[FrankIII]

After the snowstorm we had over the weekend, we had record cold temps in our area today of about -4 F. I my 2012 Volt today. I could hear the engine tuning over then after what seemed like 3 - 5 seconds turning over, it started to fire. I think I would be lucky to say I had 1 or 2 cylinders firing. After about 10 seconds of the extremely rough idle. The engine stopped running and the engine unavailable message was displayed on the screen. I shut the car off, and the same thing happened again. With the car turned on and running on battery, I also now see the engine symbol displayed on the cluster.

Is there something I should have done differently? Tomorrow it is supposed much warmer about 20 F. Maybe it will start ok tomorrow. As of right now, I have it plugged into my level 3 EVSE.

 

[jcanoe]

After the snowstorm we had over the weekend, we had record cold temps in our area today of about -4 F. I my 2012 Volt today. I could hear the engine tuning over then after what seemed like 3 - 5 seconds turning over, it started to fire. I think I would be lucky to say I had 1 or 2 cylinders firing. After about 10 seconds of the extremely rough idle. The engine stopped running and the engine unavailable message was displayed on the screen. I shut the car off, and the same thing happened again. With the car turned on and running on battery, I also now see the engine symbol displayed on the cluster.

Is there something I should have done differently? Tomorrow it is supposed much warmer about 20 F. Maybe it will start ok tomorrow. As of right now, I have it plugged into my level 3 EVSE.

How much gas in the fuel tank? How old is the gas?

 

[FrankIII]

It has about 3/4 of a tank of gas. I filled it about a month ago.

 

[jcanoe]

It has about 3/4 of a tank of gas. I filled it about a month ago.

Did you fill it with Top Tier fuel from a major brand service station you trust? It could be that you got some bad fuel.

 

[Steverino]

Have you been using Premium gas or regular? It almost sounds like timing or fouled plugs.

As of right now, I have it plugged into my level 3 EVSE.

Interesting. Maybe it's your hack to enable the 2012 to charge using DC fast charging that caused the issue. Those Level 3 chargers start at about $10k-$20k I understand. You have one in your garage?

 

[obermd]

Do you have an ODBII code reader? Without the codes it will be nearly impossible to diagnose the problem. Your symptoms can be anything from fouled injectors to a dead main fuel pump to any number of other issues.

This doesn't sound like a gas issue.

 

[FrankIII]

Ooops - I meant to say level 2...... I only use top tier fuels in the Volt and only premium grade. I was able to start it up this morning. The temperature was warmer at a balmy -2 F. While driving to work after I got it running, I was thinking over the whole episode and it almost seemed like the engine got flooded or was flooding with gas. On other GM cars I own, there is a clear flood mode that is used to get the engine running if it gets flooded.

Is the same procedure available for the volt in cases of such cold temperatures?

 

[hellsop]

Ooops - I meant to say level 2...... I only use top tier fuels in the Volt and only premium grade. I was able to start it up this morning. The temperature was warmer at a balmy -2 F. While driving to work after I got it running, I was thinking over the whole episode and it almost seemed like the engine got flooded or was flooding with gas. On other GM cars I own, there is a clear flood mode that is used to get the engine running if it gets flooded.

Is the same procedure available for the volt in cases of such cold temperatures?

I don't see how the Volt engine could even GET flooded, as (IIRC) it's spinning at operating speed and sparking before fuel even starts flowing.

As far as the original issue, no there's nothing to do differently about this, and it's looking like time for a dealer visit. It's even probable that the weather doesn't have even anything to do with it; something failed, and it just picked that morning to do it. (Though if it'd stayed warm enough to not need the engine before, who knows how long it had been already failed and you didn't know, because the engine had no reason to try starting?)

 

[FI Spyder]

Not much different between -2F and -4F. I wouldn't say it is temp only related, something between the two days changed. Not familiar with the 1.4l but wonky temp sensor, dirty sensing wire in air mass meter ending incorrect signal to ECU, cold start injector, what ever other signals, connections are involved in cold start sequence. Should be a code.

 

[FrankIII]

I'm going to drop by the auto parts store tonight to get it scanned. Should be something in history. Time to buy a new scanner, the one I have won't work with the Volt.

UPDATE - I had the scan done at O'Reileys. Came back with 2 codes, P0AC4 and a P0AB9. Since the car appears to be running properly now, will continued operation cause these codes to be deleted from memory before my dealer has an open time slot to take a detailed look at it?

 

[blimo]

https://gm.oemdtc.com/667/intermitt...11-2015-chevrolet-volt-2014-2015-cadillac-elr

 

[Aseras]

I'm going to drop by the auto parts store tonight to get it scanned. Should be something in history. Time to buy a new scanner, the one I have won't work with the Volt.

UPDATE - I had the scan done at O'Reileys. Came back with 2 codes, P0AC4 and a P0AB9. Since the car appears to be running properly now, will continued operation cause these codes to be deleted from memory before my dealer has an open time slot to take a detailed look at it?

those are both mystery codes.. tons of things can cause them. I know the P0AB9 code can be triggered by a precondition and stepping on the the accelerator ( accidentally while getting in, whatever )before starting the car while the cycle is still going.

they will stay in history, even if cleared. if the tech feels like looking up the history.

 

[obermd]

P0AC4 is from the Hybrid Powertrain Control module. Did the engine start problems occur when starting the car?

 

[FrankIII]

Yes it did. My wife got in the car to chase after the trash bin that blew down the street. When she started it, she said the engine seemed like it was turning over for an extended time (the temp was -4F) and when it finally fired, it was running extremely rough like only 1 or 2 maybe 3 cylinders for a few seconds, then the engine shut off . At this time the message was displayed, engine unavailable reduced propulsion. She turned the car off and tried it again. It did the same thing. This time she shut it off, locked it and took her car to get the bin before it got too far.
When I got home, I tried to start the car as I listed in the first post. It did the same thing. I moved the car under battery power to outside the garage door, where I was going to plug it in to precondition it and maybe get some heat into it. Before I did that, I thought I would give it one more try. The engine began to turn over after about 3-4 seconds of turning over, it fired on 1 or 2 cylinders like before, running extremely rough. However this time the rest of the cylinders started to fire and I had all 4 running. I left it running for a while to warm it up. It still seems to be running ok, I'm just looking to see what follow-up needs to be done on it.