[z80]

Briefly, I have tried (fought) for over two months to get into MyGM / MyChevrolet and MyVolt web sites.

When I picked up my car, I added OnStar to my existing account and things went downhill from there. Simply put, it took over 15 HOURS (truly) on the phone plus multiple support tickets to get things sorta working. As it stands right now:

• The old OnStar Remotelink application on my BlackBerry works. (Android version doesn't work; do not know about the iOS version.)
• The OnStar web site shows the Volt but no details about Oil Life; I do not know if it is supposed to show any energy usage details.
• The MyGM / MyChevrolet web site shows my Volt and my OnStar account number but says that I don't have an associated OnStar account. I don't know what this is supposed to show, either.
• VoltStats.net technically works but the data does not correlate to my data. For example, it shows my MPGcs in the high 30s but manual calculations do not support this, as it seems to be reporting only part of the actual fuel used.
• MyVolt has never worked saying that I've "entered an invalid OnStar Username or password" even though I know it is correct. I have no idea what is in there.

My question is whether I should keep hassling with OnStar to get into MyVolt. Is it worth it or should I give up?

I'm trying to diagnose my severe "CS" or Hold mode fuel economy problems and would like to see further supporting data since I have no OBD2 codes in the system.

Thanks

 

[Barry]

If you have the old remote link app, you probably have much of the useful functionality of those websites. They do offer a little more info, such as tire pressure, diagnostic reports from your car (dashboard trouble codes should cover that), warranty expiration date tracking, car mileage tracking (if you enter and update it manually yourself), and maybe a few other things. Information you can get elsewhere. I have not found them all that useful except to check my state of charge and plug in status on a few rare occasions. Also, if you have an active OnStar account, you can set up notifications such as receiving an email when your charge finishes or is interrupted.

 

[canehdian]

It's supposed to have logs of all your mileage/ev vs gas/kWh used/gas used in addition to all the mobile app features.

However, mine has been pretty much garbage for the last two years - not reliable enough.
It appears that recently they fixed something in that I now have charging data points most days (as opposed to not at all) - but still not all (and I've plugged in every day for months) - however, the data is often wrong. Not even validating against what the car might have used - just the most basic time elapsed and kwh reported is not physically possible with the 3.3kW charger.

For your purposes, signing up for voltstats will probably be better and more reliable.
It will record, on a regular basis, the total mileage, how much was on gas, and total gas used.
Typically syncs twice per day.

 

[z80]

It's supposed to have logs of all your mileage/ev vs gas/kWh used/gas used in addition to all the mobile app features.

However, mine has been pretty much garbage for the last two years - not reliable enough.
It appears that recently they fixed something in that I now have charging data points most days (as opposed to not at all) - but still not all (and I've plugged in every day for months) - however, the data is often wrong. Not even validating against what the car might have used - just the most basic time elapsed and kwh reported is not physically possible with the 3.3kW charger.

For your purposes, signing up for voltstats will probably be better and more reliable.
It will record, on a regular basis, the total mileage, how much was on gas, and total gas used.
Typically syncs twice per day.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I have VoltStats but the numbers there don't always correlate to the real world. I do not fault the VoltStats developer. It is clearly the data that he is receiving.

For example, I had one day in particular where I fueled up in the morning, drove about 160 miles on electric and gas, got home and fueled up again. I knew that I used just a hair over 5 gallons that day but only 2.9 gallons showed.

Meanwhile I checked the stats today and it seems to be right on the money. I drove 73.4 miles total, 36.9 miles EV and 42.5 on gas and used 1.62994 gallons for 26.1 MPGcs, which is better than average. (It was nice weather around 60 degrees, fan only setting and early 100% at 55 mph on cruise control, tires at 40 psi-ish, super unleaded)

That is what I'm trying to diagnose as my 4WD pickup gets 22 to 24 mpg on that same road virtually everyday.

Back to the drawing board.

Thanks again!

 

[z80]

If you have the old remote link app, you probably have much of the useful functionality of those websites. They do offer a little more info, such as tire pressure, diagnostic reports from your car (dashboard trouble codes should cover that), warranty expiration date tracking, car mileage tracking (if you enter and update it manually yourself), and maybe a few other things. Information you can get elsewhere. I have not found them all that useful except to check my state of charge and plug in status on a few rare occasions. Also, if you have an active OnStar account, you can set up notifications such as receiving an email when your charge finishes or is interrupted.

I only have been able to use the "Key Fob" feature. Vehicle Status shows fuel level, oil life and tire pressure but nothing about the battery, but then again, this is the BlackBerry version and it is ancient. Oh, and Lifetime MPG.

The notifications do work but I don't know how they are configured. I wished I could turn them off because I get an "interrupted" email about 5 minutes after I plug the car in whether on 110 at 8A or 12A or on a L2 charger at work. I have a power line monitor that I use in my work to diagnose power problems and cannot find any problems at home. It just seems like it wants to send out the email even though it is always charged in the amount of time I would expect.

Thanks for your replay!

 

[jbakerjonathan]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I have VoltStats but the numbers there don't always correlate to the real world. I do not fault the VoltStats developer. It is clearly the data that he is receiving.

For example, I had one day in particular where I fueled up in the morning, drove about 160 miles on electric and gas, got home and fueled up again. I knew that I used just a hair over 5 gallons that day but only 2.9 gallons showed.

Meanwhile I checked the stats today and it seems to be right on the money. I drove 73.4 miles total, 36.9 miles EV and 42.5 on gas and used 1.62994 gallons for 26.1 MPGcs, which is better than average. (It was nice weather around 60 degrees, fan only setting and early 100% at 55 mph on cruise control, tires at 40 psi-ish, super unleaded)

That is what I'm trying to diagnose as my 4WD pickup gets 22 to 24 mpg on that same road virtually everyday.

Back to the drawing board.

Thanks again!

I may have missed it: Can you tell by examining the wear pattern of your tires if your car has an alignment problem?

 

[z80]

I may have missed it: Can you tell by examining the wear pattern of your tires if your car has an alignment problem?

(If this post is repeated, I keep trying to post but it keeps disappearing so I'm trying again...)

There is no tire wear, no sawtooth feel, no directional pulling. I purchased these Pirelli P7s right after getting the car, 3,200 miles ago, and had the dealership do an alignment but they said that no adjustment was necessary.

Another test I did recently was to put the car into neutral on a new level road at about 30 mph and with any regen, the car did not exhibit any unusual evidence of rolling resistance.

For what it is worth, I can easily get 30 miles on a charge using 10.3 kWh according to the status screen and have even seen EV distances as high as 35 or 36 miles before the car automatically switches into the CS mode. Of course, factor in the weather here in Alabama is rarely frigid. For example, this morning, after a preconditioning cycle, I didn't need any heat despite the outside temperature being in the 40s. The only time I really use heat is for the defroster, especially when cold and raining.

Also note that most of my driving is small town "city" plus lots of rural-ish roads, usually between 30 and 45 mph with short periods at 55 mph. Most days I'm only putting 6 to 25 miles on the car and is doing a wonderful job keeping the short-trip "grunt" miles off my truck. In fact, two months ago I reset the Average MPG on my Silverado and by eliminating these short trips, yesterday I noticed that the average is now over 19 MPG! (Truck is a 4WD 6.2L with 3.73 gears and a 6-speed transmission, you know, that thing that makes the engine rev up and drop all the time... hehe)

Thanks for your reply!

 

[jbakerjonathan]

For your perusal and a possible answer to your "mileage".

http://gm-volt.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-164929.html

 

[SSonnentag]

The data reported by OnStar is not realtime data. It only updates occasionally. So the stats are good for statistics, not for instantaneous values.

 

[z80]

For your perusal and a possible answer to your "mileage".

http://gm-volt.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-164929.html

Hmmm, I didn't run across that thread and that is the first that I've seen that it isn't a LRR-class tyre. They are labled EcoImpact and TireRack has them classified as such.

However, it's what I ended up with, choosing between regular tyres, these and the factory Goodyears which many seem to have issues with. I have already put about 3,500 miles on them so maybe they'll start to get better mileage now that they're starting to get broken in.

On the other hand, I'm wondering if I have another issue. I was reading in another thread about peak kW used and regenerated and I'm getting nowhere close to numbers posted. WOT peaks at 60 kW and peak regen is around 22 kW in "L" at 70 mph braking moderately. Also there is little passing power at WOT, especially if up hill. I just wished there were codes in the computer to help diagnose this!

Thanks for your reply!

 

[z80]

The data reported by OnStar is not realtime data. It only updates occasionally. So the stats are good for statistics, not for instantaneous values.

So far the only stats that I can use are VoltStats but the gas used numbers are off, but that is clearly either an OnStar issue or a problem with my vehicle.

For example, last weekend, I drove the Volt about 550 miles and had four fillups. Based on the fuel receipts, the car used 20.9 gallons of fuel. However the car only showed on the DIC that it used 16.1 gallons and that matches what VoltStats reports. Therefore I am confident that VoltStats is correctly reporting the data it received.

I'm not counting my local driving. For example, I used 0.23 gallons today according to the DIC but I'll use my long weekend drives to compute mileage the old fashioned way.

Now where did I put that slide rule???

Thanks for your reply