[MetaOrbit]

Hi all -- I have a '17 LT that I've been driving since December, and am pretty pleased with. I even went so far as to install a L2 charger and switch to a TOU rate plan. As such, I take advantage of the location-based charging that delays charging until off-peak hours at home.

Unfortunately, I'd say within the past week, that feature seems to no longer be working. When I plug it in at home, it chirps once, and begins charging immediately during peak hours. When I look at the Charge mode it shows up as "Immediate" and grayed out so that I can't select anything else. From there I go to Vehicle settings > Energy and update home location. Once that's done I can then select the appropriate charge mode from the Energy screen and it delays charging until peak hours.

Unfortunately, again, that setting never sticks. I come home the next day from work, plug in, and it charges immediately. I go through the same process of updating home location and I get delayed charging back, but it never stays.

Has anyone run into this behavior before? Any suggestions on how to get it stop?

It's become incredibly frustrating, and, I imagine once I see my electric bill, probably rather costly as well. I'm not terribly close to a dealership so if I can troubleshoot this at home first, I'd rather give that a shot.

Thanks!

 

[Slotracer577]

If updating the home position doesn't work, there is an issue with the car. Take it to the dealer to get it checked out.

I do know the home position resets every 3 months. I have also had a set home position drift a little so it reverted to non home settings.

 

[TSquare]

Are you parking inside a garage? I wonder if the car's GPS is losing site of the GPS satellites and can't tell that it is at home and should use the TOU settings. As I understand it, when the car is NOT at home it will automatically switch to immediate charging.

 

[wordptom]

In addition to the possibility that where you’re parking may be blocking the GPS signals, my understanding is that the Gen 2 "home" location can be quite specific and narrow, e.g., if you set your "home" location one day while parked in the driveway, if you then try to park the Volt in a different location around your house - say, in the garage - it may not recognize it as being at "home."

 

[Sheldon]

I had some problems with location based charging for awhile too. I don't know why it stopped working and why it started working normally again. But yeah, for awhile, I had to reset my home location every day or two, for a couple of weeks or so.

 

[MetaOrbit]

Thanks, everyone. I think you guys nailed it with the GPS signal/parking in a garage/and varying slightly in that routine.

I've always parked in the garage, and it's always worked fine, but come to think of it, instead of backing into the garage (as I usually do) I started about a week ago pulling in nose-in first. That would coincide with the issues that I've experienced. As a test this afternoon, I parked my car in the garage the old way (backed in) and the delayed charging based on home location worked just fine. Very weird, as the car was positioned maybe 2ft differently (and driveway parking still works for delayed charging). Only thing I can figure is that the GPS signal is worse/nonexistent towards the back of the garage vs. closer to the garage door.

 

[Kefer]

Hi I just got my 2017 Volt 2 weeks ago. Had the same issue where car would charge immediately, screen was grayed out and couldn't adjust charging times. After playing around I finally disable location charging and realized My Chevy app thru Onstar was set to immediate charging. Setting can be adjusted thru phone app in Vehicle Status -change settings to Departure and Rate. All is fine for the last week.

 

[hellsop]

Thanks, everyone. I think you guys nailed it with the GPS signal/parking in a garage/and varying slightly in that routine.

I've always parked in the garage, and it's always worked fine, but come to think of it, instead of backing into the garage (as I usually do) I started about a week ago pulling in nose-in first. That would coincide with the issues that I've experienced. As a test this afternoon, I parked my car in the garage the old way (backed in) and the delayed charging based on home location worked just fine. Very weird, as the car was positioned maybe 2ft differently (and driveway parking still works for delayed charging). Only thing I can figure is that the GPS signal is worse/nonexistent towards the back of the garage vs. closer to the garage door.

GPS fixes wander some too, due to atmospheric conditions mostly. So if it was drifted one way when you set it and drifted the other when you changed directions, it could be out of it's circle of accuracy. (Most GPS systems these days with good readings from well-spread satellites are "accurate" to about 2.5 meters, in poor conditions (rain, tree cover, satellites mostly clustered close together, especially near horizon, etc) that circle can be up to 25m and is usually around 10m. That's plenty enough to think you're still in the street and not your driveway, much less your garage.