[mars234hall]

I installed the WeatherTech side shields and the window struggled to go all the way to the top. The first time I rolled the window down, it will not come back up. Sigh, now to tear the door apart and see what broke.

 

[[email protected]]

2011 Chevy Volt here experiencing p1e00, P1ffd, P1FFF. Faults initially appeared along with SHVCS message while using mountain mode. Battery Coolant level is right below top edge of black sticker. I cleared the faults using the OBDII reader from Advance Auto Parts.

Two weeks later, the fault had not reappeared. I had through over 10 charging cycles and had not engaged mountain mode since the first faults. Today, I decided to put it back in mountain mode and sure enough within 10 minutes, it threw all 3 faults again.

Chevy just performed recall N172130461 for Loss of Propulsion and a 27-point inspection that was all green including the battery. Could there be any correlation to this just occurring while mountain mode is on? I suspect the coolant sensor might be tripping due to the engine compartment shaking more than usual so it could be loose? Any ideas?

 

[mars234hall]

I suspect the recall caused all the error codes, as it did on mine and others. I would take it back to the Dealership that did the recall and ask them to do a courtesy reflash of the becm and the hpcm2. Voltec techs are aware of the conflicts the recalls are causing. As far as the engine shaking, it may be time for a tuneup if you have quite a few miles on the gas generator. Weird about the only in mountain mode setting, have not heard that one until now.

 

[[email protected]]

I suspect the recall caused all the error codes, as it did on mine and others. I would take it back to the Dealership that did the recall and ask them to do a courtesy reflash of the becm and the hpcm2. Voltec techs are aware of the conflicts the recalls are causing. As far as the engine shaking, it may be time for a tuneup if you have quite a few miles on the gas generator. Weird about the only in mountain mode setting, have not heard that one until now.

The recall was performed prior to the second instance of the mentioned faults and before the first mentioned fault. In particuluar, the car has 34k miles with 22k of those being on gas. I thought the engine shaking a bit was relatively normal. It usually only does it at start-up and ocassionally during mountain mode. At other times, it almost as quiet as electric.

 

[mars234hall]

That is super low miles for a 2011. How long have you owned the car?

 

[blackax]

I've been fighting this issue for 4+ years!! I have a few more data points but still cant seem to track down the root cause.

2011 200K+ miles

I have the coolant bypass plug (yes my coolant is full), I have had the HPCM2 re-flashed twice (once before and after the bypass plug)

The issue is much worse when its hot outside and I have to run the AC, It will tend to trip more often when the ICE has to run as well (I had a very long commute to work 100+ miles each way) So far I can clear the codes and it will stay away for a bit (my last stretch was 8 months) but most of that time I was only driving on the battery (covid and started to work from home before that)

I don't want to have to get rid of her but at this point i'm a little sick of dealing with this. an other ideas would be helpful

 

[JuneBug]

I've been fighting this issue for 4+ years!! I have a few more data points but still cant seem to track down the root cause.

2011 200K+ miles

I have the coolant bypass plug (yes my coolant is full), I have had the HPCM2 re-flashed twice (once before and after the bypass plug)

The issue is much worse when its hot outside and I have to run the AC, It will tend to trip more often when the ICE has to run as well (I had a very long commute to work 100+ miles each way) So far I can clear the codes and it will stay away for a bit (my last stretch was 8 months) but most of that time I was only driving on the battery (covid and started to work from home before that)

I don't want to have to get rid of her but at this point i'm a little sick of dealing with this. an other ideas would be helpful

The bypass plug is not going to help if the wiring harness is the problem. The 2011 and 2012 were retrofitted by the dealerships for the coolant level sensor by splicing into the existing wiring harness. Often the splices were done incorrectly and corrode. These splices need to be checked and/or redone. That's the only idea I have for you.

 

[Ampera10]

I had SHVCS error and I just got back from the service.
The good news and the bad news :
The good new is that everything was ok, the level of cooling, the sensor and what it had triggered the error was low AC "freon" wich I understand if it ain't supply enough air to cool down the High Voltage battery, it will trigger the error.
So, I changed the AC freon and after that, was told it needed 2 software update. That's when the bad news come in.
The fault cannot be clear without update, but with this one I was told that I might have some loss in range. So i read that some Ampera owners have got this problem, I hope not me. I understant it's not the reballancing cells update, as that one was done on 2013 volt recall. Maybe the car is just relearning y driving style but some says it will completely discharge at 8.8 - 9 kwh after update. Currently I was able to pull about 9.5-9.8kwh.
Now my car is charging and I will see if this update affect my range.
Anyone else with range lose after update?

 

[Fred_B]

My turn for the SHVCS message - discovered this today after charging overnight. I read the following 11 codes with a code reader: P1F0E, P1E00, P0AA6, P1FFF, P1E00, P1F0E, P0AA6, P1FFF, P1F0E, P0AA6, P1FFF.

Looks like it was two isolation checks (resistance < 325 KOhms) that set P1F0E and P0AA6, one for "high voltage charging bus" and one for "high voltage bus", both being resistance measured to chassis ground from the respective busses. I assume "high voltage charging bus" is one bus and "high voltage bus" is another and not just two slightly different names for the same thing, but having worked on airplanes I've seen the same thing called slightly different names (i.e. "flap handle" and "flaps handle", etc).

I have an appointment for Thursday morning at the local dealer here in New Braunfels (TX), first time at this dealer since moving from Houston earlier this year. I asked if they had a Volt technician, they said they did.

I will add that my coolant levels all appear OK. I have the original battery coolant sensor installed and it has been trouble free for years. I do have the WOT sensor defeat plug, and had it installed a few years ago, but removed it and replaced the original sensor prior to taking the car in for the 5-year coolant system flush / replace. After that I decided to leave the original sensor in place.

I'll see what the technician finds. If the sensor is bad, they will likely replace the sensor / reprogram the module and send me on my way. If that happens I may install the WOT defeat plug so this doesn't happen again.

 

[Ampera10]

My first discharge after update due to SHVCS and BAM! 9kwh on full discharge, before update last month I got 10.2. As for range, was 62km on 9kwh, with no fast acceleration, just cruise on low speed. So it's true that with the software update you will lose some usable kwh. I will try in next 10 full charge discharge cycles to see if it goes any better than this but for now I a pretty disapointed with this update. Hope in time to reballance the battery cells... Few weeks ago I managed to get 78km on same condition as I drive today-62km. I had 40.9Ah of battery from 45Ah when the car was new and SOC on full charge was 88.7%-90%, so very good before this stupid update.

 

[Fred_B]

I have already had the battery cell balancing update, didn't seem to affect my kWh used much. If my codes are to be believed, there may be a coolant leak inside the battery. But I've also read those resistance test failures can be false alarms. The dealer will have to do the manual resistance checks and look for liquid in the battery inspection port.

I hope the previous dealer used the proper coolant when they did the 5-year coolant change. I think they did because they had to wait an extra day or two for the proper coolant to be delivered.

 

[Fred_B]

Got my Volt back from the dealer today, they used bulletin PIC5920J, which seems to be the right one since I had the codes P0AA6 and P1FOE. I did NOT have any of the sensor-related codes, just had the loss of isolation ones.

Although the bulletin requires a battery drain plug check for code P0AA6, I didn't see on the paperwork that they did that (they might have still done it though). They did note that the battery coolant tank was full (actually it's maybe 1/4-1/2 inch below the top of the label but this is 2 years after the 5-year flush/fill).

What they did was reprogram BECM K16, they correctly noted that HPCM2 (K114B) had already been updated. All codes are now cleared and they performed the work today under warranty, no charge .

Edit: I now have more than 5 start-drive-shutdown cycles on the car and no codes have reappeared. So it looks like reprogramming the BECM worked. Why it took 7 years to suddenly start failing the resistance/isolation checks is a mystery though.

 

[Ampera10]

I also made 3 full charge/discharge cycles after the software update and my range drop from at least 68-70km minimum to 58km / 62 km maximum , also kwh used from 9.7-10kwh to 9 - 9.3 maximum. This update doesn't affect your range? Mine was instant, after update. What is the point of reducing maximum kwh usage?

 

[Cord]

You have to at least re-flash the HPCM2 and I guess the other one as well to clear the LOCK-OUT
now updating to new firmware is up to the dealer - ie the battery cell recall
I would think you would get the latest version on a re-flashing as a dealer would have the update service.

You would expect the guess-o-meter (range) to reset to default after a re-programming.

 

[Fred_B]

My estimated range seems to be within a mile or so of what it was before they reprogrammed the BECM. Also, when the HPCM2 update was done, earlier this year I think, I did not see much reduction in estimated range either.

 

[Ampera10]

After 5 full charge/discharge cycles, I manage to get between 8.9kwh to 9.4kwh before ICE kicks in. Range I get is around 7km/kwh, a get between 58km to 64km of range from full battery. I guess I'll never see 75km again, because before those two update were made, my kwh used was between 9.8kwh to 10.2kwh depending on regen I get. I don't think used kwh will increase after some full charge discharge cycles, no way getting back old range.

 

[camaroz1985]

Just got mine fixed and reprogrammed with the VCX. Thanks to all who have done this before for the guidance. This was the first real issue I have had with my car in over 100k miles, and I was about to take it to the dealer (which I never do for any of my vehicles), but with the info here I was able to fix it myself and for less $. Even if the VCX is something you use for the SHVCS alone it pays for itself.

The CD that came with my VCX doesn't have the VM for GDS2 so I wasn't able to get that working (don't need it for programming, but I would like to have for diagnostics). Trying to get that to work was the most time consuming part, but once I gave up on that it went pretty quickly. Tech2Win may also be helpful in the future for my older vehicles. I have a Tech2, but if I need to program anything it may be possible with the VCX.

I did run everything fine on my 64 bit Windows 10 machine (Surface Pro 3). With the 32 bit Java as recommended previously I didn't have any issues.

 

[Megardt]

Just got mine fixed and reprogrammed with the VCX. Thanks to all who have done this before for the guidance. This was the first real issue I have had with my car in over 100k miles, and I was about to take it to the dealer (which I never do for any of my vehicles), but with the info here I was able to fix it myself and for less $. Even if the VCX is something you use for the SHVCS alone it pays for itself.

The CD that came with my VCX doesn't have the VM for GDS2 so I wasn't able to get that working (don't need it for programming, but I would like to have for diagnostics). Trying to get that to work was the most time consuming part, but once I gave up on that it went pretty quickly. Tech2Win may also be helpful in the future for my older vehicles. I have a Tech2, but if I need to program anything it may be possible with the VCX.

I did run everything fine on my 64 bit Windows 10 machine (Surface Pro 3). With the 32 bit Java as recommended previously I didn't have any issues.

Hi,

What subscription did you pay for to do the SPS programming?

Or did you manage to find a Global TIS application and get that to work?

Mats

 

[camaroz1985]

Hi,

What subscription did you pay for to do the SPS programming?

Or did you manage to find a Global TIS application and get that to work?

Mats

If you read back a couple pages there is a step by step process to use the VCX Nano and ACDelco TDS subscription. It is $40 for 2 years for one VIN.

 

[Megardt]

If you read back a couple pages there is a step by step process to use the VCX Nano and ACDelco TDS subscription. It is $40 for 2 years for one VIN.

Yeah, I think that subscription is gone now unfortunately. Looks like 2 hours for €35 now - annoying if it does not fix the issue!

ACDelco TDS

www.acdelcotds.com