[iamdarkyoshi]

Sorry for the terrible electrical pun, I promise there will be more

Hello everyone! I've just purchased a salvage 2013 Chevy Volt.

For those wondering how they move them around the lot and what my first walk around looked like, here is a video:
(I can't post links yet, mods, please message me once this goes public so I can edit it)

As you can see, it has been in a minor front and rear end collision. It still drives (kinda, more on this later)

I'm going to replace the back window, repair the bumpers, and replace the broken headlight.

I have already straightened out the hatch and hood, they both close correctly.

The front radiators are bent and dented, but they don't seem to have been burst, the AC still works great and the engine does not overheat.

So far, I'm impressed with the car. It has lots of colorful buttons I can push.


Now onto the bad part:

It is throwing diagnostic trouble codes all over the place!

We have so far gotten the following codes (if I can remember them correctly)

P0000
P0001
P0002
P0100
P0101
P0200
P0201
P0300
P0301
And a LOT of N/A codes (I've bought a USB interfaced reader that I hope will give us more info)

And the car has displayed the following screen errors:
Engine Not Available
Propulsion Power Reduced

Things I KNOW aren't connected:
Front Bumper parts (bumper is temporarily removed)
Rear Bumper parts (bumper is temporarily removed)
Taillights

The car behaves as follows:
You can drive it out of the garage. It will seem fine. After a bit, it will throw a check engine light and it sometimes won't let you use the engine, but it always seems to limit power. Resetting codes will make the car have lots of power again, but after that short burst, the codes come back. So far, my check engine light high score is 42 codes in a minute, 21 codes, 21 pending.

The battery has about 15 miles of pixies stored in it, and the gas tank has about 75 miles of dinosaur squeezings in it. Lifetime gas mileage: 60+ MPG Odometer: (I think it was around 60K???)

Could it be that the car is in some sort of power limiting collision mode? It has NOT had any airbag deployment.

Anyone got any ideas? I will update this thread as I gain more info.

 

[Steverino]

I think you need to take some of the money you saved on buying a wrecked Volt and invest in the service manuals.

This thread may help (or not) http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?13269-GM-Manual-with-all-DTC-Trouble-codes-for-the-Volt.

 

[emartin00]

Have you tried charging the car? That will give you a good idea if the charging system works.
Try searching the forum. A lot of those codes have been discussed.

 

[mpmoore1979]

Start by looking at the p0201, this is a injector driver code and most likely the injector is not plugged in or you have a damaged wiring harness and a open in the number 1 injector wiring (the most likely cause knowing the history of the car). Correcting this issue will stop the p0200, p0201, p0300 and p0301 (misfire codes due to a injector not working).

 

[iamdarkyoshi]

I think you need to take some of the money you saved on buying a wrecked Volt and invest in the service manuals.

This thread may help (or not) [link removed].

Thanks! I will read this over.

Have you tried charging the car? That will give you a good idea if the charging system works.
Try searching the forum. A lot of those codes have been discussed.

Unfortunately, I don't have the charger for it... I'm in the process of building an arduino based one.

You know, because arduino.

Start by looking at the p0201, this is a injector driver code and most likely the injector is not plugged in or you have a damaged wiring harness and a open in the number 1 injector wiring (the most likely cause knowing the history of the car). Correcting this issue will stop the p0200, p0201, p0300 and p0301 (misfire codes due to a injector not working).

The engine runs fine when idling though... I'll take a look under the hood and maybe clean and reseat any offending connectors. I will also look for any damaged cables.

 

[cory151]

Did you ever end up getting those codes to clear?