[Joe67]

Arrived home after work on Tuesday afternoon to hear a buzsaw sound coming from under the car (2012 78K miles). Took a video of the sound, went in the house to find it's a rather common issue with 2011, 2012 and some 2013 vehicles due to the plastic/nylon race/cage used for the bearings within the 'transmission'. GM replaces them with a metal version under PIP-5081.

I drove right to the dealer that afternoon, within 24 hours my 5 star Chevy dealer calls to tell me the car is repaired and ready to pick up. This was covered under the Voltec 8 yr / 100K warranty (Michigan). He stated if I paid out of pocket, it would have been around $850 to me, much less than most estimates I've seen on this forum an elsewhere online by users.

From the R.O.

1 - 24259842 - BEARING ASM-DRV MOT ROT - Approx $90 retail
1 - 12978390 - Coolant
8 - 8882156 - Fluid (Not sure what this is, maybe to refill the Electric Drive Unit?

 

[firehawk72]

Arrived home after work on Tuesday afternoon to hear a buzsaw sound coming from under the car (2012 78K miles). Took a video of the sound, went in the house to find it's a rather common issue with 2011, 2012 and some 2013 vehicles due to the plastic/nylon race/cage used for the bearings within the 'transmission'. GM replaces them with a metal version under PIP-5081.

I drove right to the dealer that afternoon, within 24 hours my 5 star Chevy dealer calls to tell me the car is repaired and ready to pick up. This was covered under the Voltec 8 yr / 100K warranty (Michigan). He stated if I paid out of pocket, it would have been around $850 to me, much less than most estimates I've seen on this forum an elsewhere online by users.

From the R.O.

1 - 24259842 - BEARING ASM-DRV MOT ROT - Approx $90 retail
1 - 12978390 - Coolant
8 - 8882156 - Fluid (Not sure what this is, maybe to refill the Electric Drive Unit?

Wow, I wouldn't have expected that part to fail after that many miles. It was my understanding that that particular failure was from it being slightly misaligned when installed. I have a 2012 as well with 46k.

 

[bro1999]

Arrived home after work on Tuesday afternoon to hear a buzsaw sound coming from under the car (2012 78K miles). Took a video of the sound, went in the house to find it's a rather common issue with 2011, 2012 and some 2013 vehicles due to the plastic/nylon race/cage used for the bearings within the 'transmission'. GM replaces them with a metal version under PIP-5081.

I drove right to the dealer that afternoon, within 24 hours my 5 star Chevy dealer calls to tell me the car is repaired and ready to pick up. This was covered under the Voltec 8 yr / 100K warranty (Michigan). He stated if I paid out of pocket, it would have been around $850 to me, much less than most estimates I've seen on this forum an elsewhere online by users.

From the R.O.

1 - 24259842 - BEARING ASM-DRV MOT ROT - Approx $90 retail
1 - 12978390 - Coolant
8 - 8882156 - Fluid (Not sure what this is, maybe to refill the Electric Drive Unit?

Wow, that's some fast service. My dealership took a good 3 days to fix my Volt's failed bearing cage once they got it up on the lifts. Called each day, and they were like "Hold on......yup, it's still on the lift. The area your Volt is in is still cordoned off with orange cones."

Luckily they seemed to do it right the first time, because no issues with the replacement.

 

[Joe67]

Wow, I wouldn't have expected that part to fail after that many miles. It was my understanding that that particular failure was from it being slightly misaligned when installed. I have a 2012 as well with 46k.

From what I read online, cars experienced this failure with half as many miles as I have. Sounds like a poor design they corrected sometime during the 2013 model year.

 

[Mad Hungarian]

Just had this happen to my 2013 only 10 days after buying it, and it's no spring chicken with 55k miles on the clock.
I'd really like to know if this will still by covered by the Voltec warranty once the full powertrain warranty runs out. Service advisor who handled mine wasn't sure, and I've only got 7 months left. Let's hope it is!

 

[2VoltFamily]

Just had this happen to my 2013 only 10 days after buying it, and it's no spring chicken with 55k miles on the clock.
I'd really like to know if this will still by covered by the Voltec warranty once the full powertrain warranty runs out. Service advisor who handled mine wasn't sure, and I've only got 7 months left. Let's hope it is!

The only difference would be 3 years as the 100k miles are the same. The OP indicated it was covered under the Voltec warranty.
Which makes sense as this is part of the generator which charges the system.

 

[ampera_jed]

Wow, I wouldn't have expected that part to fail after that many miles. It was my understanding that that particular failure was from it being slightly misaligned when installed. I have a 2012 as well with 46k.

Well, you would because that's the BS that has been spun about it here and elsewhere, where people have swallowed what GM have said. None of it adds up, but no-one seems to want to discuss it any more because it is 'so rare'. (Funny that in the UK almost everyone I know of with an Ampera has had a bearing swap.)

Mine went at ~70k miles, and was one of the first brass caged bearings, so not even anything to do with nylon nonsense.

The tolerance of the design is bad and can cause the bearing to overheat. Obviously, nylon bearings are far more easily damage by heat than brass, but an overheating bearing is still an overheating bearing whatever it is made of and that's not good.

 

[SanCarlosJeff]

Add another person to the list with this failure. Drove to lunch yesterday and the car was normal, driving back to the office all of a sudden the noise started. It's really loud and disconcerting, exactly like in this video https://m.facebook.com/groups/188685284477438?view=permalink&id=1407486279263993 (which I think the OP posted).

My car is a 2012, 66k miles, with well over 90% of those miles in EV. On the way home from work dropped the car off at the dealership. They just called and confirmed it's the bearing problem and that it's covered under warranty Unlike the OP they need to order the part and won't have the car buttoned up until Wednesday.

 

[freshcut]

This brings up a good question for me. Is the failure dependent on EV vs. ICE miles? I have an early '13 build (8/13) and at my current 104K, only about 30K of those are EV. I suspect due to the total mileage I have, I'm probably not going to experience this particular failure, but if EV miles seem to play a bigger role, perhaps I'm not completely out of the woods either.

 

[DMC5180]

This brings up a good question for me. Is the failure dependent on EV vs. ICE miles? I have an early '13 build (8/13) and at my current 104K, only about 30K of those are EV. I suspect due to the total mileage I have, I'm probably not going to experience this particular failure, but if EV miles seem to play a bigger role, perhaps I'm not completely out of the woods either.

8/13 is not an early build for MY2013. That's very late build. 8/12 would be early though. Typical MY change overs happen in late summer/early fall. Of coarse there are always exceptions. MY2017 Volts were in showrooms a year ago. It makes me wonder how soon before 2018's show up or whether they make a 20 month run of 17's.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[freshcut]

8/13 is not an early build for MY2013. That's very late build. 8/12 would be early though. Typical MY change overs happen in late summer/early fall. Of coarse there are always exceptions. MY2017 Volts were in showrooms a year ago. It makes me wonder how soon before 2018's show up or whether they make a 20 month run of 17's.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry, yes, you're correct, I mean to type 8/12. heh, it was purchase 10/12. I had '13 on the brain when I typed that out.

 

[DMC5180]

Sorry, yes, you're correct, I mean to type 8/12. heh, it was purchase 10/12. I had '13 on the brain when I typed that out.

When the bearing eats itself, does debris get into other critical areas?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[canehdian]

This brings up a good question for me. Is the failure dependent on EV vs. ICE miles?

The motors are always used, even when the engine is on. So, no.
It comes down to solely (bad) luck, it seems.

 

[freshcut]

Thats what I suspected, but I wasn't sure. I knew the electric motors were always engaged, but not entirely sure where the location of this bearing is (aside from inside the transmission). Thanks for the reassurance.

 

[wktaylor]

This exact same problem happened to my 2012 volt on Saturday. The dealership is telling me it's not covered under the Voltec Warranty, should I take it to another dealership and have them check it? Any ideas would be appreciated since they want to charge me 1274.13 to change it out.

 

[hellsop]

This exact same problem happened to my 2012 volt on Saturday. The dealership is telling me it's not covered under the Voltec Warranty, should I take it to another dealership and have them check it? Any ideas would be appreciated since they want to charge me 1274.13 to change it out.

Same answer as the other poster: The FAQ here has the bulletin numbers from Chevrolet that say it *is* covered, and if the dealership continues to say it isn't, call Chevy's customer service number and THEY'LL call the dealership and say it's covered.

 

[SanCarlosJeff]

......Unlike the OP they need to order the part and won't have the car buttoned up until Wednesday.

Was out of town for a week so didn't pick up my car until last Saturday. It was silent for 3 days but today the noise started coming back. Grrr.... It's not nearly as loud this time, but assuming it gets louder over the next week or so I'll be bringing back in for another try.

 

[SanCarlosJeff]

Was out of town for a week so didn't pick up my car until last Saturday. It was silent for 3 days but today the noise started coming back. Grrr.... It's not nearly as loud this time, but assuming it gets louder over the next week or so I'll be bringing back in for another try.

Update:Lived with this annoying noise for the last 3+ months. Had to bring my car in yesterday because it stopped charging last week with a "Service High Voltage Charging System" error (another thread). While there I asked them to look into the noisy bearing. By the end of the day the charging problem was fixed and they replaced the bearing again (pleasant surprise that it was all taken care of in 1 day). The dealer said they contacted GM and got the word that sometimes replacement bearings don't work right and to replace it again under warranty. So far it is back to the silent running that I like