This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Sudden loss of power. Driving on freeway. Speed decreased by 25 mph. Just about avoided a rear end accident. Have seen that 2016 onwards Volts have experienced this malfunction. Request that it be noted that this is a 2013 model with less than 60,000 miles. Have already had the latest programming done by Chevy.
When Im driving on the hi way, it sounds like it keeps accelerating, sounds like its going to explode. The pulsation warning comes on, then the pulsation warning will go away and the sound goes away.
There is a bearing that fails in the motor which is a safety issue and should be recalled. It causes the engine/transmission to lock up and become inoperable which can result in a crash. They even issued a bulletin regarding it (PIP5081), yet they have been refusing to cover it under warranty for me as well. This needs to be recalled and all affected owners should be reimbursed for any expenses they paid regarding this issue. General Motors must be held accountable for this safety issue. This has been confirmed by the dealer and all of these vehicles are experiencing the issue.
The Volt is displaying manufacturer control error code P1 E00$07E8 and is not charging. On the dash, the message displays as "service high voltage charging system". this is a software error that Chevrolet needs to correct on the 2013 Chevrolet Volts at no cost to owners.
The contact owns a 2013 Chevrolet Volt. The contact stated while driving at 75 mph, the vehicle decelerated independently. The contact pulled over to the side of roadway. Propulsion power reduced was displayed on the instrument panel before the vehicle stalled. After waiting for ten minutes, the vehicle started and operated as intended however, the message remained displayed on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to paradise Chevrolet Cadillac (27360 ynez rd, temecula, ca 92591) however, no assistance was offered. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case number was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 107,000. The consumer has stated that the issue occured once more on July 11 and July 12 of 2020.
- Dana Point, CA, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
Reduced propulsion warning. Causes car to not go over 40 mph while driving. Covered under voltech warranty but dealers want to charge for the diagnosis. Unfair, as this is a safety concern. I refuse to pay for a warranty diagnosis.
Car slowed down and then came to a full stop on side of residential street. Tried to turn off and restart engine to no avail. No power coming from motor
I live in and drive my car around southern California under normal conditions. My battery coolant radiator was hit by a small rock and leaked. This prevented charging, caused a check engine light to come on, and coolant to pool underneath my car. I towed it to a nearby Chevy dealership to get the radiator replaced. Radiator damage to Volts is not uncommon. Chevrolet knows this is an issue and has issued a service bulletin covering some (but not all) Volts due to their low, vulnerable, and relatively unprotected design of the radiator. I believe Chevrolet should remedy the problem with stronger radiator shields and protectors.
The contact owns a 2013 Chevrolet Volt. While driving approximately 30 mph, the engine shut down without warning. The vehicle was taken to ken garff Chevrolet (801-692-6158, located at 548 E 1000 S, american fork, ut 84003) where it was diagnosed that the transmission control unit needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000.
2013 Chevy Volt stopped accelerating and received a low propulsion while driving on a state route in Ohio. Our son was driving the vehicle and could have been killed if this was on a highway. The Volt would not move and he had to try to glide off the road since it had no power. He pushed the car off the road so it would not be hit. If this situation would have occurred while driving on the highway, our son could have been killed. This problem has occurred to other Volt owners if you look this issue up on the internet. Why hasn't GM fixed this issue so people are safe when driving this vehicle? we brought our Volt into the service department, this car is now going on 3 weeks and we still do not have our car back. They first said it was a short in the electrical module, and replaced parts. Now they are stating that it did not work and it is the transmission. I am not sure they know what is really wrong with this Volt. They are now asking us to pay $3661 to have this transmission replace and GM will pay 2000 or it would be 5661. This car is not even worth that much at this point has 83000 miles on it and the transmission should have never went out. GM tried to say it was the short, now they are saying it was not a short. I do not care what it is I just want a safe car for my son to drive. It seems like they are back pedaling to try to not pay for something that they (GM) should pay for. Especially since this issue is not a new issue for the Chevy Volt. GM needs to stand by their products and fix this vehicle.
My 2013 Volt has started giving me only a maximum of 35 miles charge, but really only giving me 27-32 even through I drive in low (which always gave me more miles than the car thought I'd get). Maybe this is connected to the new problem? yesterday when I turned on the car (driving in gas because I had run out of electric) it gave gave me a "propulsion power reduced" error message. I tried turning it off and on several times, but the error stayed. I had to drive from downtown la in a car that could barely move. About 8 miles in, the error disappeared and the car ran normally. The dealership tells me they couldn't find any error messages (?!), but maybe, maybe that problem and the charging problem could be corrected by a $300 software update. Maybe. Meantime, I found that some 2013 Volts were recalled for exactly this error problem, but apparently not mine. The dealership doesn't seem to be interested in finding out what's wrong, and GM says to go to the dealership (GM, in fact, hung up on my today). So let me get this straight, GM, you know you built cars with software problems, but we need to pay to correct them" and you're not even sure it will correct it?????"
Volt has minimal propulsion when stomping on the accelerator in electric or hybrid mode. It has lost 60-70 percent of its power since new. It is a safety hazard when pulling onto a highway or needing to accelerate to avoid a accident. Chevrolet says nothing is wrong and refuses to acknowledge the issue not wanting to honor electric warranty.
On Sept. 5th 2018 I hit the center island while turning on the city street at about 15mph. The impact was so slight that the air bags didn't even deploy. I was able to get it to the dealers on it's own power. My insurance company sent their appraiser, jeremy, to inspect the damage. I had to get some items out of my car before that. The mechanic had the car on the rack so he could show me. The only damage I readily noticed was the radiators were crushed, a 2 1/2" square frame cross member had a 1 1/2" dent where it had impacted the island, and some panels- noticeably the front underside and driver side front wheel well were damaged. Later jeremy called me and told me the car was a total loss.he said the entire frame was bent out of shape. I couldn't believe it. In his report he itemized the parts but about the propulsion system he wrote, conditions exist that the electrical motors could start up the gas engine and flood the passenger compartment with co. Well if that's the case, why don't they simply replace the components that would lead to that condition or if it was inherent in the car, why doesn't the dot declare the car a road hazzard and recall all vehicles" ln consumer reports they declared the Volt scored 5 out of a possible 5 rating on collision survival. What? the car running at 15 mph getting totalled by hitting a bump is a 5" I think Mr. Jeremy is padding all his estimates and should have an independent appraiser review the car. Either he is lying or the car is actually a lemon. I would like your advice on what legal course I should take.
I've brought my 2013 Chevy Volt to the dealership 4 times because it dies suddenly while driving. It has put my family in danger multiple times. One of the "fixes" was a software update that ended up as a recall because it causes the engine to die suddenly (it's recall #N172130460, which came out two days before my latest incident, but I didn't receive the recall notice in the mail until 7/28/18...6 weeks after my last incident). The most recent time the car died (6/16/18), I was on a mountain highway and I was lucky enough to not get hit as I pulled the car to the side. There was no signage there except for the "caution bear xing" sign. After towing my car to the nearest dealership (in carson city, nv, an 8 hour ordeal), I had expenses for lodging and transportation (including lyft to South lake Tahoe to rent a car because no rental car offices open on Sunday in carson city, then flying to reno and taking a lyft to carson city to pick up the car because Chevy refused to ship the car to me even though I said that I was afraid and didn't trust the car in the mountains). Chevy customer service and concierge services refused to reimburse me because I had the car towed myself instead of calling their "concierge service" to tow it because that's "policy." How about the safety of their customers so that they may live to drive another day? I'm not asking for anything more than the expenses incurred from the last adventure: $1040.72, which I can itemize. Other times that my car has died include: While making a U-turn in a busy intersection (in 2016), it died and started back up as if nothing happened 20 minutes later and a separate time was when the car wouldn't start at all but then started up again two hours later as if there was never an issue.every time this happened, I had a "power propulsion reduced" warning on my dashboard. I see online that many have had this issue.
While driving down a road in indianapolis at 35 miles per hour, my car suddenly slowed down and a message reading " engine not available - service soon" appeared on my hud. My car only has 32,800 miles on it and a clean title. Nothing about my driving changed to cause this issue, it was sudden and without apparent cause. I had the car taken to the mechanic, and GM just reset the codes. It is driving ok for now, but a reset of codes is a temporary fix to the issue, and I've read extensively about many, many other Volt owners with the same issue. It is extremely dangerous to have your engine shut off while driving, especially if I had been on the high way during rush hour. This is something that needs looked into, and I feel that GM is trying to bury it with resets which aren't working for most people.
While driving at 40mph on a straight road, I went to change the drive mode, but I accidentally hit the power button. When I hit the power bottom the car shut down. I was not able to restart the car while the shift lever was in drive, so I had to coast to a stop, place the vehicle in park, and reboot the car. I was very surprised that I was able to power off the car while I was driving around 40-45 mph.
While entering in the highway the car started to decelerate regardless the fact the gas pedal was pushed several times. The car decelerated and then stalled. The car has been rear ended by the car behind. This could have been a much more serious accident and it was a vehicle failure.
A warning message appeared on the dash, which said "propulsion power is reduced, " followed by, "engine not available. Service soon, " as well as a check engine light. I pressed the onstar button to find out what was wrong but they had never heard of the error message and could not establish communication with the vehicle to perform diagnostics. While on hold with onstar, the vehicle began to spontaneously decelerate very rapidly despite my attempts to accelerate, in the middle of fast highway traffic. I made it over to the side of the road safely, limping along at 3-10 mph, with the help of a good samaritan who blocked traffic for me. This is a spontaneous occurrence, with no maintenance negligence to explain the event. The car was towed to a dealer, which has yet to determine the source of the issue.
Was entering highway in the dark and went to put the car into "hold" mode to run the gas engine and save battery charge. This requires pushing a button 3 times. I reached over and pushed the button. Accidently was pushing the "power" button which is right below the "mode" button shutting down the car. The entire car shuts off, no lights, powertrain, ps, pb just dead. This is easy to do if you are watching the road and just glance down to the buttons. They are placed too close together and this is going to be a serious problem if in traffic or on winding roads. Numerous reports of this on the Volt forum!
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Siginaw, TX, USA