[p7wang]

Those pumps pump liquid, not air. It just won’t work.

So how does the bubble surface, the Bolt has to be shaken, not sitrred?

 

[jreddington]

So how does the bubble surface, the Bolt has to be shaken, not sitrred?

In the original fill procedure the vacuum has to be done 1st so there is no air to form bubbles to start with. Once the fill is done, if there are bubbles the shake it up and circulate may remove some. That will show itself as a drop in reservoir level. For service, pulling a vacuum (and check for vacuum hold) will help rule out a system leak.

 

[jreddington]

I'm inclined to wait until i have more info to confront the purchasing dealer since I'm getting it serviced at a much closer one anyway (5 miles vs 60 miles). But the codes weren't thrown until well after that 60 miles drive home so I don't think the dealer would have found this with a test drive? I know they didn't try to DCFC it because they only have a L2 charger there (which I did see them use on this car).

While you could just top off the reservoir with Dex Cool an keep an eye on it, with a brand new car it really does have to go to the dealer so this gets documented, in case it’s a more serious issue like a leak.

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

TLDR: new 2023 EUV purchased three days ago has an empty battery coolant tank.

So I picked up my new 2023 EUV on Wednesday. This was a custom order I placed in November, was real lucky to find a dealer with an open allocation that also sold at MSRP! The dealer is about 60 miles away and everything was great on the drive home. Got home with about 68% battery so the next day I decided to try out a local EA station, mostly just to get familiar with it. I did that on Thursday. It charged... really slow, even considering the SoC but I didn't think anything of it at the time. It couldn't get past 15 kW after 20 minutes and it was about 45 degrees out.

Today, Friday, I was just setting some stuff up in the car. I wasn't going anywhere but I turned it on just to fiddle with the settings. Check engine light was on. Got OnStar to do a diagnosis, I got code P1FFE (issue with charging system, service some time) and code P19FF (issue with battery conditioning system, service in 1 day) Well I don't want to drive 60 miles with an error so I made an appointment Monday morning at a much closer dealer.

But I did some Googling and found here and other places some posts about coolant after battery replacements... so I popped the hood to take a look. And yup, the battery coolant tank is empty! The other two are fine (and the cabin heat works great). This isn't a battery replacement, this is a 2023 with a build date of a month ago and an odometer of 70 miles. Yipes!

Really hope someone just goofed and there was an air bubble in the system and I didn't just leak coolant all over the greater Seattle Tacoma area. Or worse, it's leaking into the battery... but I think then it would be throwing more errors? I hope?

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i’m a little confused about the DCFC. You said you couldn’t get more than 15 kW was that the amount of output that the EA machine was providing because at 68% you’d probably be somewhere in the 30s. Or in 20 minutes you took in 15 kWh and your EA charges were between five and six dollars? Somewhat confused. Quite interested too because I picked up my new EUV on Wednesday as well. I checked under the hood coolant is full I only have 175 miles on the car but I haven’t charged yet. Thanks

 

[MichBolt]

i’m a little confused about the DCFC. You said you couldn’t get more than 15 kW was that the amount of output that the EA machine was providing because at 68% you’d probably be somewhere in the 30s. Or in 20 minutes you took in 15 kWh and your EA charges were between five and six dollars? Somewhat confused. Quite interested too because I picked up my new EUV on Wednesday as well. I checked under the hood coolant is full I only have 175 miles on the car but I haven’t charged yet. Thanks

Battery Management System (BMS) was probably throttling the charging speed due to temperature.

 

[MalvoliosStockings]

i’m a little confused about the DCFC. You said you couldn’t get more than 15 kW was that the amount of output that the EA machine was providing because at 68% you’d probably be somewhere in the 30s. Or in 20 minutes you took in 15 kWh and your EA charges were between five and six dollars? Somewhat confused. Quite interested too because I picked up my new EUV on Wednesday as well. I checked under the hood coolant is full I only have 175 miles on the car but I haven’t charged yet. Thanks

It was ~15kW for 20ish minutes, total delivery was 5kWh. I have the $4 pass so at $0.31 kWh it was $1.55.

I'm assuming what happened was, it was about 45 degrees out (and I don't have a heated parking spot), too cold to charge fast. So the car activated the BMS to heat the battery. But this failed to work correctly so the battery never warmed up and so the charge rate never increased.

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

It was ~15kW for 20ish minutes, total delivery was 5kWh. I have the $4 pass so at $0.31 kWh it was $1.55.

I'm assuming what happened was, it was about 45 degrees out (and I don't have a heated parking spot), too cold to charge fast. So the car activated the BMS to heat the battery. But this failed to work correctly so the battery never warmed up and so the charge rate never increased.

Thanks for your quick reply, I understand now. I watched the video regarding the vacuum fill and the coolant.. hopefully you’ll get yours fixed right away and will be on your way.
Keep us posted and hoping you’re back on the road with an easy fix.

 

[GJETSON]

So where is the full line? In the middle of the tank below what looks like a book?

The fill/full line is directly above the hose. It has two vertical arrows pointing at it. There is only one line.

 

[GJETSON]

So how does the bubble surface, the Bolt has to be shaken, not sitrred?

According to the service manual, the coolant circulating pump is run for five minutes. If they ran the coolant heater too, that would certainly help drive out air.

 

[GJETSON]

Yea, if someone goes and brings the vehicle in the shop and gets it ready for you.

Otherwise. . . sure, it's just 5 minutes.

Obviously, breaks, dealing with other service issues, etc. increase the total time. GM pays for the actual work time, which is to their benefit. This is what happens in an adversarial situation.

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

So I thought I’d give a data point. I picked up my premier redline EUV on Wednesday I currently have 188 miles. I’m charging at 37° in Southern California. I started with a SOC of about 36% and I started taking in about 38 or 39 kW (warmer temperatures I would probably be taking in around 43 to 45 kW) I’m currently at 65% SOC and I’m took in about 26 kWh in 35 minutes.

I have experience because I’m just coming off of 2021 bolt EV LT edition. never really charged in this cold of weather before but it’s pretty cold in Palm Desert this morning.

Based on what I read I just popped the hood and the coolant reservoir is at perfect level but I could see that the fluid is shaking around just a touch. It’s not bubbling but it’s a very slow sway. I’m assuming that’s because the battery is heating itself with the management system. Thought I’d throw this into the ring of commentary. I’m only going to charge until about 70% and I’ll be on my way.

I never looked at the coolant reservoir before while the car charges, So I don’t know if that coolant reservoir movement is normal. Like I said again it’s just a very slight movement at the top fill level that you could see a little swing..

Final charging summary was I took in 23.84 kWh in 44 minutes, in my normal 60° to 70° temperatures I would’ve probably received Around 30 kWh.

 

[GJETSON]

So I don’t know if that coolant reservoir movement is normal. Like I said again it’s just a very slight movement at the top feel level that you could see a little swing..

Yup. The battery heater is on, and the pump is circulating the coolant. If you put your hand on the hose coming out the bottom, you will feel the vibration coming from the pump, about a foot down that hose. If you really reach, you can touch the pump.

 

[jmcbrew]

So how does the bubble surface, the Bolt has to be shaken, not sitrred?

Yeah, a giant paint shaker would probably work.

But seriously, that's why the dealerships use a vacuum pump. I work at a brewery, and we have some really expensive pumps that are similar... they'll pump water or beer, but once an air bubble gets to the pump, everything stops.

 

[MalvoliosStockings]

Was reading reviews of the dealer I'm bring my EUV to tomorrow because I'm bored and anxious and I found a familiar story from a few months ago on a new EUV (with a ridiculous markup, which is why I did not buy from there!)...

Doesn't say if it was a 2022 with a battery replacement or a 2023.

 

[MDBolt]

While you could just top off the reservoir with Dex Cool an keep an eye on it, with a brand new car it really does have to go to the dealer so this gets documented, in case it’s a more serious issue like a leak.

And this is exactly what I did in our situation. This also had the benefit of having them do the procedure the proper way.

 

[MDBolt]

Thanks for linking that! Sounds like everything resolved for you once everything was refilled properly?

Interestingly one of my reservoirs is also overfilled while one looks normal. The cabin heat has already been used a lot (the dealer was showing off the precondition function quite a bit) and I think that's the one that is lower... perhaps it also burped up some air...
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Actually it did. What I mean is, topping the reservoir off with Dexcool and doing the 10mm salute actually got rid of the warning light for me and never became an issue again. However, I still brought it in to a dealer I trusted (different from the one I bought it from) to make sure everything was inspected and that the Vac N Fill was done properly. In the end, I’m sure I wouldn’t have had an issue even if I hadn’t brought it in, but I still did for peace of mind.

 

[MalvoliosStockings]

Updated the first post but the news is not good! The car is actually missing a clamp on one of the coolant lines. Astounding.

 

[FlyingMachineEV]

Updated the first post but the news is not good! The car is actually missing a clamp on one of the coolant lines. Astounding.

Glad to hear that the dealership worked on your vehicle quickly and diagnosed the issue. Sounds to me like they’re on top of things. Best of luck with the repair!

 

[JerryP]

Updated the first post but the news is not good! The car is actually missing a clamp on one of the coolant lines. Astounding.

A missing clamp doesn't guarantee a leak, but it sure will help make one likely. It just depends on how tight the hose fits. Some clamps are insurance and some are absolutely necessary.

Either way, I'm glad they found it and are fixing it.

 

[Electric Personality]

Updated the first post but the news is not good! The car is actually missing a clamp on one of the coolant lines. Astounding.

Actually, that news is not so bad, assuming no other damage.