[sbachman7117]

My 2011 has P0AA6, P1FFF, SHVCS and won't charge. Among other likely issues, I'm pretty sure my HV battery heater doesn't work. The car didn't run well in the winter anyway, so my plan is drive it to my dad's place (on ICE), swap it for his currently unused Accord and leave it in his garage until springtime. At that point, I might junk it or try getting it reprogrammed to maybe get another summer of use out of it.
My concern is that I might end up with a bricked car stuck in his garage. Hoping for confirmation that, independent of the HV battery status, I'll at least be able to shift into neutral and push it out of the garage if needed.
Anyone have experience with that? Thanks!

 

[JuneBug]

You can remove the passenger side panel from the shift console and push the latch with a screwdriver. That releases the shifter from Park and allows you to shift to Neutral.

 

[caronjeff]

It won’t charge but runs on the ICE? Will it charge up to the 4 bars of range in mountain mode? If so it seems perfectly usable, just as a gas car.

 

[sbachman7117]

It won’t charge but runs on the ICE? Will it charge up to the 4 bars of range in mountain mode? If so it seems perfectly usable, just as a gas car.

Yes, ever since it displayed the SHVCS message a couple days ago, it will not charge on the EVSE (either Level 1 or Level 2.) It will still run on ICE primarily, as it did last winter. It will regen, sometimes. I expect that it will charge from the ICE also, but I'm not sure. I've only driven it less than a mile since getting SHVCS, but I'll learn more when I drive the 20 miles to my Dad's place on Thanksgiving. For the past year, MM has usually been grayed out (unavailable), which seems pretty rare based on lack of other such reports on this forum. It's weird, because the car runs the ICE enough that it's like driving in Hold Mode (ironically, not a 2011 option), so the battery rarely gets depleted to the 4-bar point where MM would kick in anyway. At least that was the case previous to SHVCS, but I'm a bit worried that on a longer drive the software will now limit the ICE charging and allow the battery to drain to the point that it won't be able to restart the ICE after shutting it down.

You may be right that it could be usable as a gas car, but last winter it got really poor gas mileage. With the current price of premium gas, driving my dad's 2007 Accord Hybrid will be more economical, more reliable (knock wood) and better for the environment.

I'll report back after my trip on Thursday.
Thanks for the replies!

 

[caronjeff]

My 2011 started the ICE right out of the garage yesterday. It grays out the EV range indicator but you can still see it indicates 21 miles range. The ICE ran non stop for 13 miles in around town traffic, with a couple long stretches of 50 mph. Then it went back to normal and ran EV for the entire 20miles of range before CS mode kicked in. You can’t select mountain mode when the guessometer is grayed out, sometimes even if everything is normal you can’t select mountain mode until you’re 6-10 mile down the road. This is typical winter behavior, been doing this 3-4 winters in a row now. In summer it’s all normal, just some range degradation.

 

[hellsop]

wildass guess but the place to START looking for a solution is probably battery coolant circumator pump or battery heater or the three-way valve that connects them. I don't know if the car is smart enough to run coolant through the coolant radiator that's near the engine radiator to warm the coolant in case of failure, but that'd go a long way to explaining why the battery BECOMES fine after a long drive on ICE. For example, the coolant heater failed so car switches 3-way to postition C on the diagram The Chevrolet Volt Cooling/Heating Systems Explained , runs the engine and hopes for the best.

 

[MinnVolt]

You can remove the passenger side panel from the shift console and push the latch with a screwdriver. That releases the shifter from Park and allows you to shift to Neutral.

I found these pix and instructions a couple years ago - thought they might be handy to have "just in case" . . . . .

Volt Shift Interlock Override
When working with a Volt with a discharged or disconnected 12-volt battery (the vehicle will not start), the shifter cannot be placed into neutral without first bypassing the shift interlock. Here’s how:
1. Remove the right trim panel from the lower portion of the center console (see figure 1 below). The panel is held on with spring clips. Grip from the bottom, and pull out to release the lower portion of the panel, then carefully work your way around.
2. With the panel removed, locate the release lever just below the center stack, above and slightly behind two wiring harness connectors (see circled area in Figure 2 below).
3. Place your figure in front of the lever and push to your left, toward the rear of the vehicle (see arrow in Figure 3 below). The lever will move about a quarter of an inch. Hold the lever in this position.
4. Press the button on the front of the shift lever and move the shift lever to the neutral position. Vehicle will now roll freely, and can safely be loaded on to a flatbed platform.

 

[sbachman7117]

You guys are awesome. Happy Thanksgiving!