Yesterday, I left work with the 2016 Volt fully charged running in L gear. The light turned green and I punched it. Got up to 35 very quickly and a warning light came on that said "Speed Limited to 35" and then the ICE kicked in. After a few minutes, it went back to 100% electric. This has happened twice in the last week. Any thoughts?
2016 Speed Limited, switches to ICE
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I'd love to see a video of this. Never heard of this before.
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My CTS went into this limp mode once when some sensor got confused. It wouldn't go past 30-35 mph because it thought it was out of antifreeze. To prevent from overheating, I think it was using every other cylinder when firing. I limped it to the dealership and left it there, the next morning they started the car, it ran just fine, they could read the code to see the reason for the check engine light, but sent me on my merry and it hasn't happened since.
Maybe there's some mode for the volt for that (so Steverino's hill idea might have some merit - gravity might have made the sensor think there was no fluid somewhere).
Maybe there's some mode for the volt for that (so Steverino's hill idea might have some merit - gravity might have made the sensor think there was no fluid somewhere).
I was on a flat, city street. Outside temp was mid-60s so no low temperature issues. "Speed Limited To 35" was the error. No popped hood. Car keep going after a bit of a jerk/slowing but engine came and on I went. No EMM or FMM as far as I could tell.
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A malfunctioning sensor (or two) triggering a "limp home" mode sounds most plausible. I mean, take a look at this video about a Gen 1 Volt running out of EV and gas range and digging down into the lower battery buffer to limp further:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE8NiDUbRs4
It's amazing the fail safes the Volt has. Not saying Gen 2 has the same fail safe, but it probably does. Only problem is when the fail safe was triggered incorrectly.
Would be real interesting if this does happen again what the root cause was. Weird that GM doesn't log events over time like a black box. I thought most modern vehicles included such black boxes now for accident reconstruction. Isn't this how Toyota figured out that the some of the "sudden accelerations" were in fact drivers mashing on the accelerator versus the brake?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE8NiDUbRs4
It's amazing the fail safes the Volt has. Not saying Gen 2 has the same fail safe, but it probably does. Only problem is when the fail safe was triggered incorrectly.
Would be real interesting if this does happen again what the root cause was. Weird that GM doesn't log events over time like a black box. I thought most modern vehicles included such black boxes now for accident reconstruction. Isn't this how Toyota figured out that the some of the "sudden accelerations" were in fact drivers mashing on the accelerator versus the brake?
Interesting video! I've been too nervous to try that with mine. I don't want to damage my fuel pump.
Something interesting I heard is that the Volt (obviously, from the video) won't let you drain the battery to the point where it bricks the car. I'm sure it would shut itself off if left on for several more hours to the point where the battery couldn't even charge the 12V. The Prius (and other Toyotas), however, will actually drain in "limp mode" to the point where the dealer has to replace the HV battery before the engine can start again...one thing I really like better about the Voltec system than the HSD system.
Both times when this happened, was it during heavy acceleration? I wouldn't be surprised if llninja's hypothesis was correct. Someone else on the forum was having remote start issues at work and found out that it was because the coolant level was just a tiny bit low when the car was facing downwards, causing a remote start failsafe to prevent it from working. Check the fluids under your hood when you get a chance...
Found the Problem
It happened a third time so I called Onstar. They said it was related to the recall noted below. What's funny, or not, is I took the car in when I got the recall notice, but the dealer said if I haven't seen a warning, not to worry. Didn't put two and two together until Onstar confirmed it was a Volt Reduced Propulsion Power recall.
https://my.gm.com/recalls?vin=1G1RC6S50GU123769&evar36=eml_monthly_onstar_OVD&vels=501581609
It happened a third time so I called Onstar. They said it was related to the recall noted below. What's funny, or not, is I took the car in when I got the recall notice, but the dealer said if I haven't seen a warning, not to worry. Didn't put two and two together until Onstar confirmed it was a Volt Reduced Propulsion Power recall.
https://my.gm.com/recalls?vin=1G1RC6S50GU123769&evar36=eml_monthly_onstar_OVD&vels=501581609
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Several of us gen 1 owners have deliberately run our Volts out of gas (to switch fuels) with no consequences. It does not stumble, it just shuts off with a warning so suspect it's just the fuel sensor shutting it off instead of the pump running dry. I ran out of both one day when it was cold enough that the MTE was off by 3 miles and I drove about 2 miles after running out of both. I found that a little unnerving.
FWIW, if you have a OBD device that will read the fuel level, I usually get about 7-10 miles of city driving after the fuel level reaches zero.
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Did this fix your issue? My 2017 is doing the same thing.
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