[mrwilleeeum]

Hi everyone.. I basically needed a place to vent.

I was driving home from Vegas up the long incline past state line. I suddenly lost power and got the message, "Engine Overheated: Turn Off Engine," which I did immediately. I opened the hood and saw that the plastic connector that connects the coolant reservoir on the passenger side had snapped off leaking coolant everywhere. Called OnStar and had to have my vehicle towed 60 miles back to Henderson Chevrolet, which was closed since it was a weekend. I then Lyfted to an airport, left my luggage in my car since we have to pay extra for checked bags, and flew home because being the holiday weekend, no rental cars were available anywhere in the area. I received a call from Henderson on Monday, July 3 in which they told me that a heater hose had broke and it would be a $300 repair. They had to order the part from MI, and it would arrive Wednesday.

Wednesday came around and I receive a call stating that my part had arrived and that it would be ready by that evening. I tell them that I can't be there until Thursday morning since I was working and they said it was fine. I asked them once again if they're sure it'll be ready by Thursday. I also tell them that I'll book a flight and a hotel tonight and be there Thursday morning. They said that's fine and that it'll be ready for sure.

Four hours later, I'm at the airport waiting to board my plane and Henderson Chevy calls. They tell me that they also found a blown head gasket and that they wouldn't have my vehicle ready until next week. At this point, I cannot cancel my flight or my hotel since they need to be made 48 hours in advance. I tell them I already have a flight and a hotel and that I'm going to fly up anyway to speak with them. They said they'll speak with me on that day as they try and figure out if the repair would be under warranty.

Thursday (Today), I arrive at Henderson Chevrolet to find out that the repair will not be under warranty since the blown head gasket was caused by the engine overheating. It will now be a $3300 fix. They could not give me a loaner vehicle because it needs to stay in their county and it couldn't be lent out for more than 3-4 days. I ended up renting my own vehicle and driving home with my luggage. Now I get to make another trip back up whenever it's ready.

That's my whole ordeal. Why don't the Volts have a temperature gauge to prevent disasters like this? I really don't know where to go from here. I can't really afford these repairs. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks for listening to me vent.

 

[volt spain]

What year Volt? How many miles in the engine mode?. There is a "engine overheated alarm", just we need a temperature gauge for constant temp. monitor. The repair should be covered in Original 3 yrs warranty...or your car insurance itself. Good luck in your troubles.

 

[obermd]

Contact GM yourself. The fact that you pulled over and turned the engine off immediately should get this covered under the power train warranty.

 

[freshcut]

What year Volt? How many miles in the engine mode?. There is a "engine overheated alarm", just we need a temperature gauge for constant temp. monitor. The repair should be covered in Original 3 yrs warranty...or your car insurance itself. Good luck in your troubles.

If it's a '14 or earlier it may not have any remaining B2B 3 year warranty. However I would suspect it is covered under the powertrain coverage which, depending on mileage, should still cover unless they use some kind of loophole since it was the "result of a part not covered by existing warranty". Not sure if the heater hose is part of the powertrain warranty so that may not apply.

I do agree that you should get in touch with GM to determine what coverage you may have since you observed the warning and complied immediately. I would think any head gasket issue should not happen as long as coolant levels are always properly maintained unless it was the result of a defect.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Unfortunate, but I'd be asking how they diagnosed it as having a blown head gasket. Overheating is a symptom, but you had a pretty obvious problem that caused that, and it seems rather coincidental to me that the head gasket somehow blew at the same time?

Secondly....$3300 for a head gasket replacement on a 4 cylinder engine seems off the charts - I would expect something in the range of half that. Yes, it's a Volt and there may be some extra steps, but the engine itself is...well...just an engine, and not particularly hard to get to, either.

 

[El Dobro]

$3300, are they putting a new head on or something?

 

[wizard_of-ahs]

I'm thinking $3300 would buy him a new engine !

 

[mrwilleeeum]

Hi everyone,

Mine is a 2012, so the B2B is most definitely expired. I bought it used with around 20k miles back in 2015. It now has around 67k. I do drive a decent amount in engine mode since, but charge the battery whenever possible. I'd say I drive about 50% of the time with the ICE. I did a chat with a Chevrolet Agent and supposedly a Chevy Senior Advisor, who is going to be my liaison with the dealership, is going to come in contact with me tomorrow after I brought up the issue as to why it's not covered under the Powertrain warranty.

The service rep said that they did a pressure test and found liquid leaking at the head gasket as well as water in my oil. He did state that they were replacing the whole head.

Is it something that I should also discuss with my insurance?

Thanks again for your advice.

 

[DonC]

If by insurance you mean an extended service plan, then by all means you should do that. Policies that cover liability or collision or comprehensive wouldn't seem applicable unless the problem was caused by a moving object.

Hardly and expert in this area, but I would think this would be covered by the drive train warranty. From your description there was a sudden event which caused the failure. It wasn't just that the coolant was low, which would be something you are responsible for. Let us know how it turns out.

PS: Dealers aren't always great at representing you in these matters.

 

[mrwilleeeum]

I understand. I don't think I have an extended service plan.

I generally keep my car pretty well maintained and I'm positive that the coolant wasn't low. There were never any leaks prior. This is the piece that broke. They opted to replace the whole hose.

It's connected to a hose coming out of the engine cooling reservoir and into the radiator I believe.

 

[voganni]

While aluminum heads frequently warp when overheated, it is common to have them surfaced if warped and reused. A complete head replacement seems extreme. I too feel uncomfortable without a temperature gauge. It would be nice if the DIC at least gave you some advanced warning that the engine was warming above normal. If there was a sudden coolant loss though, under maximum power, the engine would overheat very quickly.

 

[mrwilleeeum]

I agree, but even in my situation I feel like very little warning is better than no warning. Hopefully it can get taken care of. Thanks again everyone for your advice.

 

[caronjeff]

You could have a chicken first or egg first situation, as in did the hot pressurized coolant system overload the hose connector and cause failure or did it fail causing the overheating situation. Your service department needs to replace the entire head because along with warpage all the valve train components are cooked.

 

[twright]

A temperature gauge probably would not have caught this condition.

Temperature gauges measure coolant temperature. If you don't have any coolant, it takes a long time for the sensor to detect any overheating condition because the sensor is now measuring air temperature. The engine is usually long overheated at this point.

 

[CurrentEvent]

The gen 2 Volt can tell you engine coolant temperature. So this is something they added. Probably most people don't watch it. I don't know if there is a pop-up warning. There should be.

 

[llninja]

I personally think this should be covered by the powertrain warranty. Go get the powertrain warranty paperwork and read it carefully. I wouldn't just blindly pay for the repair without a fight.

 

[alfon]

I notice that the 2016-17 Volts have a coolant temp readout which the Gen 1's don't. I think $3,000 is a lot of money for a head gasket, if it is really a head gasket. Usually with a blown head gasket you will have white exhaust and water in your oil as well. When the engine light came on and you turned off the engine immediately you should not have any engine damage, as that is how the alarm system works so you can shut down the engine before there is engine damage. I really believe once your coolant system issue is repaired your will engine will run just fine.

 

[viking79]

I bet head gasket and overheating caused the plastic failure, but maybe other way around if engine truly overheated.

Out of curiosity, what octane gas do you use?

Sorry to hear about your issues, that is a bummer.

 

[llninja]

I bet head gasket and overheating caused the plastic failure, but maybe other way around if engine truly overheated.

Out of curiosity, what octane gas do you use?

Sorry to hear about your issues, that is a bummer.

Uh oh, there you did it, bringing up the octane question...

 

[mrwilleeeum]

I agree with what everyone is saying. As of this point, it's merely a he said she said issue where it's up to the dealer as to what caused what. I check my fluid levels routinely, so I'm 100% positive that they were not low.

I remember speaking to the OnStar rep as they read my diagnostics. I can't remember everything they actually said, but they said that the engine was overheated and to prevent this, I need to make sure that I shut down the engine before the temperature gauge goes into the red. I told them that I the volts do not have this gauge. Their response was, "Oh."

I always use the 91 octane gas and have never put anything less.

I'm most definitely working on getting done under the powertrain warranty. Hopefully, everything works out.