[gemini0526]

Hello all,

New forum member here and first time posting. I’ve been lurking on this forum the past couple months when I was researching the Volt. Got lots of good info which helped me to decide on getting the Volt. Thank you all for making this such a great and lively forum.

Anyhow, I’ll try to make this story short. I purchased my new 2017 Volt LT less than 3 weeks ago, I’ve put about 350 miles on it so far (about 75% electric and 25% gas). Yesterday morning on my way to work, a warning message came on. I can’t recall the exact message but it was something like either “Engine temp too high - reduce speed” or "Engine overheated - reduce speed" (the Volt was in gas mode since I ran out of EV range the night before and wasn’t able to charge it overnight). I was 2 freeway exits away from my office when the warning message came on, so I took the nearest exit. The warning message did turn off after I got off the freeway and so I continued on and made it into work. I checked under the hood and saw lots of engine coolant splattered around the area near the radiator fan. The engine coolant reservoir was also completely empty and the engine was giving off lots of heat with a bad burned smell. I charged it up and drove it to the dealer in the afternoon to have it looked at. All the fluids were good when I checked them the first day I drove it home from the dealer, so something must have broke and caused a leak.

Needless to say, I’m pretty bumped out by this, to say the least. A brand new car, had it less than 3 weeks, how can something this bad happened? My concern now is did the engine really overheated and could there already be engine damage resulting from that? And how can I tell? The dealer will probably just fix the leak and say it’s all good. I called Chevrolet and they opened a case and said a senior service adviser will be contacting me within the next couple of days to discuss.

Has anyone been in this kind of situation before? Any advice on what I should do? I really love the Volt, was looking forward to many years of enjoyment, but this incidence isn’t giving me a lot of confidence in my Volt’s long term reliability, and I don’t want to be stuck with an engine that might already be mechanically compromised. Some colleagues of mine suggested I push GM to exchange this for another Volt, is that even an option?

Anyways, sorry for the long first post. Would appreciate any advice.

Regards,
-Jason

 

[saghost]

Wow. That sucks. I've seen folks push for a buy back or replacement car in this sort of situation - some succeed, some don't. Personally, I think I'd want to know the peak temperature the car saw, and to see the engine pass a load test - and maybe an extended warranty?

Welcome. Hopefully the rest of your Volt experience goes better...

 

[obermd]

That's a 100% covered failure. It sounds like the engine coolant has leaked somewhere, most likely at the water pump. Put enough charge into it and get it in to your local Chevy dealership and let them have at it.

 

[Shivetya]

any idea of how high the temp got too? I ran mine today for ten miles just for fun and it got to 205f before coming down. only problem I have with gas mode is that while in hold mode it was not smooth. by that I mean you can definitely tell when it kicks up speed and it oddly affects how the drive train feels... surging?

 

[caskConditionedAle]

If the radiator is damaged by road debris, is it still covered by warranty?

 

[freshcut]

Didn't the Gen 2 suffer from a hose routing issue where one of the hoses was prone to breakage or did they fix that for the '17s? I definitely think this should be a B2B covered failure.

 

[DonC]

Sorry to hear about this. What we've seen in this area are problems with hoses or connections, those would be covered under warranty of course, and radiator damage from road debris, which generally is not. Damage was more likely in the first generation. In a new car my guess would be a clamp or something similar, though your description of coolant being splattered around the engine compartment is more suggestive of a puncture. If it's a small puncture it's quite possible, even likely, that this happened during transit from the factory to the dealer.

In these cases the fix is straightforward and doesn't lead to other related problems. IOW the dealer finds the problem, fixes it, and that's the end of it.

 

[Barry]

Definitely a bummer, but it is fully covered unless is was due to accident damage. I would not automatically assume they will give you a half-hearted fix and leave you with a damaged engine. Wait to see what they do. If it involves a partial engine rebuild, or something like that, then you can be sure they did the whole fix. If not, then it will be less clear, but neither your dealership nor GM want to put a lemon on the road. Bad for business. Plus it is still under warranty for a long time, so it would just come back to them anyway.

 

[saghost]

If the radiator is damaged by road debris, is it still covered by warranty?

That's normally a matter for your insurance, not for the warranty.

A few first generation Volts had problems with that, but the first radiator in the stack is the battery radiator, which along with the crash test fire is why they installed the battery coolant level sensor - the one that's been failing and leading to the not clearable Service High Voltage Charging error message that resulted in WopOnTour's sensor defeat.

I'm not sure how the second generation is built, but there's good logic behind the sequence they used in the first generation, so I doubt they changed it much - and if they didn't, a rock would have to core through a couple other radiators before it could damage the engine one.

 

[emartin00]

Could there be significant damage? Absolutely!
The dealer will need to locate the leak, and what caused it. They should also check the head gasket, as it is most likely blown.

If they determine the leak was caused by damage, you best call your insurance ASAP.
If it is determined that it was a manufacturing flaw, then they should at least replace the head gasket under warranty. You may be able to push them into replacing the engine, or at the very least giving you an extended warranty.
Or as others have said, you may have some success on a replacement car, but it will be an uphill battle.

If I had to bet, I would probably put my money on road debris unfortunately.
Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

 

[dannycamps]

Didn't the Gen 2 suffer from a hose routing issue where one of the hoses was prone to breakage or did they fix that for the '17s? I definitely think this should be a B2B covered failure.

I think there is a TSB about this concerning how the hose is run - it can be punctured by the corner of the engine block or something similar. The dealer should be able to correct and yes - covered under warranty.

 

[drmx]

Didn't the Gen 2 suffer from a hose routing issue where one of the hoses was prone to breakage or did they fix that for the '17s? I definitely think this should be a B2B covered failure.

Still an issue on the 17's apparently. I just had mine in for the first free service and they installed the new bracket to protect that hose. Though my hose was not rubbing the motor housing, I suppose it should prevent any future issues.

 

[timoshev]

Ask your dealer to show you the results of a compression test. Compare to factory spec.

 

[llninja]

Your powertrain is covered for 100k miles. They have record of this event and took care of it. I'd cross your fingers and hope it didn't ruin other parts of the engine, but don't have an all-out panic and try to ditch the car. Drive it for awhile and convince yourself there's nothing else wrong with it.

 

[mpmoore1979]

The hose rubbing recall is for the evap emissions system and nothing to do with the coolant system. Its possible that the radiator hose was installed but the clamp was not secured during assembly. I had one 2017 that had this issue, the car was driven for a few days mostly on battery but when the engine was running and get hot, the radiator hose came off. I found the radiator hose clamp was not secured. There is a bulletin for this issue: #17-NA-199: Diagnostic Tips for Checking Proper Release of Clamps, Kinks, and Routing of Coolant Hoses - (Jun 15, 2017)

 

[Kraven]

The hose rubbing recall is for the evap emissions system and nothing to do with the coolant system. Its possible that the radiator hose was installed but the clamp was not secured during assembly. I had one 2017 that had this issue, the car was driven for a few days mostly on battery but when the engine was running and get hot, the radiator hose came off. I found the radiator hose clamp was not secured. There is a bulletin for this issue: #17-NA-199: Diagnostic Tips for Checking Proper Release of Clamps, Kinks, and Routing of Coolant Hoses - (Jun 15, 2017)

Just wanted to say thanks to mpmoore... His posts are always very useful and informative. I had both of my Volts in for the hose rubbing recall for the evap emissions system, 1 Volt needed the hose replaced (13 hours labor) before the protective guard could be installed as that hose was in fact rubbing and within a few weeks of breaking completely. The other Volt's hose was fine, just needed the protective guard slid on (15 minutes).

What I can tell you is that if you know a campaign(s) applies to your Volt, get your Volt in to the best dealer you have access to for service as you never know whether your Volt might put you on the side of the road if you don't get it taken care of in a timely fashion. Not a big deal to have my Volt sit at the dealer for a few days getting the attention GM lets you know you need vs. procrastinating and waiting until you really need that oil change, etc.

 

[VoltenRock]

Keep detailed records of everything. Perhaps your experience with the dealership will be good overall, but I've found that members of this board (and myself) are often more informed on the Volt and its issues. Fortunately, I think many dealerships have more experience now than when I bought my '13.

My local dealership, which is generally good, had only one Volt tech. He was excellent--but my car was just as much as a learning process for him as it was for me (the downside of "new" technology).

 

[gemini0526]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I got the Volt back from the dealer today. They found the source of the leak was due to a loose clamp on the lower radiator hose. They think it probably came like that from the factory and could very well has been leaking each time the engine was on. All they did was secure the clamp and did a pressure check to make sure there were no more leaks. They didn’t do any other tests to rule out possible engine damage. I had a heated argument about this with the service manager, basically his view was that nothing is wrong with the engine and so no tests were necessary. I also spoke to one of the sales manager to try to push for a replacement car but that also went nowhere. Overall it was a very unpleasant exchange and I probably won’t want to deal with them ever again. I will still try to talk to GM to see what they can do about this.

Anyhow, I drove the Volt for about 20 miles in Hold mode on my way home and the engine seemed to operate normally. So maybe the situation is not as dire as I feared. I’ll run the engine in the next few days on longer distances and see how it goes. I'm already feeling a little worn out from this and just want to enjoy my new Volt, so keeping my fingers crossed. Will update if anything changes.

 

[BAZINGA]

My 2017 goes in tomorrow for it's first oil change/tire rotation after a year of ownership (delivered 20 Aug 2016, have driven over 9K miles).

To date I have experienced ZERO issues and have not been notified of ANY RECALL's. I'll be curious to see if there are ANY TSB's the dealer deems applicable to my Volt.

I'll share the results of my first visit to my dealer when I get the car back Thursday pm.

 

[stevenwm]

An overheat is not necessarily damaging to a engine. Many modern engines will half the amount of cylinders being fired to reduce generated heat (along with a substantial power reduction) during a overheat condition. It is generally OK to drive a short distance in this state without any damage done.

I'm pretty sure the Volt does this as well.