forum all the time though, and this issue seems to unfortunately be fairly common.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

I don't do Facebook, but it probably wouldn't hurt for me to forward this info to my Volt tech! Might help him diagnose the problem since I think at this point he's just checking youtube for possible fixes

I am on the Volt Owners forum all the time though, and this issue seems to unfortunately be fairly common.

I didn’t do Facebook either, sadly more information and human specialists is getting stuck there with no other means of accessing it.

I have the choice pay thousands or repair myself

So I setup a generic account with a landscape just to access information

[cowmeat]

I might try that, but this forum is about as social media oriented as I get

I'm a member of the Ecomodder forum, the Volt owners forum, a Hobie kayak owners forum and a Native kayak owners forum (until they switched over to Facebook) and that's it. This is the only one I even have bookmarked

[cowmeat]

I did everybody a favor this weekend and probably saved a gig of space on the forum by deleting all my retired cars from my sig. I'm sure it'll save a lot of scrolling over time

Gone but not forgotten are:

Black Widow - my trusty old 1993 Ford Festiva, my first true eco car

Turtle - my first G1 Insight, 2000 manual silver, one of the first thousand built

Ron Burgundy - a one-of-a-kind custom 2001 Insight sporting shaved doors, custom paint, leather seats and door panels, sunroof, mirrored moon discs, solar charger on the hood, black interior

High Voltage - my G1 Volt, now owned by my son

[cowmeat]

I wonder if the dealership is going to drag their feet even more fixing Ruby now that GM's on strike. I heard this morning that not only are the plants on strike, the parts warehouses are too which is going to make it tough to get parts