2013 Volt - Traction Battery Issue

Was this issue fixed in Gen 2? I believe it was.

89K miles on a 2013, whoa! Lots of driving, huh? If you're the original owner, it wouldn't hurt to make some noise up the chain at GM. I've had some issues with my '13 and, after making some noise, they offered me some $$$ to get out of the car (so long as it's a GM car of course)--still debating on taking it. Just the offer itself made me feel better about the brand and that GM is acknowledging that this is not acceptable.

gergg said:

My first battery replacement took less than 3 weeks.....I say first replacement as I just got back from the Chevy Dealer, they said my CEL was due to a 2nd section of the battery going bad, that's right, 2 bad battery sections and 1 week after another, I have requested that the 3rd section be replaced too, this is not good. This time it is section 2, section 3 was replaced already, they are waiting on GM tech to give a definitive answer on what to do. I guess the good news is I will have 2, possibly all 3 sections replaced, but I feel like I have a ticking time bomb with this car.

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I had one section replaced, no issues since (knock on wood). Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like they got to the root of the problem. When I had the one section replaced, it was also due to a temp sensor fail, but my understanding from the research I did is that there could be something else going on in the battery to CAUSE the sensor to fail. *** had a good discussion on it in another thread that I can't locate at the moment. In my case, it seemed only the temp sensor, but in yours--maybe not.

Unfortunately, this car is very "novel" and even a tech saying they've done "plenty" battery section replacements is likely nothing compared to the number of head gasket replacements or other ICE-related repairs at the dealership. There is just less overall experience with these systems and usually only one dedicated Volt tech--so it's not like he can just ask the guy in the bay next to him if he missed anything.

I would definitely bring it up the chain, worst they'll say is no.

Glad you got the Volt back. I would *hope* that if it fails just out of warranty you could make an argument that they should have replaced #1 when you had the other 2 sections fail within warranty. I'm sure a deal could be made.

I was getting over 11 kWh per charge pretty, but it slowly settled around 10.6 or so, which is about 0.3-0.5 more than what I used to get. I've noticed I can get a little more if I don't stop. I would be curious where this settles down for you. Interesting to get *more* EV range with 90K plus miles. An added bonus for the inconvenience...

gergg said:

Well, the end of my Volt journey, I was having symptoms similar to the first and second battery failures, but GM said all was well at this point in time and they could do nothing....So, I sold the Volt at 101,000 miles and bought a beautiful used Lexus IS-F....first and last GM product I will ever own.......C'est la vie!!

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Sorry to see you go. Sounds like a little more love from the dealership could have made this a better experience for you. It's a shame as I'm a true believer in the tech, but these complex failures and unsatisfactory service responses can sometimes be a lot to ask of we (earlier adopting) customers. Hope you give another chance to a PHEV/BEV at some point in the future.