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Battery Fault left me stranded on a Saturday Night

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2.8K views 29 replies 17 participants last post by  GregBrew  
#1 ·
We were out to dinner and got some overpriced pizza on Saturday night with the extended family and I got the dreaded "propulsion power reduced".
I tried resetting the computer several times by disconnecting the 12v battery but no dice. Whatever error the computer was seeing it wasn't letting go. We dropped AAA because we have roadside assistance with State Farm, the car is at 78k so the power train is still covered under warranty, it sucks but it's not the end of the world. We try to use our Roadside Assistance from State Farm and they say our cars don't have Emergency Roadside Assistance!@!@##$@(&!@*! What other kind of Roadside assistance is there?
Thankfully my mom still had AAA so we waited 2.5 hours for the tow truck to arrive.
Towed it to the obviously closed dealership who was also closed on Sunday. Monday morning I get a text from the Stealership
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I can attest that their repair lot was packed and starting to spill over into the car sales lot. I asked if all the dealerships in the area are like this and he gave an "IDK but feel free to call around" answer.

I've read enough Bolt owners complaining about waiting months for a replacement battery so my hopes aren't high.
I got a 2011 Prius that's been parked for a few months for cheap. The 12V battery was dead, it was still under 'warranty' except that apparently the battery oligopolies have decided that a battery that is only slightly dead is covered but a battery that is really really dead is not covered under the warranty.
Fun fact most car parts places charge $250 for a Prius 12V battery, Costco has it for $160.
Tag & Title $350 to the tax man.
Monday I afternoon I retrieved the rest of my belongings from my Bolt and noticed that they put the plastic and paper floor mat on the car to try and move it but it was in the exact same place as the tow truck driver left it (in the way).


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#2 ·
Bummer. What year was yours? I can only tell it was pre-'22. If it was '20 or '21, did you get the 80% for 6214 mile limiter software? Had the pack been changed before?

I wonder if Moronstar can at least give you the DTCs?
 
#4 ·
its a 2020, I had my OBDII reader in the glove box and Torque told me the two error codes, but they were generic "battery fault" P1E00 and P0B6E. Thankfully those two searches were still stuck in my browser history but I did a lot of scrolling to find them.
 
#5 ·
We were out to dinner and got some overpriced pizza on Saturday night with the extended family and I got the dreaded "propulsion power reduced".
So it would not drive at all?
 
#7 ·
Contact the EV Concierge to get a rental. Otherwise, PM me and get the Future Card and rent an EV from Hertz for $30/day.

"The new Chevy Bolt EV Concierge is available by phone at 1-833-EVCHEVY as well as via chat on the Living Electric part of the chevrolet.com website. The dedicated customer support team is available Monday through Friday from 8 am to 7 pm EST."

 
#9 ·
I got a 2011 Prius that's been parked for a few months for cheap.
I don't understand, you bought a 2011 Prius to use it while your Bolt EV is in service ? Ouch !
In Canada, the car insurance covers a rental up to $2,000 in case of a claim. Isn't the same in USA ? When I had a problem with my ICEV and had a loaner, the insurance paid for more than 30 days of me using the loaner.
 
#14 ·
Here is the info I got fromEV concierge.

GM will cover a daily rate of up to $44/day ($47/day Cadillac rental) from a 3rd party rental agency until the repair is concluded. Any other fees including taxes, insurance, fuel, taxes, other fees and optional add-ons such as navigation, toll road devices, satellite radio are not reimbursable.

It also must be a GM vehicle.
 
#17 ·
My car did that and I just drove it, it had 70% battery power. Sure the car bonged at me every ten seconds but I at least made it home, and the next day drove it to the dealer directly. No reason not to.

I had to decide, do I drive it home to my local dealer which has only one service tech qualified for the EV, or do I drive it to my dad's house and then another 30 miles to the dealer that loves EVs and every tech in the shop is EV certified? I took it to those guys and they have the software patch installed the next day!
 
#19 ·
I recent wrote to the CEO of GM because so many of us get different levels of service when our Bolts are in for repair. Mine has been at the dealership for 6 weeks, but they gave me a free loaner and the Chevy EV Concierge offered to reimburse me for all my gasoline. (This is NOT the dealer I bought the car from: I’ll never go there again.)

I received a call yesterday from the GM executive team - apparently my snail mail reached the right desk. I don’t yet know what they’ll do for me (I asked for an extension of my 12-month used-car warranty equal to the time the car is in the shop). For now all I know is that they’re doing research and promised to call me back.
I can share the text of my letter. I was polite.
 
#22 ·
Ha! Same experience here is AZ. Dealership said 7 to 10 days and so I had no choice. 3 days later they called and said go pick up your rental on is, needs a new propulsion battery. I was told they have no idea how long as the battery is on back order. So now I have to remember how to put gas into an ice engine since it been many years. Bolt had 70K miles so clearly under warranty. I am going to push for reimbursement of my gas and will let the thread know if I get it! Anyone know? Thx
 
#25 ·
We were out to dinner and got some overpriced pizza on Saturday night with the extended family and I got the dreaded "propulsion power reduced".
First off...bet you are extra pissed cuz the pizza was expensive...but was it at least delicious? I/We love The Big Sur at one place with their Hot Honey...and at another place The Everest. Of course the King Arthur on skinny crust at the right place is great too. But the price of pizza has climbed greatly for a good one over the past few years. You can always get "Pizza Pizza" where you get a couple pizzas for like ten bux.

Hmmm...I thought Roadside Assistance was extra addendum to all policies and it costs more. I paid for AAA for so many years...it definitely costed a lot to have the policy. A friend who had AAA for over 30 years (we had it closer to 50 years), never used them until a string of bad luck and on the fourth call...it wasn't included. He had to pay for everything. Not even a Senior Discount. He still has them, but that and a situation I had with AAA where they told me that I didn't have the right papers and signatures to register a vehicle I'd just bought... after ripping out all my staples and reorganizing everything the way they thought it should be. So walked out of the Capitola AAA office miffed. Fortunately the DMV is next door so I said to myself...I might as well go in and make sure they tell me the same thing. Well...they said everything was there and fine...and after a half hour to go through a couple lines I was done . So I went home and we didn't renew our three AAA Roadside policies.

And....lastly...when my 2020 got the propulsion reduced message I was still able to drive. I just couldn't punch it. I drove it over the weekend and took it in on Monday.

Dealership said it would take a couple days to diagnose...and called me back to tell me six of the battery pack cells were dead and they had to get ahold of the Factory Rep to see if they could replace the whole battery pack or just the cells.

They called me back after the battery was approved for replacement and the Dealer got me a rental at that point. It took maybe two weeks to replace...but I liked the rental even if it was ICE so didn't count the minutes.

I do have low mileage on my 2020 cuz...well, I'm old, retired, and use this for our round about...so maybe that's why it was treated differently. Also, I have NEVER DCFC'd.

Hope things go smoothly for you...and perhaps knowing how they did mine will help you get them to do a better job with you!

Cheers,
Paul