I've owned it for 3 years and have not given the battery coolant a single thought in that time.

Well, that's a problem.

You should be checking fluid levels once a month, takes about 3 seconds. The coolant level may have been slowly dropping the whole time which is normal due to boil-off. Or it could have suddenly dropped indicating a leak either in the battery tunnel or up front (radiator, etc.)

If there are nor coolant stains on the parking spot under the car, check the battery tunnel. The battery tunnel does have an inspection port under the car that can be opened to see if coolant comes out indicating a leak in there somewhere.

So I'd start there.

 

The battery tunnel does have an inspection port under the car that can be opened to see if coolant comes out

Checking this out is part of the plan I enumerated. Do you know the details of opening and re-sealing this inspection port? I got the impression that it's slightly destructive and that I'll need to use some sealer/tape/something to close it back up.

 

I have never understood why anyone would put anything other than the correct coolant specified in the owner's manual in the radiator of a Volt. The coolant used to cool the battery has to be non-conductive or you'll get battery isolation faults. I don't know whether that's true with the coolant used by the ICE but the coolant specified in the owner's manual is available very reasonably on Amazon so I don't know why you would use Prestone.

 

I have never understood why ...

I dont understand why all car manufacturers dont use the same coolant, and use it for everything on the car.

You goto walmart and there are a dozen different types of antifreeze
and there are major brands, and the store brands, and some say they are the same as others, and some say you can use this one for any car....

There are premixed ones that cost almost twice as much per gallon as the ones you have to mix with distilled water only, and then you go to get a gallon of distilled water and thats sold out...

Its a nightmare - cars are made of aluminum or steel - Im sure there are ligament reasons for the diversity of the products (and I dont really care what the reasons are)
and at the same time Im sure GM and Ford and Honda and Toyota... .ALL want you to buy their brand of coolant and engine oil and transmission fluid and axle grease and windshield washer fluid..... and you stand there in the isle looking at all of them and your eyes just glaze over

and of course, its 11:45PM on saturday night and the one thats in the 10 or 12 year old owners manual is either sold out, or they dont make that anymore.. its been replaced by something NEW and ATTENTION WALMART SHOPPERS THIS STORE WILL BE CLOSING IN 10 MINUTES PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE CHECK OUT NOW! Your coolant level is low now and Amazon will deliver it in 3 days for an extra $10.

and BWT... you need brake fluid too... Dot 2... or Dot 3, maybe Dot 4. What did the last mechanic/owner put in there? how can you tell? are they compatible? you go online and look it up and there are 20 pages of websites that all disagree...

 

This is the reason why there is an owners manual for each vehicle...they spell out exactly what is required to maintain each individual vehicle>

 

JUST REMEMBER - to get a new bottle every 5 years

I was surprised how little is lost each year

Think I was added a little amount every 2-3 months

 

Before you touch anything, you do know the coolant bottles only fill to the 1/2 mark correct? The second issue concerns the very specific coolant Volts use. Please proceed carefully, your car may not need anything...unless you already started...

 

You have a fine plan, and I hope it works for you. Unfortunately, the SHVCS message may sometimes be shown because -- among other "real" possibilities -- the coolant sensor or coolant sensor harness is not good (or various modules need to be updated/reflashed). My SHVCS message comes on sporadically, I have no specific codes (I've used three OBDII devices and none of them indicate anything other than the generic P1E00 code), the coolant itself is not the issue, and so I'm still working on a long-term solution (in the meantime, I just remove the P1E00 code and everything continues to work without issue).

 

This is one of the oldest practices in the book. Manufacturers have always sought to require customers to buy fluids directly from them as an additional ongoing revenue stream. They have used various tactics such as lplanned obsolescence, labeling requirements, voiding warranies, product patenting, trademark infringement, and licensing requirements and fees. For the most part it's a market control and revenue scheme. It is as it has always been.

 

The only coolant that is safe to use is the ACDelco dexcool 50/50 Premix. Otherwise, the isolation resistance may be adversely affected. If it was my car, I would inspect for leaks and then fill the coolant tank to the required level. Clear the codes and check for proper operation. Good luck!

 

FYI, there are several different formulas of DexCool. The only one approved for the volt is 10-5027. You can find it on Amazon for under $12.00.

 

No, any bottle labeled with the dexcool trademark is orange and meets the manufacturer specifications and is paying GM their licensing fees. If it's premix it will the dexcool formula mixed 50/50 with either ... deionized(least pure), demineralized(more pure), or distilled(most pure) water. If you're buying concentrate to mix yourself, use good reverse osmosis filtered water or better yet buy distilled water by the gallon to mix with and you might save up to half the cost. But usualy its more like 25% savings, like 17-19 bucks instead of $24 for 2 gallons.

 

If it's premix it will the dexcool formula mixed 50/50 with either ... deionized(least pure), demineralized(more pure), or distilled(most pure) water. I

It's not just purity, what the Volt needs is water that's had it's ions removed to avoid electrical issues.

The car must only use de-ionized water for the mix. No substitutes. Do NOT use distilled water, soda water, tap water, branch water, holy water, etc.

 

My Volt is now charging in the driveway!

I watched some EV hobbyist volt-battery-teardown videos and concluded that I could live with the worst case scenario: There's currently 4oz of coolant rolling around in the battery tray. If it keeps losing coolant I'll investigate further. Also, holy crap, that's a lot of o-rings!

I'm now the proud owner of:

• 124 oz Prestone coolant from Walmart
• 2 gallons of the real acdelco coolant
• a vacuum filler tool
• a VCX Nano
• An SPS2 subscription
• a Windows laptop

I followed bit1817''s fantastic guide and video and I was able to reprogram all of the things. A coolant change is probably in the near future.

It would have been a much different story without this fantastic forum.

Thank you so much!

 

The recommended fluid bottle I got 10 years ago is still 1/2 full - so that is a low cost per year.
but might get a new one - as no idea about the shelf life ?

------
And what was that about - nonunion water not have free elections ! Emily Litella

 

Been working on cars since the mid 70s. To my knowledge, distilled water is always called for when adding to any cooling system. Any system that contacts metal is going to pick up ions over time, so any small differences between distilled, deionized or demineralized water are probably inconsequential. Distilled water is available at most of our local grocery stores - easy to get and a safe bet.

 

any small differences between distilled, deionized or demineralized water are probably inconsequential

Right, when dealing with a high voltage battery, what does GM know? If anything goes wrong, it's only the most expensive component of the car. /s

Seriously the battery coolant requires Dexcool 50/50 with deionized water. If you can't find deionized water, the simple solution is to get a Dexcool premix. Trying to save a few pennies using different water at the expense of a $20K battery is not the way to go.

 

I kept having this same problem,, I did what GM said in their video, I put a screw driver down in the tank and the magnet released and I reset the codes. This happened 3 more times in 2 months, so the last time I reset the magnet I pushed up on the hose under the tank and i have had no problems since