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2017 Volt stuck on 'initializing, wait to shift' message

1204 Views 9 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  kissnrelease
Hi everyone.
I have a 2017 volt with no previous issues but the 12-volt battery was run down last night because of the emergency lights accidentally being left on for hours. I got a boost and drove home and this morning the car is giving me the 'initializing, wait to shift message' but never lets me shift. The electric motor battery isn't charged up but the car has gas in it. I'm in a remote city where the GM dealer appears to know little about electric cars and also doesn't have a service opening for at least 2 weeks. Does anyone have any insight on what exactly the problem is or a general phone number I can call to talk to a technician and get enough information such that an independent dealer might be able to fix it?
Thanks
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Thank you sooo much. This is a much better video than the one I saw (where you go in from the side of the center console). But this looks much more similar to my vehicle. And once I get it into neutral and to the dealership they can deal with the battery.
In the first post you said the electric motor battery isn't charged. How low is it, the HV battery has to be charged enough to start the gas engine, the 12V does not do this. So, if it is super low, when you jump start it, the charge is too low to run on battery, but also the battery could be too low to start the engine. You would need to charge the HV battery AND replace the 12V to solve the entire problem.
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