sounds like a engineer responseNot to rule something out but to say you've fixed it with a sample size 0.000001% of the driven miles of the fleet is premature. My understanding is the BECM failures are due to a solder joint issue.
www.gm-volt.com
i think the becm bad solder connection is more a bad resonating frequency thing, and the weak battery doesnt helpInteresting... is this the consensus cause? Not sure if this was my situation.
When my son's car had the BECM problem it was a fall day, but not super cold. It was driven to school with a full charge under electric only... too warm to even have the gas kick in like most of the time. It did not appear that the battery was bad. Admittedly, once the problem happened, the tow guy brought it to the dealer and left the car "on" and did drain the battery. He didn't know to turn off the battery. It was dead 5 days later when the tech at the dealership finally looked at it so I was not super surprised. It happened on a Friday and the Tech was there on a Tuesday at this dealership. Anyway, they just charged the 12v to confirm the issue, and then made the repair (a month later) once they had the part. The car has had no problem since, and that battery is still in the car. It has been driven over the winter now without issue... parked outside in the cold every day at the school. Should I be concerned about that battery?
Also, I have had the battery die in my wife's car (which I replaced myself), and I did not have the BECM issue.
Perhaps a bad battery is a factor or maybe just one possible way it can happen. I'm not sure this capacitor would have saved me though.
When it happened, I was just grateful that the car was fixed under warranty and that we had an extra car because of my work-from-home situation.
I think once these cars are no longer under warranty, it may be time to look for alternatives. Seems like it would have been a pretty pricey repair otherwise.
You have a keeper for a dealership. Kudos to them. I'm looking to replace my Volt in 2024 simply because as a low volume vehicle I know parts will be hard to come by.My wife's 2017 just had her BECM fail last weekend. This one was different. Her check engine light came on. A day later the reduced propulsion message. We parked it for 2 days until we could take it to the Volt tech. Driving it to the dealer after 2 days parked in the driveway, the check engine light was no longer on. Dealer checked the codes and said it was the BECM. They had them in stock and it was fixed that day. All fixed under warranty, and I already have it back. I consider myself lucky. My dealership said they put in a dummy order for 5 of them after they had a bunch of vehicles waiting for the back-ordered part.
So now the question is how likely is it to fail again? I have 2 2017's. Both had the BECM fail within 6 months of each other. Will they both fail again in 5-6 years? Did they actually fix the problem with the replacement?
Some cars you keep forever until the wheels fall off. With the Volt, I think I will be playing Russian roulette after the battery warranty expires. So I guess sometime after 2025, I will be looking to replace them.
We've generally been told and assumed correct that the new BECMs have a redesigned build process and aren't prone to the solder failures that the unreliable BECMs were. So I wouldn't worry about the replacements failing for the same reason.So now the question is how likely is it to fail again? I have 2 2017's. Both had the BECM fail within 6 months of each other. Will they both fail again in 5-6 years? Did they actually fix the problem with the replacement?
