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.
Traveling from Mexico, we just got into yuma Arizona heading towards the 8 freeway when my volt displayed reduced propulsion and the engine light came on and the car lost power while driving on the road we had to let the car drift into a parking lot. We let the cat sit for a several minutes and the engine started up but was running hard. After that it ran a little so we decided to rent a uhaul and car hauler to get the car home. Before this happened We were about to head back to California and we were stranded there until we got an Uber to the uhaul place and rented a truck and car hauler, the car would stay on long enough for us to drive it up on the ramp so we had to push the car to get it up there. We finally did and 24 hours later we made it home hauling the cars a 3 hour ride home was turned into a nightmare. Apparently this is serious problem if the car would have stopped a while we were driving through Joshua Tree we would have been stranded on the side of the narrow road in the dark, Or on a major free way, This problem is a safety hazard to all Volt owners and it has been known and reported to happen countless of times so why is there no recall of these vehicles for this problem, people's lives are in danger, this could have turned out way worst, thank God He saved us from what could have happened. My dealer says that they are not sure what caused it and that we may have to pay for repairs. This is unacceptable because there is an obvious problem with this vehicle
BECM issue diagnosed by dealer, told it would be fine to drive car while awaiting parts. Error message simply stated unable to charge. BECM failed while driving down road. Car stopped running, no power to anything, and had only enough inertia to make it into a parking lot sideways. Car was unable to restart for some time. Luckily the road was 2 lane and no traffic. Had this been the expressway the no power would have been dangerous. GM does not have replacement parts and it appears the part is known as defective. Sudden catastrophic loss of all power while driving is dangerous. Car has been parked out of caution to not repeat the loss of power during driving. Major safety concern. 3 issues: 1.sudden catastrophic power loss and 2. Dealer repair department stating it is ok to drive based on GM technical bulletins and repair details. 3. Lack of replacement parts with documented failure of these specifically for 2017 model year.
gas engine emission recirculation valve failed. thermostat failed. fuse blown. Displayed message "propulsion power reduced" and "gas engine unavailable" while driving. It put the driver at risk due to being stranded in the middle of nowhere. Towed to Dealer. They replaced EGR valve, egr cooler, fuse and thermostat. Plug-in hybrid with 90 percent ev only miles. So at 52,000 there is only 5200 miles on the gas engine. Root cause of failure unknown.
This is related to a long-standing issue with the failure of the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) (part #242969-00) for the 2017 Chevrolet Volt, as well as a lack of availability of the replacement part. This is a documented problem in the NTSA database since 2016. The vehicle error messages on the dashboard include -??unable to charge-??, -??shift to park to start-??, -??reduced propulsion acceleration may be limited-??. The internal combustion engine engages even with a full battery charge on an intermittent basis. Only after turning the car off and on several times or later the next day, would the problems resolve. In several instances, there was a lack of power transfer to the wheels when in drive mode and traveling on roadways, and the car had to be turned off and on to resolve this problem. The car has been inspected by a Chevrolet dealer to confirm the BECM is failing and needs to be replaced. The replacement BECM was ordered by the dealer 7 June, 2022, and neither GM or the dealer will provide a delivery date for the part. A number of postings on www.gm-volt.com reported 2017 Volts would no longer turn on or would lose power when being driven, could not be driven, and had to be towed. The NTSA database indicates approximately 250 complaints have been filed for 2017 Volts that include vehicle error messages on the dashboard for -??unable to charge-??, -??shift to park to start-??, -??reduced propulsion acceleration may be limited-?? and loss of power while driving. Although no accidents or deaths were reported, this is clearly a serious safety issue that NTSA should address immediately with a mandatory safety recall.
When attempting to engage the vehicles drive system, it would occasionally fail to recognize the propulsion system battery. This could potentially leave someone stranded in dangerously high or low temperature environments without food or water. Powering off the vehicle and then powering the vehicle back on would sometimes fix the issue. The issue occurred very randomly and was unable to be reproduced once working again. It would continue to happen more frequently and require more tinkering to get it working until almost complete failure. This appears to be a common issue and found to be the result of a failed BECM (battery energy control module). It triggers the check engine light and a series of trouble codes. It is estimated that the replacement of this module takes roughly five hours. Unfortunately, supply chain issues have recently resulted in owners being without their vehicle for multiple months with no loaner vehicles available and no additional compensation. See discussion https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/becm.343297/
- Springfield, IL, USA
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Bulletin 18-NA-261 BECM failure. This is a known problem on Chevy Volts dating to 2018. This should have been a recall. Instead Chevy waited for individual customers cars to fail. Currently people have been waiting for 3 months for the part. The car is undrivable until part is replaced. GM should have ordered a recall in 2018/2019 or should have had a stockpile of these parts. My car is currently at the dealership, it has been there for 10 days and they have no idea when the part will be available.
My car had the Shift to Park and Battery Control Module go out while on a family trip with the family in the car, on the highway. The car was in the left lane of 2 lanes on the highway with no propulsion or way to move it except to push push the car off the side of the highway. Thankfully some people stopped to help. My car had stopped with no way of moving on a 55 mph 2 lane highway. We were at risk of cars not seeing my hazards and hitting us from behind. We had to push the car across the right lane to get it off the road. We had two cars stop to help direct traffic away from us while we pushed it to safety. But when we were on the side of the road, we were stranded in 100 degree heat along side a busy highway and the car was not able to use the HVAC because of the issue. This is a known issue and has been for years. A google search of VOLT Shift to Park Battery Control Module will result in THOUSANDS of complaints. It has become general knowledge that if you own this model, you WILL have this issue. They ALL will, it's just a matter of WHEN. It can happen at 30,000 miles or in my case, 111,000 miles. Chevrolet knows this as well as the dealerships. I have read many other stories of people being left stranded because of this. Chevy covers it under warranty. But my car was 11,000 mile past warranty. So I had to pay full price. Every dealership I called to see if they had the part to fix my car said that they didn't have the part AND they had 1 or more of my type of car in their dealership currently with this issue at any given time FOR YEARS. Thankfully since my car wasn't in a wreck, there was no police or insurance paperwork filed. Once the shift to park issue happened while I was driving and we were stranded, the check engine light came on. It was not on when I started the trip up until the car died. Then the check engine light came on.
from all my reading and my own knowledge and what I have read on forums from others who have had the same issue, this problem is due to the cars BECM (battery energy control module) going bad unexpectedly. apparently this has happened to many other people driving the generation 2 Chevy volt at varying mileages. On the highway on her way home from work, my wife experienced a large loss of power and the car started shuddering and switching between the electric and gas powertrain as well as slowing down quite a bit. the dash showed a notification of "propulsion power reduced". the car also lost power to many of its accessories. she ended up having to pull over on the side of a busy highway and turn the car on and off again till it would finally work and managed to limp it home along back roads. if she had not had a shoulder to pull on to she would have been stuck in the middle of the highway. the car had absolutely zero issues before this, but since the incident has had a check engine light illuminated and is unable to charge unless the codes are reset. it is drivable again after getting some codes cleared but as it poses a serious hazard we are trying to find a temporary car till we can get this fixed. our car has about 100900 miles on it, but these failures happen as soon as 25k-50k on a lot of vehicles. it has not been inspected by anyone yet as it happened yesterday.
I was driving 65 miles per hour on the freeway and suddenly my car lost propulsion. A light came on that said the car had lost propulsion and I had no power to keep driving on the freeway. Luckily, I was able to get to the side of the road without getting hit by other cars, but it was a close call and very scary. I had it towed to the dealership and they could not find any problem with it after investigating for an entire week. They gave it back without any repairs because it was apparently working fine for the dealership. This same problem happened again about 6 months later as I was driving up a long hill. Again, it was a scary close call to get to the side of the road safely. This time I just turned the car off and let it sit for awhile. Then I turned it back on and everything seemed to be running just fine. This is a major safety problem. I-??m now afraid to drive this car and no one seems to know how to fix the problem!
Check engine light came on during highway driving and dash showed "Propulsion Power Is Reduced". Dealer said bad EGR valve and/or EGR cooler caused fuse to blow. Replacing fuse did not resolve the issue as it occurred again. EGR failure is a common issue with this vehicle and there is a GM service bulletin 18-NA-089 issues in March 2018. Driving with this condition can cause the engine to overheat as well as cause increased emissions due to the EGR being non-functional. This condition can be dangerous if the engine overheats and shuts down during highway driving. Emissions control systems such as EGR should be covered by the manufacturer but I had to pay out of pocket for this repair.
The car suddenly started starting problem, then the electrical charging component to refuel the power from an electrical charging outlet was unable to charge. Now it does not start at all. I brought the 2017 Chevy Volt to a dealer, it has been more than a week and they said that the part to fix the problem is not available yet and I have to wait. They do not have any idea when they will get the part.
I received a 'Reduced Propulsion' message along with a check engine light and that progressed to a 'Engine not Detected" message and stranded along the interstate in a dangerous situation. Had it towed to a dealership which had a technician which could work on a volt - he replaced the Engine Control Module fuse which "fixed" the car for about 15 miles and then the 'Reduced Propulsion' error with the Check Engine light appeared. Technician said something must be shorting out the fuse. Dangerous situation.
Shift to park message and will not allow car to be turned off. This problem also occurred ~2 years ago and the part was replaced by Chevrolet under warranty. This seems to be a serial defect
The check engine light came on followed by a loss in propulsion power of the engine. During freeway driving, a sudden loss of power posed a significant risk to both driver and other drivers on the road as the resulting sudden loss of acceleration forced other drivers to swerve around the vehicle to avoid hitting the car. The problem was reproduced when the engine came back on after 2 attempted repairs. I am very scared and concerned with my life/safety.
I bought the car in 2020. It had intermittent problems with the car registering -??shift to park-?? when the car was in park. This would not allow the car to be started, leaving me stranded. The intermittent problem has become much more frequent now. Yesterday and today 16 Dec 2021, the car is not ever registering that the vehicle is in park. The transmission display shows I am in -??P-?? (park), but the display keeps saying -??shift to park-?? and the car won-??t start.
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Volt. The contact stated that while attempting to start the vehicle, the vehicle failed to start. The contact mentioned that the electrical hybrid battery failure warning error was illuminated, and the check engine warning light was also illuminated. The vehicle was able to start after multiple attempts to switch over to gasoline mode. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the battery energy control module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 46,000.
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Volt. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the vehicle loss motive power with an unknown warning light illuminated. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. However, the vehicle would lose motive power whenever the vehicle exceeded 60 MPH. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but the dealer informed the contact that the warranty had expired and there were no appointments available. The vehicle was taken to another dealer, Keyes Chevrolet (5949 Van Nuys Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91401) and the dealer informed the contact that the warranty was expired and could not assist the contact without the contact paying the diagnostic fee. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and informed the contact that they would escalate it to the legal department. The failure mileage was approximately 114,000.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Murrieta, CA, USA