Some intermittent 12V charging issues on the Gen2 Volt have actually been traced back to a couple of potential issues.

One being a bad cable connection at the underhood fuseblock (see http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...today.-quot-Shift-to-Park-quot-and-locked-steering-40MPH!&p=3591842#post3591842) and the other a bad batch of BUSS fuses right inside the battery itself.

There are GM service bulletins associated with these issues, so ask your dealer to refer to 16-NA-193 and/or PIC6182

 

Suggest getting a Volt Advisor involved. I'd pursue a Lemon Law buy back.

Please let us know the final outcome.

 

Thanks guys. We looked at the lemon law but it said it had a max 18,000 mile limit on buy backs. Ours has been 36,000 already so it looks like we're stuck with it.

 

If their tester says the battery is good, then I'd look for a bad connection or bad wire somewhere.

 

We have a 2016 Volt. Basically the car refuses to start and is completely dead, nary a flicker of life... We try to jump it. It turns on but as soon as disconnecting the jumper cables it dies immediately. (An interesting aside here, when connecting the positive jumper cable and the car is off/dead the junction sparks like I've never seen when jumping another car.)

Fortunately the first time this happened was 25 miles before our 36,000 mile warranty expired.

Are you following the drivers manual directions on jumpstarting your Volt and using the Volt’s terminals under the front hood when jumpstarting your car, not the battery terminals in the rear cargo area (use the rear cargo area terminals when using the Volt to jumpstart another car)?

Seems to me 36,000 is a lot of miles to have already on a 2016 Volt...

 

Seems to me 36,000 is a lot of miles to have already on a 2016 Volt...

What does that have to do with anything?

 

2016 Volt unexplained death...

Yes we jumped it properly. My wife drives 120 miles a day on her commute to and from work.

 

Yes we jumped it properly.

You did?

It turns on but as soon as disconnecting the jumper cables it dies immediately. (An interesting aside here, when connecting the positive jumper cable and the car is off/dead the junction sparks like I've never seen when jumping another car.)

How do you see sparks when connecting the positive lead?

Correct jumping procedure is connect +ve terminals together first, then one end of - lead to negative to terminal of flat battery, and then finally the other end to a chassis point on the donor car.

You should therefore only ever see 'sparks' at the chassis point on the donor car.

 

According to a shop I totally trust and respect a battery can test as "good" but not truly be good. My better half's 40 month old battery that is a 550CCA battery but the other day was putting out 393CCA as an example, still above 350CCA so it tests as "good" but isn't nearly as good as when it was new. Hers was a 60 month battery so we got about 1/3 prorated. I'd imagine OEM batteries are probably 36 month batteries so there would be basically zero warranty.

 

I'd imagine OEM batteries are probably 36 month batteries so there would be basically zero warranty.

My 2011 Volt's 12v battery is 66 months old. YMMV

 

Buy a new 12V battery. For $80 you eliminate that as a problem. If still having issues, try a different dealer for service. Explain what is going on and that you've already installed a new 12V battery. Ask that they keep the car and drive the route your wife takes.

 

Where you finding $80 Group 47 AGMs? They're $150 batteries most places I've seen.

 

An internally shorted battery will work as you describe. I would replace the 12 volt battey. or certainly investigate it with more than just a load test.


but you could use a Volt meter on the battery when it is dead. It could appear to read ok then go to zero with a load. Or you have either: a really bad/corroded connection somewhere, or the battery is not being charge and is left to discharge until flat. Old cars sometimes have corrosion issue on the connections where the lights come, all looks like as is well and when you go to crank it, everything goes dead. power may not come back. so look for crap connections at the battery. make sure they are clean but it is hard to imagine a 1 year old Volt looking anything but spiffy at the battery.

 

No response or further details from the OP. A hit and run?

 

Exactly this just happened to me.

My 2016 had been sitting in my garage for a week while I was away, plugged in the whole time.

I got in my car yesterday and it first chimed with a Stabilitrak warning message and the brake pedal was pulsing erratically. It would not start. Then that stopped and the interior lights started to strobe and there was lots of clicking sounds from behind the dash. The rear hatch would not unlock.

Chevy sent a flat-bed to pick it up (3 hrs!). He put a jump-starter on the battery and I could start the car but it only ran for a few seconds after he disconnected. Fortunately that was enough to put the car in neutral and release the parking brake, so we could push it out of the garage and line it up with the truck.

The car is with the dealer now. I'll post an update when I get it back.

My Volt has been mechanically perfect apart from this. Hope they get to the bottom of it. Hoping its just a 12V battery/wiring problem.

 

Car is back from the dealer. It looks like the problem was a simple one after all. They wrote:

Loose battery cable at circuit #40 at the X50B auxillary fuse box.

This sounds like service update 16017 to me, although the dealer did not log that but did reference document id 4533325.

 

Thank you for closing the loop and documenting the fix applied. More confirmation owners need to keep an eye out for that loose battery cable.

 

That wasn't quite the end of the story. I came back from xmas holidays to find the car dead again. This time completely dead. Jump-start to get the car in neutral & release the emergency brake. Back on the flat-bed (3hr wait), another trip to the dealer, different one this time.

I just got it back. Turns out the heater was draining power while the car was switched off. The service notes:

Heater coolant heater inop due to internal failure.
Tested battery found good battery. Performed charging system test and found charging at 4.7V. Tested for parasitic draws and found 252mA draw after letting vehicle sit over night. Found heater coolant heater power not shutting off after vehicle is turned off. Replace heater coolant heater and tested for parasitic draws found 9mA draw. (within spec)

So, they replaced the heater & coolant and gave me the car back. I'm going away for another week at the end of the month, so I guess that will be the real test.

Thinking about this now, I have some questions:

Is the heater powered from the 12V battery or the main traction battery?

The 12V battery is charged from the main traction battery, right? If so, shouldn't I expect this to happen even when the car is powered off? There is plenty of juice in the traction battery.

Similarly, is the 12V battery supposed to be kept charged when the vehicle is plugged in and charging? It feels rather absurd that the car can become completely dead even though its plugged into 120VAC.

 

Replace the battery.

 

I don't think the heating system is powered by the 12V system. That's a draw of 2-7 kW which I don't you want delivered via non-orange voltage lines from the 12V battery (so 2000W/12V = 166A minimum current, I think that's arc welding range).

I also thought the 12V battery is treated the same as in an ICE in that it charges only when the Volt is on. Maybe while plugged into L1/L2, it only gets a trickle charge to offset some electronics used for OnStar or monitoring the Volt's systems. If there was in fact a heavy drain source like a bad heating system, that would overpower the trickle charge from the L1/L2 EVSE.

Just a guess, unfortunately.

 

I also thought the 12V battery is treated the same as in an ICE in that it charges only when the Volt is on. Maybe while plugged into L1/L2, it only gets a trickle charge to offset some electronics used for OnStar or monitoring the Volt's systems. If there was in fact a heavy drain source like a bad heating system, that would overpower the trickle charge from the L1/L2 EVSE.

Things I've noticed since installing an OLED Voltmeter to monitor 12V AGM battery voltage on my Gen1:

When plugged in and charging, the Lear 3.3kW on-board charger supplies @13VDC to B+ of the AGM. This keeps the AGM from flattening out since 12VDC current is required for the Volt's electronics just to maintain charging. This voltage is removed once the charging cycle is complete or the Volt is unplugged.

When the Volt is turned ON, the 14V APM also supplies voltage to B+ of the AGM. The APM is the Volt's equivalent of an alternator on a traditional ICE vehicle.

 

I'm not entirely sure how the heater drawing power could drain the 12V. The heater definitely only draws power from the high-voltage system, which is (or should be) completely isolated when the car is turned off. 250 mA is hardly anything on the high-voltage battery, but on a 12V that could definitely drain it overnight a point where the car wouldn't start. The heater uses ~6 kW of power, which is about 18 A off the high-voltage battery. That would fry a 12V. Now, when we're talking about 250 mA at 12V, that is within range of what an active sensor might draw while powered. There's a chance that the coolant heater had a sensor circuit that was stuck closed (or had a short circuit), which could definitely draw power from the 12V system when the car is off. I'm guessing that's what happened.

 

Might not be the heater itself, but instead some of the control circuitry.