[russella]

Symptoms
Plug car in:

• Windshield dashboard light remains yellow. No chirp to indicate charging.
• If open the door, DIC says "Not Able to Charge".
• After 15m or so, I receive a text message from OnStar saying "Your 2012 Volt is not charging due to an interruption..."

After that, if I turn the car on:

• DIC says :"Initializing Please Wait to Shift" for much longer than normal (10s?)
• Then dashboard comes up with some abnormalities:
  • Check Engine Light on
  • Gas and Electric ranges are grayed out
• Car is immobile...no traction power in any gear
• If turn car off with foot on brake pedal, it power cycles instead of turning off
• Codes set are P1EBD "Charge System Contacts Stuck Open", and P1E00 "HPCM2 req MIL illuminated"

In this above state, the car cannot be driven. Also the car won't attempt to charge. I have cleared codes with my OBDlink interface to restore driveability.

Playing with the car in the above state (clearing codes, setting them again with the cable, driving etc.) caused two other codes to show up: P0D22 "Battery Charger Output Current Performance", and P0AF8 "Hybrid Battery Pack Voltage Sense Circuit Correlation"



Other Notes
12V battery recently changed.
Symptoms have been reproduced on multiple charge cables (including 120V in 8A mode)
Dealer was unable to reproduce the issue so far. Will try to get it to misbehave for them next week.


I'm wondering if anyone has had symptoms like these? How were they addressed?

Thanks, russella


I don't see too many other complaints that seem to match my symptoms. I think what I'm seeing exactly matches what whiteelectric described in his thread from a few years back. Solution was to replace the relay-junction block/BDU:
https://gm-volt.com/forum/showthrea...pushed-dash-lights-work-Help!&highlight=p1ebd

fishhawk had a saga similar to this...he replaced his 12V battery which seemed to sort it out, but then didn't. From that thread it seems he finally had to get the BDU replaced to sort it out.

 

[Rickp813]

Good day fellow "volter" -
I read this account a few times to see if you posted the model year of your car. I did not see that in the post but my experience with my 2013 sounds similar.
I had to have mine towed to the dealer (Maher Chevrolet).
They diagnosed that one of the main battery sections was the fault and replaced it under warranty.
I had new errors (check engine light) a few weeks later and again left it to allow them to find a temperature control module was faulting. Again, the part was replaced and given back to me.
All work was free and Maher gave me a loaner too.
I've had no other issues since (this was March-April 2018) and range is stable, power strong.
Other than that, I replaced (updated actually) the charger door mechanism to a 2014 model (push to open) as the original was troublesome and the solenoid was not attempting to retract the locking plunger.

 

[russella]

Hey Rick, Yeah, I could have made that more clear. It's a 2012. It's in the OnStar text warning message I referenced, and also my signature, but I'll clarify in my signature...
I am really hoping the remedy is not to replace the battery, or even a third of it...I'm like 2k miles outside the 100k Voltec warranty, so it would be on my own dime unless GM showed me some goodwill.

-russella

 

[SEVolt2]

Wondering if there was a resolution to this. I’m having pretty much the same issue with my 2012. Last Sunday the car ran fine in the morning. Came home after <10 miles driving and plugged it in to my 220. A few hours later it did the whole “unable to charge”, long DIC initializing, no drive power thing. Monday morning called a tow truck and they did the 12v battery disconnect reconnect thing which got the car running. Took it to the dealer who said later that day that they fixed it by software update based on recent recall for ‘12’s. Car ran fine Tuesday. Wednesday morning car was dead again with same symptoms. This time had it towed without resetting it. Dealer kept the car til Friday. Replaced the HPCM2 (still under warranty) and said it was working. Today (Saturday) went out and car was dead again. History - has the reduced propulsion power issue back in August. Took the car in and they replaced the HPCM2 and the 12v. So yeah, they just replaced a 3 month old HPCM2. And the 12v battery is new too, so I wouldn’t expect that to be an issue.

 

[russella]

No resolution for me yet. It’s been months now and it’s difficult having a car that is unreliable in this way. However we have been able to live with it for two reasons...one is that the issue never occurs spontaneously, we have to attempt to charge the car. So that prevents us from getting stranded away from home.


The second is that the issue occurs pretty rarely. Once it misbehaves, it will typically misbehave a few more times over a few days, but there have been lengthy stretches of time where we cannot reproduce the issue. Of course this is the reason that we have not been able to get it diagnosed and repaired. I don’t really know what to do...the only crappy idea I had was to just pay the dealer to replace the relay junction block and see what happens.

 

[DrFumanchu350]

Has anyone came up with a resolution to this yet? My intermittent issue is now a permanent one. Cannot charge at all.

 

[russella]

DrFumanchu, I'm glad I'm not alone. We have been living with this all this time. In a way, I wish my issue were acting like yours because then I could get it fixed. Alas, it remains intermittent and the dealer cannot make progress this way (because the car won't actively misbehave when they are looking at it)
I wonder if you could post as much detail of your symptoms as you are able to, including your codes.
-russella

Has anyone came up with a resolution to this yet? My intermittent issue is now a permanent one. Cannot charge at all.

 

[DrFumanchu350]

So, here is what I've done to date:

Updated software on BECM, HPCM2 and Charger to no avail
Replaced and reprogrammed on-board battery charger
Replaced Battery Charger Fuses
Checked continuity on all cables running from battery to HPCM2 and Charger

When I monitor in GDS, I plug in the charge cord and the voltage on the charger output immediately ramps up, but the battery never accepts a charge. I'm now left with changing the relay module inside the battery. I am going to have to basically tear down the battery pack to do this so I will inspect the charge contractor upon removal ad post updates. What really PISSES ME OFF is that this issue started intermittently around 70K and the car waited until 180K to completely not charge! Thanks Geriatric Motors!

 

[DrFumanchu350]

OK Got the definitive answer. Anyone with a Gen 1 with the dreaded intermittent P1EBD. Do NOT, Repeat, DO NOT let your car go out of warranty! This issue started intermittently when the vehicle was still under the powertrain warranty and they Reprogrammed, said it was software, etc. Here one year later No more charge and I finally got around to battery removal and discovered that the pin that controls the charge relay was loose and the poor connection generated excess heat. This all culminates into a very poor connection that goes bad. You think GM took any responsibility? HELLS NO!!!!

 

[russella]

DrFumanchu- first of all, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to this with your results and conclusion. Also, double thanks for posting the image of the affected PCBA and the failed solder joint on pin R6. This is an excellent counter-hypothesis to what could be wrong with my MY2012 (though I initially suspected the contactor/relay itself was to blame)
Could you please provide more information on which module that is, and where it's located? I believe it is part of the BDU, and that it can only be accessed by dropping the battery, removing the top battery cover, draining the coolant, and disconnecting the BDU from the front of the battery...but I really hope you might say something different.

Thanks again,
russella

 

[DrFumanchu350]

DrFumanchu- first of all, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to this with your results and conclusion. Also, double thanks for posting the image of the affected PCBA and the failed solder joint on pin R6. This is an excellent counter-hypothesis to what could be wrong with my MY2012 (though I initially suspected the contactor/relay itself was to blame)
Could you please provide more information on which module that is, and where it's located? I believe it is part of the BDU, and that it can only be accessed by dropping the battery, removing the top battery cover, draining the coolant, and disconnecting the BDU from the front of the battery...but I really hope you might say something different.

Thanks again,
russella

I believe GM calls it the "Battery Energy Control Module assembly" to be clear, the relays are fine, there are three 10 amp relays which control the heater, the APU and the Charger. The Pin that goes to the front plate has the issue. I bought the whole assembly from eBay for less than 100 bucks shipped. I put some dielectric in the connector to hopefully help it keep from arcing. But unfortunately you do have to remove the battery. That's why the Huge date range of my posts

 

[russella]

Okay well thank you for confirming. Do you have access to a shop as part of your work, or did you have the dealer drop the pack for you and you did the replacement yourself, or did they drop it and do the replacement for you, but you had them keep the old part for you?
I am wondering about costs to do the replacement...I do not have the required tools to drop the pack myself.
-russella

 

[DrFumanchu350]

I know a tech who works at the dealership. I essentially paid labor and provided my own parts ($1500 savings) I'm around 1200 in labor. Upon further inspection, we also changed the circuit board that the relay module mates to as it showed signs of heat damage as well.

 

[DrFumanchu350]

One more caveat. It seems that 2014+ (I believe the breakpoint was somewhere in the 2013MY the part numbers changed . This reinforces my belief that GM knew they had an issue and just silently changed the part. DIRTBAGS! If I had purchased a replacement part, they wouldn't have given me the better one. I would have gotten the F'd up 2012 Part!