[catathesis]

2017 LT w/ Comfort package and Bose speakers.

Around 1500 miles on the vehicle (80% battery 20% ICE), I woke to find my Volt stopped charging about an hour after charging successfully started. Display and Energy -> Charging both showed "Unable to Charge" bummer... gassed it to work.

Next day was fine. "Unable to charge" disappeared. Car charged to full as normal.

Following day, check engine light came on. OnStar said: P0B90, and that I ought to check it out in the next 7 days.

Next day, check engine light stayed on, but the car drove fine.

Today, parked it in the garage with 25 EV miles remaining.

Got a text notification that charging was interrupted. Chevy App showed 1 mile EV, and battery full (I have a screenshot of this). Unplug Volt. Plug it back in. No fault on the OEM power brick, but the dashboard indicator stays orange... never goes green.

Some folks with the "unable to charge" issue were able to reset it by opening the door. Try that. No luck. Try turning the Volt on and off. No luck. Figure I'll drive it around the block on gas if I need to. Try to put it in Hold mode, but my Volt is in "Shift to Park" mode, which I later find out is no good. I'm lucky this is all occurring in my garage.. I've seen others with this issue on highways, while driving!

Fine, I'll let it sit over night and see if it magically fixes itself as it did last time (read something about the key fob needing to be far away to "reset" the car). But now the Volt won't turn off. Press the power key and it starts the "initializing" screen. After about 10 tries it finally turns off. I think that opening the driver door helped, but not certain.

Tried a few more times in desperation to get the car to charge / start, but no luck. Oddly, without having it plugged in, the EV ranged jumped from 1 mi to 5 mi (was originally 25 mi when I plugged it in).

I saw a few "shift to park" issues involving the 12V connection. Checked that and it looked good.

Now assuming it's this "F module / inverter" issue. Will get my new volt towed to the dealership tomorrow

I saw a thread here possibly related forum/showthread.php?241001-Car-died-quot-Shift-to-Park-quot (forum wont let me post the link because I'm too new)

Not sure if it is the F Module in my case. The error code I'm getting (P0B90) is different than others I've seen.

I'm super frustrated. In 20 years of buying non-US cars I've never had a car let me down like this before. A day after I bought the Volt I saw the Consumer Reports article about the Volt no longer being recommended and now within 30 days I have a useless car (that I still really want to love!).

I'll keep this thread informed of what I find out. I'm really impressed with this forum and am happy to contribute if it helps.

 

[ChiVolt]

So sorry to hear this.

By now you might have more DTCs than P0B90. I'd suggest calling OnStar for any additional DTCs that might be available. Good luck with upcoming service at the dealership.

 

[Kraven]

Sorry to hear about your experience here, must be very frustrating. When you buy a new car, you never expect to have problems like this. With the Volt and all the high tech/engineering that comes with it apparently these type of issues are very possible. I wonder what the rate of these type of significant issues are per 1000 Volts sold in the last few years. I recognize that no matter the product, people generally will get on the internet to report problems moreso than they might be inclined to report satisfaction. I'm not sure that's the case with this forum, as there are many, many happy and satisfied owners (myself included so far) out here singing its praises.

We do see GM reps following this site and reaching out to support owners to help ensure they get proper assistance. Even with that, I'm still thinking about failure rates and what they are compared to other makes out there. Is the Volt more prone to serious problems because of the innovative tech/engineering, the very things that make this car so appealing? Hard to get a feel for the facts on a forum, it just feels like it certainly is more prone than decades old ICE tech. Maybe that's the answer in itself, still relatively new and GM still needs to work through some issues. Doesn't help those experiencing the pain however, again sorry you are experiencing this. As you offered, please do keep the board posted and good luck!

 

[catathesis]

In desperation, I plugged my Volt in before going to bed. No luck. Decided to take a video of what's going on to show the tech.. plug it in again. Starts charging. First time in a dozen plug-ins... the dash light is green and it now says 33 miles EV (up from 1 since I last plugged it in)... as if nothing is wrong.

I've spent about an hour with the Volt tonight plugging it in, unplugging it, trying to start it... and on my very last "give-up" attempt when I took a video, it starts charging again. Not playing with it anymore, hoping to have it work tomorrow to get it to the dealership without a tow.

 

[16513]

The technology is fine but sounds like some bad components, such as charge port, etc. may have gotten into pipeline. Hope GM nips this one right away. Most Volts have been trouble-free.

 

[BAZINGA]

What is the month/Year of manufacture shown on the door label or last 5 of your VIN. My 2017 was built 06/2016. I suspect there is a small VIN range GM must be looking at based on the number of issues being reported. I have driven my 17 2700 miles (10 on the ICE) without any issues.

Good luck

 

[ampera_jed]

Just out of interest, could there possibly have been any electrical equipment operating in your house, or neighbourhood? I'm thinking maybe electrical interference, either on the power grid, or radiated EM. It's odd to have faults start and stop.

 

[catathesis]

My Volt was made in 9/16. Last 5 VIN:. 44000.

To be clear, the check engine light and associated code has not gone off and on. Only the ability to charge...but lately it only charges an hour before stopping.

It's on a circuit in the garage with only a FiOS box sharing it... I don't suspect electrical issues with the house/neighborhood.

I understand that this is not the norm and am really hoping a quick fix does the job!

 

[Henry_FL]

The code indicates an issue in the battery pack, this has nothing to do with anything external to the car. The only fix it at the dealership

 

[ClarksonCote]

I understand that this is not the norm and am really hoping a quick fix does the job!

It can be disheartening to see several symptoms like you've described, but it often traces back to a single problem to be fixed.

In the past, there have been some Volts with some odd problems like this initially, and I can appreciate the frustration. However, over the years when those kinds of issues have cropped up on these forums, the majority of people have gone on to report trouble-free years and enjoyable ownership experiences with their Volt.

So hang in there, and hopefully the problem will be located and resolved, and you'll be one of those people with trouble-free operation going forward. Keep us posted!

 

[Arcanox]

It actually sounds like you may have a similar problem to me. I never tried charging mine when I had the issue because I had nowhere to do so. I found a document here that indicates that P0B90 is "Hybrid Battery Voltage Sense "R" Circuit". When my Volt died, OnStar told me it was something along the lines of "High Voltage Charge Sense" which sounds fairly similar. I had the same symptoms as you, and it ended up being a bad battery cell (all covered under warranty, but this Saturday will mark 2 weeks since I was last in my car). My thread is here. I don't know what DTC was thrown on mine; the OnStar rep didn't give me a number, just the vague description. I intend to ask about that when I pick the car up.

 

[BAZINGA]

My Volt was made in 9/16. Last 5 VIN:. 44000.

Interesting my Volt was made 06/16 and last 5 are 15339 and mine has been trouble free in 2700 miles.

Once folks provide this info it will help identify when this issue started occurring. I would suspect a bad part from a vendor or faulty production.

 

[ChiVolt]

Interesting my Volt was made 06/16 and last 5 are 15339 and mine has been trouble free in 2700 miles.

Another 06/16 date here, with VIN ending in 13150. No problems at the 4,000 mark other than one brief CEL with P2097 (post catalyst O2 sensor detecting too-rich).

 

[catathesis]

Towed to the dealership today. They'll look at it tomorrow or Monday. Will keep you all updated!

The "early" warning signs I had were interrupted charging, followed by the "Unable to charge" about one hour after plugging it in and successfully beginning charging. I ignored it because an hour later it was able to charge. Just a fluke perhaps. I didn't ignore the 2nd occurrence. And couldn't ignore the 3rd (shift to park).

I'd avoid any long trips after getting an "Unable to Charge" message in the future, even if it seems to self correct.

 

[bankshot]

Your problem sounds very similar to what we experienced with our first Volt. The main difference is that yours seems slightly intermittent, whereas ours happened overnight (literally) and never resolved on its own.

"Luckily" enough, that overnight was the very first night of ownership, and the dealer was able to unwind the deal and sell us a different, equivalent Volt at the same price. When they took back the first vehicle, the service department said it was giving error codes they didn't recognize. I don't know if that indicates something truly weird going wrong, or just that service department's ineptitude...

My Volt was made in 9/16. Last 5 VIN:. 44000.

This could be a complete coincidence, but our original Volt was VIN 44763, built 9/16. The replacement is 39xxx, also built 9/16. If this is truly a bad "batch," I hope it started after 40000! We're coming up on 72 hours with the second Volt, fingers are crossed so tightly that they're turning white. So far, so good, for whatever that's worth.

 

[accelerus]

fellow 2017 owner with two major failures under my belt in ~8000 miles of ownership.

first was high voltage fuse blowing, 2nd was a charging system issue that left the 12V system unable to get juice (another blown fuse) left me stranded on the side of the road trying to get home after work.

I love my volt -- but if I have to give you a warning, don't expect too much help from the GM people here on the board. I reached out to them asking a few specific questions, they kept trying to refer me back to the dealership (they have actually been great) it's GM corporate I have issues with. When asked for someone higher up in the chain, I just got a "sorry you are having issues, we can't give out that information for you to contact a regional rep" As it was explained to me, the people from GM on the forum are only part of the "social media" team.

Car is amazing when it's working but going by history, every 4000 miles I'm left stuck somewhere. Hope you get back on the road soon.

 

[catathesis]

Shop told me this is the third dead volt they've had this week. All new, under 10k miles. Still no firm diagnosis, but the others needed new sections of batteries. Seems like a bad batch :/

 

[ChiVolt]

Shop told me this is the third dead volt they've had this week. All new, under 10k miles. Still no firm diagnosis, but the others needed new sections of batteries. Seems like a bad batch :/

Three defective Volt batteries in only a week - let alone at a single dealership - is an unprecedented anecdote on this message board. Either the gen2's battery problem is more widespread than I thought, or your dealer is not shooting straight with that comment. I hope it's the latter.

 

[Triarius]

Our dead volt/shift to park had nothing to do with the battery. They replaced the whole transaxle afaik.

 

[bro1999]

2017 LT with March '16 production date. Almost 5k trouble free miles so far. Hasn't seen the dealership since I drove it off the lot last June. Just finished taking it on a 1k mile road trip over Thanksgiving break.

Hopefully they find a solid diagnosis for OP's problems.