[hastingsr1]

Greetings (first post)
My daughters 2012 Volt showed "battery too cold to charge". She lives on the Gulf Coast! She took it to the dealer and they said it needs a new battery which will be done under warranty.

It's my understanding that GM did a really good job engineering the Volt battery, so I wonder how common this is? Also, will it be a straight replacement or will the new battery have newer technology included.

She didn't get it new, but 3 years old with about 27,000 miles. She mostly uses electric, having had it for 2 years.

We have a 2012 Leaf, which is ideal for where we live.

Thank you for any insights.

 

[SharkVolt]

It is very uncommon for the Volt battery to fail, which is why it has an eight year warranty.
It will probably be an identical replacement, as each model year is programmed for only that one model of battery.

 

[caronjeff]

Extremely rare for main battery to malfunction in any way. My 2011 with 98,000 miles shows little to none on battery degradation. Could be fine and the issue a sensor or some other associated problem but changing the battery is the prescribed fix.

 

[Steverino]

How common? Not common at all. Exceedingly rare in fact. You may be the second in 7 years. And I suspect your car doesn't need a new battery either. Some new components perhaps. They may be replacing the battery for other reasons. If anything, they would replace a defective cell (if there is one), or control module or sensor, etc..

A new battery will not have "new technology" though it's possible it may have slightly more range.

What are the error codes they pulled from the car?

 

[freshcut]

Agreed on the rarity of such an event as a total battery replacement. Usually a component sensor or possibly even a battery module requires replacement, but out of the 1000's of Gen 1 Volts on the road, total battery replacement is almost unheard of. It's likely you'll get a refurbished unit or possibly a completely new part (possibly even whole new battery, depending). In the case of a new replacement it will only bring the car back to how it was when originally sold, no added range, technology, battery chemistry, etc. Basically exactly like the old battery, just working properly.

 

[canehdian]

That would be your battery temp sensor failing (if you have no temp sensor it defaults to -40, so it thinks it is frozen). The main component of the battery (i.e. cells) is likely fine.

As WOT has described in the past, these sensors ARE serviceable, it's just a lot of work and there's the HV risk, so the standard solution is to just replace the affected module(s) and not have to dig into the middle to replace a sensor.

 

[bentbiker]

Hopefully, they have ruled out a failing 12v battery as being the cause of the erroneous temperature reading. As we know, a bad 12v battery can result in any number of errors.

OP, do you know if your daughter still has the original 12v battery?

 

[hastingsr1]

Thank you for all the replies. I will try and get some more detail and whether the 12v battery is original.

 

[tofelec]

How common? Not common at all. Exceedingly rare in fact. You may be the second in 7 years. And I suspect your car doesn't need a new battery either. Some new components perhaps. They may be replacing the battery for other reasons. If anything, they would replace a defective cell (if there is one), or control module or sensor, etc..

A new battery will not have "new technology" though it's possible it may have slightly more range.

What are the error codes they pulled from the car?

in the netherlands,I have seen more than 2 pack remplacement in a week

in france:no one!
I supect like steverino, maybe just a defective component.

 

[BillG]

To the OP: read through this thread for similar failures, particularly starting with post #10.

 

[DonC]

Cells do fail but the rate is something like 2 problems per million cells. So maybe a failure for every 5K to 10K cars, depending on the failure. That's the reason for speculating it may be a component of the pack rather than the pack itself.

 

[VoltenRock]

Had the same issue with my battery -- temp sensor failure. Required a new section of the battery to be replaced. In that sense, there was a "battery replacement" but it was due to that temp sensor failing. I wonder if that's changed with Gen 2.

 

[beau]

Just had my 13 done. 19k miles over 80% on battery. Just bought it last month took 2 weeks.

 

[TripleTrucker]

I had one section replaced on my 2012 under warranty due to a bad cell in that section. Range increased briefly, then went back to normal.