[Vertiformed]

Just picked up my Bolt after recall. Previously I was getting about 250+ on a charge. But it was only showing 18 miles when I left the dealership. After charging (level 2 charger at my house) for a little over 3 hours it's now showing 20, the message says 'fully charged', and my charging unit shut off. I can't contact the dealership until Monday, which means I can't go anywhere over the weekend. This is my only car. Can anybody give me any explanation - or reassurance?

Based on other people's experience, your car is just freaked out by getting what it thinks was terrible mileage.

Drive it for a bit and see what happens.

 

[bro1999]

Sounds like dropping the car off with a near full charge is a good idea.

 

[Eriamjh1138]

Just got the battery update. For my car, it was issued, then pulled, then issued again. Three trips to the dealer so far just for software updates and one of two included tire rotations.

I brought it in with about 15% left on the battery SOC and an estimated 36 miles of range remaining. If there was going to be a battery voltage drop issue detected, the low charge would help. This is the first time I’ve seen my battery gage turn orange.

Nothing detected yet. They updated and I got it back. Made it home with 9% charge. Been charging all day on solar to bring it back to 90%. It will probably be another week before I can run it down again.

 

[Lbrooks51115]

"Follow behind distance indicator appears to have disappeared. I made the mistake of doing the battery "upgrade" on my 2018 Premier Bolt and everything seemed fine until I notice I was no longer getting the number of seconds of the vehicle in front of me. According to the manual if you go under "options"under the DIC section you should see the ability to enable this but the option is not there. The only option I see is an option to limit speed and a help option. The manual mentions about being able to turn on this option using an options app but I don't see anything in the mychevy app. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[XJ12]

"Follow behind distance indicator appears to have disappeared. I made the mistake of doing the battery "upgrade" on my 2018 Premier Bolt and everything seemed fine until I notice I was no longer getting the number of seconds of the vehicle in front of me. According to the manual if you go under "options"under the DIC section you should see the ability to enable this but the option is not there. The only option I see is an option to limit speed and a help option. The manual mentions about being able to turn on this option using an options app but I don't see anything in the mychevy app. Any help would be appreciated.

Up or down arrows to cycle thru options? Same way I check tire pressures on the DIC. One of the options should be the follow in seconds. That's the mode I leave mine in. Tragic if they've decided to delete it.

 

[Lbrooks51115]

Up or down arrows to cycle thru options? Same way I check tire pressures on the DIC. One of the options should be the follow in seconds. That's the mode I leave mine in. Tragic if they've decided to delete it.

I managed to stumble on to it again but must have sat in my my garage for an hour

Thanks?

 

[dbkudrow]

I have no explanation and cannot provide reassurance - sorry about that. Just reporting a similar though worse problem. I was also loving and bragging about my Bolt getting what I thought was 270 miles to the charge (4.6 miles/kWH). I brought it in to the Chevy dealership yesterday to address the recall and when I left the dealership noticed that the range had dropped. After arriving home I noticed that the radio would not turn off when I left the car - odd, as that had never happened before. Then I noticed that every time I opened the car door, the range would drop by a couple of miles. I thought that the recall fix was just about getting the computer to more accurately read the battery reserve, expecting that my 4.6 miles/kWH was illusory. I left the car overnight and this morning discovered that my car had turned into a brick! Remote did not work, could not communicate with the My Chevy app. I got into the car by using the key stick from the FOB. The car is dead. It's Sunday and nothing to be done about it. This is clearly not an issue of coincidentally the battery died. Something happened with the recall fix. Someone did something and it's either a software problem or a computer problem. I suspect your experience is similar to mine. My hope is that someone, somewhere will be smart enough to figure it out. Meanwhile my Chevy Brick adorns my driveway!

 

[surgeonFWW]

Sounds like dropping the car off with a near full charge is a good idea.

I can see an argument on both sides of the issue. If full and after update it reads 20, you still know you are full. If after driving a few miles and again charging to full, it reads 245 miles, you are back to normal. If you go in with 35 miles and the indication drops to 20, you still know you need to charge when you get home. Is the greater amount of charging more likely to normalize the indicated range? Or is it just the driving that resets the GoM validity?

 

[XJ12]

I have no explanation and cannot provide reassurance - sorry about that. Just reporting a similar though worse problem. I was also loving and bragging about my Bolt getting what I thought was 270 miles to the charge (4.6 miles/kWH). I brought it in to the Chevy dealership yesterday to address the recall and when I left the dealership noticed that the range had dropped. After arriving home I noticed that the radio would not turn off when I left the car - odd, as that had never happened before. Then I noticed that every time I opened the car door, the range would drop by a couple of miles. I thought that the recall fix was just about getting the computer to more accurately read the battery reserve, expecting that my 4.6 miles/kWH was illusory. I left the car overnight and this morning discovered that my car had turned into a brick! Remote did not work, could not communicate with the My Chevy app. I got into the car by using the key stick from the FOB. The car is dead. It's Sunday and nothing to be done about it. This is clearly not an issue of coincidentally the battery died. Something happened with the recall fix. Someone did something and it's either a software problem or a computer problem. I suspect your experience is similar to mine. My hope is that someone, somewhere will be smart enough to figure it out. Meanwhile my Chevy Brick adorns my driveway!

Okay, I'll bite. Hope you come back to the forum though. Too many times we get these one time posts of something very bad and never hear back. Like getting some fake news.

Back to the topic... Did you bother to plug it in? Obviously something was draining the battery. Especially if the radio stayed on. Plugging in would be only way to counter act a constant load. Charging seems to be the only way for the battery module to recalibrate. Left to its own, it might not have a reference and calibrated itself to zero. Just a guess.

 

[normanw]

Battery update

My battery software update was done on May 8.
Just completed a 100 mile trip and got 5 miles per kWh
I have not noticed any problems after the update.

 

[dbkudrow]

I only wish this was fake news. Believe me! I did plug it in and...nothing! Not even a flashing green light. Since the car was parked on the street and away from my level 2 charger I had to plug it into a very long extension cord but the unit was lit so I know it was working. The car was not receiving the charge. In any case, as I've had no problem with the car (the opposite) since leasing it in September 2017 and took it into a dealer for the recall fix and update yesterday, and today the car is a brick, they clearly did something wrong during the update/fix. The question is what? I don't know enough about the electrical system in the car to understand how the/a computer thinks that the battery has completely drained when it has not. Or, if the battery has completely drained (very rapidly), what could be draining it? Certainly not the radio, which I powered down prior to exiting the car yesterday (I had to, otherwise it would not turn off after leaving the car). In the above description, the radio stayed on while the range read 110 and then 108 miles. In fact, I had driven from the dealership with 128 miles of range left and drove about 6 miles with some uphill and noticed that the range did not dip below 128 miles. Then it dipped down to 123 miles when I arrived at my next location and thought, "finally, it's behaving normally." After I left that location, I drove about 0.6 miles and went from 123 miles of range to 108 miles (mostly downhill). Stupidly, I thought that the/a computer was re-calibrating the charge after the recall fix so I didn't give it much thought, but it seems that the problem began or became apparent then. So the question for anyone who might know the answer is: If it is the battery draining, what could make it drain so fast? Since I don't think that is the correct question, why is the car behaving as if the battery is dead? There are no electronic features functioning in this car now. Hopefully, I'll have an answer tomorrow. It is not remotely possible that I am the only one who has experienced this problem.

 

[ldesaul]

Thanks for the report DB.
My '18 Bolt is running well, no issues., was scheduled for the update tomorrow. .. I'm going to call and cancel.
If it ain't broke. ..

 

[Lbrooks51115]

Hey other than my USER ERROR after update (see above) I have not had any issues with my 2018 Premier post battery update . I brought it in with almost a full charge. My Range did not appear decrease however I did notice my driving history from the most recent charge went away. I think I was at 230 miles with 70-80 miles driven and when I got the car back it was at 225 miles of Range with 0 driven. I immediately recharged after two days of travel ((Bolt sat in Garage unused) this past Thursday May 10th using hill top reserve and my available range on a full hilltop reserve charge was 357 miles and I have been averaging about 5.7 m/kWh.

 

[raitchison]

I only wish this was fake news. Believe me! I did plug it in and...nothing! Not even a flashing green light.

Sucks to hear about your issue. I wonder if your immediate problem (preventing you from moving the car) is that your 12V battery is dead. I've heard that a dead 12V battery will effectively render the car useless. The 12V battery is supposed to be maintained by the DC to DC converter which is active whenever the car is "on" or when it's "plugged in" but if the battery is too low the circuits that control all of that might not function.

I'm guessing you've already called for GM roadside assistance to have them come pick up your car but if you haven't or if they are going to take a while you might want to try hooking up a 12V battery charger directly to the 12V battery or possibly getting another car and jumper cables and "jump start" your car's computer.

 

[One1whaoo.]

If it ain't broke. ..

It IS broke, or they wouldn't be issuing a costly recall.

Both of the battery recalls address known problems with battery management which could leave you stranded.

 

[Electrick]

I went and got the recall update and the car performs effectively the same as it did before I brought it in. The range predictions were a little strange at first because it clearly had no historical dating to work off but eventually it averaged itself out. These kind of scare tactics are the reason why people are afraid of Windows update and viruses spread like wildfire.

Go do the **** update.

If you have issues with the car afterwards, have the dealership come pick it up and provide you with a replacement car. They also have free drinks and snacks at the dealership. That's my favorite part.

 

[XJ12]

The question is what? I don't know enough about the electrical system in the car to understand how the/a computer thinks that the battery has completely drained when it has not. Or, if the battery has completely drained (very rapidly), what could be draining it? Certainly not the radio, which I powered down prior to exiting the car yesterday (I had to, otherwise it would not turn off after leaving the car). In the above description, the radio stayed on while the range read 110 and then 108 miles.

Probably was draining your 12V. Not all coincidence. Dealer probably left car sitting with accessories running.

I'm guessing same as @raitchison that your 12V car battery is dead and you need a jump. Battery must be weak or your DC to DC charger in the car wasn't keeping it charged properly.

 

[XJ12]

I only wish this was fake news. Believe me! I did plug it in and...nothing!

Thanks for checking back in. And sorry you're having trouble. Hate to see any of the fellow Bolters having issues. But hopefully as a group we can learn all the ways to get back out of trouble.

 

[Sean Nelson]

Sucks to hear about your issue. I wonder if your immediate problem (preventing you from moving the car) is that your 12V battery is dead.

IMHO 12V battery problems can produce such weird and unexpected symptoms and the cause is so easy to check that it should be at the top of everyone's list to look at when things go wrong.

 

[GregBrew]

IMHO 12V battery problems can produce such weird and unexpected symptoms and the cause is so easy to check that it should be at the top of everyone's list to look at when things go wrong.

Yup. I've been driving electric since the EV-1 in 1997, and have belonged to the various vehicle fora. When odd EV behavior happens, the *majority* of the time, it's been the aux battery.