Hoping somebody has some ideas on how I can get more help from Chevroley... or has had a similar experience I can learn from. I feel like my Volt has become a money pit with no end in sight... my bumper-to-bumper is expired and there seems to be some complex electrical issue with my car, but because they haven't found the root cause yet to be an issue with a "Voltec" system, I am on the hook to keep paying for their time to try to figure it out.
On three occasions now, I've been stranded with a car that wont start in the cold Michigan winter.
1. After the car sat in a parking lot for 18 days. A jump start got me back on the road.
2. After I drove the car for 20+ miles, then parked it and shut it off, run into a store, came back out, and it was dead. A jump start got me back on the road.
3. Same again, after I drove the car for 20+ miles. This time, roadside assistance attempted to jump start me 4 times. The electrical system would power up, the car would "start" (without the ICE running). They'd disconnect the jumper cables, it would stay on for about ~30 seconds, and then everything shuts off. Had to get it towed.
So, after the 2nd time I took it into the shop. They investigated and could not reproduce the problem, and sent me on my way with a nice big bill for the diagnosis labor, said maybe I left something on (doesn't explain why it would die after being parked for only 10 minutes...)
Now, it's back in the shop after the 3rd time, and they said they found an intermittent power draw while the car is off of 200 milliamps. Then he proceeded to tell me that is almost 2 amps! I asked him if he meant 2000 milli-amps, or if he meant 0.2 amps, and he was confused by my question, so that didn't fill me with confidence, whatever, to err is human. Nonetheless, good news, something to investigate, so they said they will need to charge me for a couple hours of labor to try to narrow down the cause of that.... but I got to thinking, how could that be the (only) problem? A draw like that on the battery will not cause a dead battery after 10 minutes, right?
This leads me to believe that the system responsible for keeping the 12v charged while the car is running is not working properly. From what I understand it is not an alternator, but a DC-DC step down from the main battery to the 12v battery. They didn't mention anything about investigating that side of things... I am worried about how experienced/comfortable investigating the more advanced "Volt" stuff, though verbally they assure me they are trained and certified to diagnose Volts... I am not sure how trained and experienced they can be, with it being a very specialized car with a special problem, how much experience with issues like this can they have?
Anyone have any ideas on how I can get more help from Chevrolet?
On three occasions now, I've been stranded with a car that wont start in the cold Michigan winter.
1. After the car sat in a parking lot for 18 days. A jump start got me back on the road.
2. After I drove the car for 20+ miles, then parked it and shut it off, run into a store, came back out, and it was dead. A jump start got me back on the road.
3. Same again, after I drove the car for 20+ miles. This time, roadside assistance attempted to jump start me 4 times. The electrical system would power up, the car would "start" (without the ICE running). They'd disconnect the jumper cables, it would stay on for about ~30 seconds, and then everything shuts off. Had to get it towed.
So, after the 2nd time I took it into the shop. They investigated and could not reproduce the problem, and sent me on my way with a nice big bill for the diagnosis labor, said maybe I left something on (doesn't explain why it would die after being parked for only 10 minutes...)
Now, it's back in the shop after the 3rd time, and they said they found an intermittent power draw while the car is off of 200 milliamps. Then he proceeded to tell me that is almost 2 amps! I asked him if he meant 2000 milli-amps, or if he meant 0.2 amps, and he was confused by my question, so that didn't fill me with confidence, whatever, to err is human. Nonetheless, good news, something to investigate, so they said they will need to charge me for a couple hours of labor to try to narrow down the cause of that.... but I got to thinking, how could that be the (only) problem? A draw like that on the battery will not cause a dead battery after 10 minutes, right?
This leads me to believe that the system responsible for keeping the 12v charged while the car is running is not working properly. From what I understand it is not an alternator, but a DC-DC step down from the main battery to the 12v battery. They didn't mention anything about investigating that side of things... I am worried about how experienced/comfortable investigating the more advanced "Volt" stuff, though verbally they assure me they are trained and certified to diagnose Volts... I am not sure how trained and experienced they can be, with it being a very specialized car with a special problem, how much experience with issues like this can they have?
Anyone have any ideas on how I can get more help from Chevrolet?