My 2017 LT had been perfect for almost 2 years and 15K miles, but something just went drastically wrong with the charging system.
Drove the car to our summer home over the weekend. Some minor weirdness with the relatively new Clipper Creek unit there, but was able to charge successfully. Car worked fine on the drive home last night.
Forgot to plug in after unloading last night, so plugged in briefly when I got home tonight --this seemed to work normally-- but unplugged shortly afterward to run an errand. Plugged the car in again when I got home, and noticed nothing amiss.
About an hour later, I went into the garage, and noticed the "Charge Fault" light on my Clipper Creek unit (I have one at each home) was on, and there was a funny smell in the garage. The Bolt's console said "unable to charge, check charging station." Worried about the smell, I opened the hood, but saw nothing unusual. Reset the Clipper Creek, tried to charge again, but got the same responses from both the Clipper Creek and the Bolt.
As per the owner's manuals suggestion, I decided to try the 120V charger that came with the car in an attempt to determine whether the car or the Clipper Creek was the guilty party. Plugged that in --and the sparks started to fly
. Well, maybe sparks, maybe fire, definitely smoke, coming from the center of the motor compartment. As you might imagine, I did not leave the car plugged in long enough to determine whether it was sparks or flame, but instead pulled the plug as fast as I could.
The problem is definitely with the charging system rather than with the main battery or the propulsion system --having no desire to burn the house down, I decided to play it safe, and backed the car out of the garage so I could park it in a relatively open area, and it ran as if nothing unusual had happened.
A visit to a Chevy dealership is clearly in my immediate future. I'll report back once the problem has been diagnosed, but I wouldn't be surprised if this takes some time to sort out.
Drove the car to our summer home over the weekend. Some minor weirdness with the relatively new Clipper Creek unit there, but was able to charge successfully. Car worked fine on the drive home last night.
Forgot to plug in after unloading last night, so plugged in briefly when I got home tonight --this seemed to work normally-- but unplugged shortly afterward to run an errand. Plugged the car in again when I got home, and noticed nothing amiss.
About an hour later, I went into the garage, and noticed the "Charge Fault" light on my Clipper Creek unit (I have one at each home) was on, and there was a funny smell in the garage. The Bolt's console said "unable to charge, check charging station." Worried about the smell, I opened the hood, but saw nothing unusual. Reset the Clipper Creek, tried to charge again, but got the same responses from both the Clipper Creek and the Bolt.
As per the owner's manuals suggestion, I decided to try the 120V charger that came with the car in an attempt to determine whether the car or the Clipper Creek was the guilty party. Plugged that in --and the sparks started to fly
. Well, maybe sparks, maybe fire, definitely smoke, coming from the center of the motor compartment. As you might imagine, I did not leave the car plugged in long enough to determine whether it was sparks or flame, but instead pulled the plug as fast as I could.The problem is definitely with the charging system rather than with the main battery or the propulsion system --having no desire to burn the house down, I decided to play it safe, and backed the car out of the garage so I could park it in a relatively open area, and it ran as if nothing unusual had happened.
A visit to a Chevy dealership is clearly in my immediate future. I'll report back once the problem has been diagnosed, but I wouldn't be surprised if this takes some time to sort out.
