A "funny" thing happened on the way to CarMax

[TheLondonBroiler]

I had a free afternoon yesterday, so I decided to take the Spark to Carmax and see if they'd surprise me with a buy offer (they surprised me alright.... not in a good way). As I pulled in, I checked Torque Pro for diagnostics. I had two codes, but no light, so I cleared them....

Immediately after clearing the codes, the service vehicle soon (Orange vehicle light), illuminates, and "propulsion reduced" is displayed in the message center.... Great. I check the codes, which I've never seen before. Screenshot, try to clear, no dice. Turn vehicle off and back on again, no change.

I drive around and remember that a "certified EV" Chevy dealership is a mile down the road. By this time, it's nearly 6pm and service is done for the day. Turn off and back on, no change, still limited to 60kw (like driving an IMIEV, would be a great mode for teen driver's). Drive some more, restart phone and torque pro, unplug and replug obd2 bt module, finally codes would clear, propulsion still reduced. Let the car sit and walked around for about an hour, came back and no longer had propulsion reduced.

Went to Carmax and got an offer for $5,500. No thanks. Carvana offered $7,200. Gas is going up here in the Carolinas. In no hurry to get rid of it, but will probably list for private sale, in the near future.

 

[SparkE]

Look at the bright side :

You may be getting a new PCM (Power Control Module) and maybe even a new battery pack out of it.

Luckily, you now have another EV to drive around while the Spark gets fixed.

(Remember, anything to do with the battery/charging system is covered for 8 years/100K miles)

 

[NORTON]

...(Remember, anything to do with the battery/charging system is covered for 8 years/100K miles)

Not quite.
>I had a No Go after a DCFC session. Had it towed to dealer.
They replaced HPCM1 and all was good until I went to the same DCFC station a few weeks later and it died again and had to be towed again.

>This time it was the $800 SDM module, which is NOT covered by the powertrain warranty.
But I insisted they do a DCFC session before I pick it up and when they did it failed again.

>This time it needed the HPCM2 (which is related to DCFC, dah....)

This stupid story was because the local dealer has to follow Chevy's 'Trouble Tree'.
Third guess on the tree was the one that fixed it, but I was stuck paying for the SDM which they claimed could not be put back on the shelf.
There was nothing wrong with my original SDM.

I put up a long fight and got it reduced to $200,, but still....
Is this how it's done when a Bolt has an issue?

GM has to come up with a scientific method of Troubleshooting modern EV's and not an old fashioned 'Trouble Tree'.

This has to be fixed before I buy another EV from GM.
I doubt Tesla, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai use trouble trees to fix their EV's.

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

Headed into work, as soon as I turned on the Spark, Orange vehicle light illuminated and stayed. P0Ac4. "EV" certified dealer happened to be on my route, so I stopped in just to have it recognized, which they did. I'll be setting up an appointment to drop off in the not too distant future. Guess I'll just have to drive the Bolt

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

Well here we go.

Just received a phone call from service. We can't figure out what's wrong, come pick up your vehicle, owe an hour diagnostic.

I'll email GM corporate and see what they say.

Driving a nice new Bolt doesn't feel so great all of a sudden...

Edit: I'll go talk with the higher than service writer staff @ the dealer first, to give them the opportunity to do things right.... which I have little confidence they will.

 

[Redpoint5]

What's the point of buying a new vehicle if service is going to play replace the parts to diagnose issue at owners expense? Any monkey can do that.

I'd never pay to replace something that wasn't broken. The service manager could give the keys back to me under his own accord, or I can forcibly take them back. If there was any negotiation, it would be how much they would pay me for wasting my time.

 

[TheLondonBroiler]

Follow up: Spark has been back in my possession for two weeks (had vacation and food poisoning since, eventful). Paid a $116 ransom, in the end, all I received worthwhile was a carwash. Prior to picking up/paying for the vehicle, I spoke with an attorney very familiar with lemon law. GM/Chevrolet had adequate opportunity to correct the problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Two things:

1) I'm glad to see that another Spark with very similar mileage (I have 50k) has a similar range estimation at full charge.

2) My sister has a Ford Flex that just one day wouldn't start. She had it towed to Ford, after trying to jump start it, and they told her that they have no idea what's wrong and the only option is to begin replacing expensive computers until they find the one that's broken. I couldn't believe they told her that. Seems similar to your story.