[sovrin]

Hello all,

I Just picked up a used 2017 LT for what I thought was a really good deal. This is my second Volt from my 2 year hiatus from my leased 2013. It has 85,000 on the clock, but I think it will last me for a good while if it is anything like my 2013 Volt. I'm only 2 days in and I'm already hitting 60 miles EV. I'm taking it into the dealer service to give it a checkup and go ahead and change out the oil. Having owned a Volt before I was pretty confidant that I new what to look for while negotiating. The only thing that gave me pause was this strange oil like spray on some of the engine components under the hood. I'm pretty sure that I traced it back to the oil fill cap so I'm thinking it was either overfilled and was spurting up a little of the seal is just not sealed properly, but either way I should find out soon if I've got a problem or not. Oil level and other fluid levels all checked out fine so I was kinda stumped. The other possibility is that is is some sort of excess engine cleaner from when it was detailed and was just being vibrated and sprayed around under there when the engine was running. Otherwise, I love it!

Oh, and while the dog still prefers the Subaru she is loving that she doesn't have to straddle a giant plastic cup holder in the middle of her anymore!

 

[VoltenRock]

Nice wheels! Congrats!

 

[dannycamps]

Congrats on the purchase. Regarding the oil spray, be sure to have the dealer check the oil pan as there is a known issue regarding oil pan gasket leaks in the Gen 2 engines.

Reference:
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?251650-2017-Volt-LT-oil-leak

 

[avengers]

what did you pay if you dont mind me asking

 

[sniper27]

85000 miles for a 2017?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

 

[sovrin]

I got it for $15,500 which I thought was fair. Could have been better since it had such high mileage. I'm not the best negotiator but I thought I did pretty well since I wouldn't have been able to touch one of these in a dealer for under $20,000.

 

[sovrin]

Yeah, I know right. The guy put over 40 grand a year on it for 2 years!!! But it was the only thing in my price range and I wanted a gen2 with a couple of extras (leather, and comfort package) and this was the only one I found. I put almost entirely EV miles and he put mostly gas miles so I figured the batteries were at least not used as much as they could have been (charge, discharge etc.).

 

[samotlietuvis]

Nice car.
Lots of miles, but most of those are highway miles on the engine. Your engine is well broken in.
How many total EV miles does your chevy app show for the Volt?

 

[sovrin]

Congrats on the purchase. Regarding the oil spray, be sure to have the dealer check the oil pan as there is a known issue regarding oil pan gasket leaks in the Gen 2 engines.

Reference:
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?251650-2017-Volt-LT-oil-leak

I wish that I would have seen this thread before I went to checked it out. I would have brought some ramps with me so I could have crawled under the car, but I don't think that it is leaking oil underneath. This was a light spray that was all on top and most of it was on and around the engine cover. Like I said it might not even be oil, but I think it is and is coming from the filler cap. I'm going to email the guy and ask him if he ever had the oil leak problem (he didn't say anything about it when I asked issues) but he gave me all the service history and this issue wasn't in there so I'm thinking he never had the oil leak.

 

[sovrin]

Nice car.
Lots of miles, but most of those are highway miles on the engine. Your engine is well broken in.
How many total EV miles does your chevy app show for the Volt?

That's exactly what I was thinking when I bought it and since I'm mainly an EV only driver I was thinking that's just a little less wear on the batteries.

per MyChevy.com
Electric Miles
31,322
Gas Miles
53,735

 

[sovrin]

Okay, I've changed my mind after a closer inspection and the engine being cool and not hot I'm almost positive that it is a engine cleaner from when the car was detailed. At the time I couldn't smell anything because we both drove to meet each other when I picked up the car (very nice of him) because of the distance that we were from each other. It has a sweet cleaner smell and doesn't smell like coolant or oil and is just a kind of greasy film (why I was mistaking it for possibly being oil). I will know for sure on Monday, but I'm a little relieved that it's not something coming from the engine.

 

[samotlietuvis]

Okay, I've changed my mind after a closer inspection and the engine being cool and not hot I'm almost positive that it is a engine cleaner from when the car was detailed. At the time I couldn't smell anything because we both drove to meet each other when I picked up the car (very nice of him) because of the distance that we were from each other. It has a sweet cleaner smell and doesn't smell like coolant or oil and is just a kind of greasy film (why I was mistaking it for possibly being oil). I will know for sure on Monday, but I'm a little relieved that it's not something coming from the engine.

Something to watch out is bad coolant hose routing for 2016. My 2016 had it - made dealer to re-rout. It rubs and eventually will tear the hose. Search for TSB on the board.
Something else I noticed is that Volt's engine does run hot. Hot is not bad - it helps efficiency. However, when going over mountains it gets hotter than usual, and I smell sweet plastic burn a bit. Found a source - it is plastic engine cover hard rubber points that touch the engine. Nothing to worry about. Could be this is happening to your engine as well.
Best - take it to the dealer. Got warranty.
BTW, your battery use is low. My Volt has ~30k miles with ~23K battery miles.

 

[Eagleco]

Congrats on the purchase! It sounds like a very good price for what must be mostly low wear highway miles. You should get many good years out of your Volt. You saved yourself the first couple years of significant depreciation too.

For that price most have to settle for a newer gen1. I would rather have your 2017, than a 2015 with half the miles.

 

[wws]

Since the car has the optional dealer-installed black pocket wheels, you might ask him what happened to the original set of wheels - if you didn't already get them from him. Though sometimes the original dealer will 'forget' to give the original wheels to the customer when they mount the the black ones. So he may not have gotten them to begin with.