[NavyET]

Hello everyone, glad to see there's a community for my car! In the past I've been a part of SaturnFans (99 SL1) and FitFreak (07 Fit Sport) and the resources there were invaluable.

I bought a used lease trade-in 2014 white with 67K for $13K in Oregon after my wife and I were rear ended at a light in the Fit. Long story short, got the car and it wouldn't charge. It also wouldn't blow hot air unless the ICE was actively running. Chevy Dealer fixed both. Charge port and heater module. I've been charging it with the portable charger snaked through a dummy switch from my shed.

Is there anything that is imperative that I check on the car? With my Saturn is was ETCS + Motor Mounts, both went bad, and the fit was coils and cat with the latter being bad.

Simple questions I'm sure, if I precondition 20 minutes before leaving, will I get most of the charge back if I'm using 120V 12AMP? Also when it comes to long distance freeway driving (200 miles) when should I activate mountain mode? At 0 miles or at 12-16 miles?

Thank you for your help.

 

[hellsop]

Is there anything that is imperative that I check on the car? With my Saturn is was ETCS + Motor Mounts, both went bad, and the fit was coils and cat with the latter being bad.

If you hear a *click* when accelerating and braking, it's the axle nuts. If you catch it early, it seems like re-torquing to spec fixes. If not, you'll probably need new nuts and bushings, MAYBE axle halves. All but the last are cheap.

If you start seeing wacky electrical/instrument stuff happening, your 12v AGM in the trunk is PROBABLY getting old and weak, and needs replacement. (The Volt uses the high voltage battery to actually start the engine, so you won't notice a cranking slowdown to warn you that the battery is getting old.) Don't believe unloaded battery tests that tell you it's okay.

The OEM tires always wear badly at the tread shoulder, even if you run them inflated to the sidewall maximum. Regrettable, but normal. They're also REALLY fragile sidewalls. Fear curbs or you WILL end up cutting one open sometime, and the little can of goo in the trunk won't fix that at all.

That's about it for the common problems. Everything else is pretty much in the manual. Read the manual. A lot. There are some very different things about this car.

Simple questions I'm sure, if I precondition 20 minutes before leaving, will I get most of the charge back if I'm using 120V 12AMP?

Nope. 240v 15amp level 2 can keep up with Eco heat. but not Comfort. You'll lose 2-3 miles of range with 120v. But that doesn't matter much anyway if you're driving less than 20 miles.

Also when it comes to long distance freeway driving (200 miles) when should I activate mountain mode? At 0 miles or at 12-16 miles?

Turn it on 20 minutes BEFORE you hit actual mountain inclines. The kinds of slopes where there's an extra lane for trucks. The ICE can cope just fine with a 1-2% grade, but will start tapping into the battery reserve for more than that. 20 minutes will be plenty to build up 40% charge, and that's plenty to handle everything in North America. But you don't even really need to worry too much -- if you forget, it'll just climb hills like the Fit did, and complain on the dashboard. Also, Hold and Mountain mode seem to have different levels of "aggression" about charging/maintaining their set points. Hold is more economical; Mountain is "No, I might need all the Go I can get for a while; caution to the wind, brother!" So your life will be more pleasant and marginally cheaper saving Mountain mode for actual mountains.

 

[TSquare]

Simple questions I'm sure, if I precondition 20 minutes before leaving, will I get most of the charge back if I'm using 120V 12AMP? Also when it comes to long distance freeway driving (200 miles) when should I activate mountain mode? At 0 miles or at 12-16 miles?

Thank you for your help.

Welcome to the club.
For preconditioning, the electric heater can use more power than the EVSE can supply and 10 minutes at 120 volts may not be enough time to get all of the charge back into the battery. At 240 volts 10 minutes is enough time.
When driving long range, I always go into Hold Mode as soon as I get on the highway. Save the battery for the destination and Hold Mode will work just like Mountain Mode for those mountain roads.
Also consider getting a VoltScreen from forum member Scarlett1. He has a web site VoltShelf.weebly.com. The radiators are susceptible to rock damage.

 

[bentbiker]

Read about the WOT defeat plug in this thread to avoid serious expense: http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?255506 .

 

[freshcut]

Agreed with most everything on here. Mountain mode however shouldn't be necessary unless you plan to climb through mountainous terrain. If it's just a few hills or primarily flat without significant sudden climbs the Volt can handle it without going into reduced propulsion mode and therefor mountain mode won't be necessary.

The Volt is quite a bit more efficient on gas than EV when maintaining freeway speeds. If however you choose to use MM, I would suggest engaging it sooner rather than later since it does increase the engine speed to not only provide the propulsion power needed at the time it's engaged but also has to build the battery buffer up. Engaging it when you have 100% of your battery will still allow you to drive about 20 miles or so before the engine turns on. You'll note on the battery meter the top half is green and lower half is grey. When you get to the half way mark, the engine will start and maintain that buffer resulting in lower engine demand vs. having to play "catch up" to rebuild the buffer from zero.

 

[canehdian]

2014 is about the time nearly all bugs were worked out.
Nothing chronically wrong with it, so you should be good to go there.
Rare 2014s had issues with the heater module, but you had that replaced already, so no worries.

One thing I've found on volts is the need to clean and lube the brake caliper slides regularly.
On other cars, I've never done it as it required pad changes every couple years. But the volt brakes will basically last the life of the car (3.5 years and my pads are basically brand new). So take time every year to open them up and clean and lube to prevent caliper seizing.

240V EVSE is highly recommended if you're preconditioning and driving mostly EV.
Even 240V can't keep up with the power draw of the battery, but you should leave with a mostly full battery, while 120V comes nowhere near keeping up to it.