2017 Chevrolet Volt

On the morning of April 27, 2022, our 2017 Chevy Volt, with what I believe to be a fully charged high voltage battery (was plugged in to charge the entire previous night) and at least a quarter tank of gas, would not start either the electrical or gasoline drive train. The 12 volt battery showed low voltage, so I purchased and replaced the 12 volt battery. The Volt continued to not start in either gas or electric propulsion mode. Checked the OBD 11 codes, and they matched up with what was reported on line to be Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) failure. On May 3, 2022, the Volt was put on a flatbed and taken to Holz Motors in Milwaukee. They verified the BECM failure, ordered new BECM, and was told none were available. Put on waiting list for BECM, and the Volt was repaired 8 weeks later on June 28, 2022. Cost of repair was $2439.63. Volt had 110,875 miles on it and was out of warranty. Not happy to bear the full cost of replacement of the BECM, but felt fortunate that it failed while parked in my garage. There were NO symptoms leading up to failure, and the car was totally unable to move. Overnight voltage drop of the 12 volt battery (the one I replaced also went dead) meant that operation of door locks, etc would also soon have occurred. Outcome would have been much worse if this failure had occurred while driving.

Car intermittantly lost propultion while driving. this started happening more and more frequently. One time driving on the freeway propulsion cut out and I barely made it to the side of the road. Put the car in park and it would start again. Drive for a few hundred feet then it would cut out again. Finally took it into the dealer when I was driving down the highway and propulsion cut out and I was stuck in the middle of traffic. As I was driving the instrument cluster power remained on but the engine just cut out. I was using the electric motor at the time but this is happened on the ice as well. As I rolled to a stop in the middle of traffic I put it in park so that I could restart the car as I had been able to previously but it would not start. It would not let me shift the car out of park into neutral so I could push it to the side of the road. After several attempts of disconnecting the battery and the high voltage battery I was able to get the car out of park into neutral. Even when I shifted the car into drive the propulsion system would not work, a officer stopped traffic to allow me to push the car to the side of the road. After getting to the dealer they were able to determine that a ground strap to the engine chassis was at fault. It interrupted the communication on the can bus which wouldn't allow the ECU to communicate with the drivetrain Which just shut down the propulsion system. This was extremely scary I have attached a snapshot of fault codes and snapshots of a video I took showing that the screen would just show that the car was initializing the entire time

Becm module is failing currently we have an engine check light that illuminates every other drive. Started November 26th. We experienced reduced propulsion message . We have experience the car not going into gear to drive or go reverse. It seems these issues occur at random. Check light codes are u2619-u2624. A dealership will be taking a look at the car on Monday

On Nov5th 2023 the dash displayed "Shift to Park" and "Unable to Charge" and would not move. New 12v battery installed on the 7th, still had issue. OBD codes pointed to MAF and MAP sensors. Both replaced, but now "Reduced power" displayed on dash and erratic and limited to 30 mph driving function was experienced. PRND shifter replaced and car worked fine for 1 week. Then "shift to park" and difficulty to move car was happening again. Called dealer and under "reduced power" drove car to dealer on Nov 22nd. Car was erratic and I felt like it would stop moving at any time while in traffic.Now dealer has has car and they say they are not sure of solution and parts may take weeks to arrive. Saw article in Reuters about other Volt owners with same problem on Dec 1st, so I'm adding my car to the group. Thanks!

The check engine light came on in my car with the message "service charging system." I took the car to the deal and they determined it was the battery control module that was failing. They told me the car would eventually stop turning on and I could either take it and drive it until it wouldn't turn on or I could leave it with them until they got a replacement part that is currently on backorder with no estimated time they can get it. I asked if the car was safe to drive and if it would stop working while I was driving, they assured me it would not stop while I was driving. I opted to take the car home and on my home, while driving, the car died on me. Luckily I was already in a turn lane and was able to get off in a neighborhood. The car gave me a message "propulsion system unavailable" while I was driving and would not power the car forward or backwards. This happened about six weeks ago and I am still waiting for the replacement part.

In the last couple months, have received multiple warnings regarding reduced propulsion that, as I understand is a potential failure related to the BECM. Besides the warning, I haven’t noticed any major change in performance, but I am concerned there may be a defect. I haven’t yet contacted dealer about this issue, but I noticed there was a formal report made about this and wanted to be sure my vehicle was included in the count.

BECM failure resulted in a situation where the vehicle drove with erratic surging power delivery throwing engine codes P1E00, U2603,U2604, U2605,U2606 Regen braking in this vehicle has a dedicated control on the steering wheel which applies only regen braking no friction brakes. When battery state of charge is high this can result in a situation where the regen braking button abruptly (i.e. during one extended activation of the button) delivers less brake force than the user is demanding.

Cart fails to start nearly every time I try to start it. BECM failure seems to be the issue. Car instructs to shift to park then fails to start until eventually it clicks over and will start in gas mode. Sometimes will randomly flag into low propulsion mode while driving, which majorly affects acceleration speed. Car will no longer charge and must be used in gas mode due to known electrical defects. Sometimes have to wait 10+ minutes for the car to start.

-- My 2017 Chevrolet Volt experienced a failure of the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) in the powertrain system. This failure prevented my vehicle from being driven. The BECM and related battery pack components were replaced under warranty by a Chevrolet dealership. Those parts, to my knowledge, are not available for inspection. -- From a safety perspective, my vehicle was luckily parked when the failure occurred. Many Volt owners have reported -- via online Volt forums and on Reddit at r/volt -- that the failure has occurred while the vehicle is in motion, resulting in a safety issue when the vehicle loses power and stops in the middle of a street or highway. -- A Chevrolet dealership confirmed my vehicle's BECM failure through diagnosis and code reading (see attached documentation). In my case, the BECM initially failed and I lost the ability to drive my vehicle when it was stopped in a parking lot (while I was on vacation, 225 miles from my home). I left the dead vehicle in the parking lot overnight. The next day I was able to start the vehicle and drive it to the nearest EV-certified Chevrolet dealership, where the BECM permanently failed in the dealership's service entrance. I watched the dealership service staff push the dead vehicle into the service bay. It should be noted that I was lucky -- the replacement BECM part was available from GM to the dealership in two days. NHTSA will receive complaints from other Volt owners who waited weeks and MONTHS for a replacement part and repair, all the while their vehicle could not be driven. -- My vehicle's BECM was inspected, the failure diagnosed, and the part replaced by a Chevrolet technician at a Chevrolet dealership (see attached documentation). -- The BECM failure on my vehicle happened immediately with no warning. When I could not drive my vehicle, I saw cryptic "propulsion lost" and "shift transmission to park" error messages on the instrument panel.