2017 Chevrolet Volt

BECM issue diagnosed by dealer, told it would be fine to drive car while awaiting parts. Error message simply stated unable to charge. BECM failed while driving down road. Car stopped running, no power to anything, and had only enough inertia to make it into a parking lot sideways. Car was unable to restart for some time. Luckily the road was 2 lane and no traffic. Had this been the expressway the no power would have been dangerous. GM does not have replacement parts and it appears the part is known as defective. Sudden catastrophic loss of all power while driving is dangerous. Car has been parked out of caution to not repeat the loss of power during driving. Major safety concern. 3 issues: 1.sudden catastrophic power loss and 2. Dealer repair department stating it is ok to drive based on GM technical bulletins and repair details. 3. Lack of replacement parts with documented failure of these specifically for 2017 model year.

gas engine emission recirculation valve failed. thermostat failed. fuse blown. Displayed message "propulsion power reduced" and "gas engine unavailable" while driving. It put the driver at risk due to being stranded in the middle of nowhere. Towed to Dealer. They replaced EGR valve, egr cooler, fuse and thermostat. Plug-in hybrid with 90 percent ev only miles. So at 52,000 there is only 5200 miles on the gas engine. Root cause of failure unknown.

Late 2021 I noticed a strange noise and a slight stutter in my breaks that would only happen at the end of the breaking motion just before the car would completely stop. The sound and stutter, felt as though a clutch was trying to engaged. I scheduled a service appointment in January to have my tire replaced and car checked. The stabilitrack light came on while I was on vacation and also asked the dealership to check the stabilitrack. The dealership replaced my tires and inspected my car, but found nothing wrong with it. The tested the car and it appeared to be working just fine. I drove around another couple months with no incident. And then the notice and stutter came back, however it was intermittent. The stutter and noise slowly got worse and worse, but stilled continued to be an intermittent issue. On August 1st, while driving to work, my breaks completely failed and I almost got into an accident. I was pulling away from a red that just turned green. There was a red light ahead, I barely got up to 30-35mph before I started cruising towards the light. Started to press down on the breaks to stop and the pedal went straight to the floorboard with resistance and the breaks did not engage. I pumped the breaks frantically several times, with no change and quickly swerved and made a last minute right turn to avoid traffic. I continued to pump the breaks until it eventually did engage. I took the car to the dealership to have it serviced and inspected again, and was told it was the master cylinder that had failed. After it got replaced it was about another 2 weeks before I started to experience a similar issue again.

This is related to a long-standing issue with the failure of the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) (part #242969-00) for the 2017 Chevrolet Volt, as well as a lack of availability of the replacement part. This is a documented problem in the NTSA database since 2016. The vehicle error messages on the dashboard include “unable to charge”, “shift to park to start”, “reduced propulsion acceleration may be limited”. The internal combustion engine engages even with a full battery charge on an intermittent basis. Only after turning the car off and on several times or later the next day, would the problems resolve. In several instances, there was a lack of power transfer to the wheels when in drive mode and traveling on roadways, and the car had to be turned off and on to resolve this problem. The car has been inspected by a Chevrolet dealer to confirm the BECM is failing and needs to be replaced. The replacement BECM was ordered by the dealer 7 June, 2022, and neither GM or the dealer will provide a delivery date for the part. A number of postings on www.gm-volt.com reported 2017 Volts would no longer turn on or would lose power when being driven, could not be driven, and had to be towed. The NTSA database indicates approximately 250 complaints have been filed for 2017 Volts that include vehicle error messages on the dashboard for “unable to charge”, “shift to park to start”, “reduced propulsion acceleration may be limited” and loss of power while driving. Although no accidents or deaths were reported, this is clearly a serious safety issue that NTSA should address immediately with a mandatory safety recall.

I will get a "shift to park" message on the dash when parking the car and trying to turn it off. When it happens, the car will not turn off and claims it is not in park. The shifter is physically in the park position, but the car does not recognize it. I have to shift it in and out of park multiple times to get it to recognize that it is in park. On a few occasions, I have had to leave it on and lock the doors because it just would not recognize that the car was in park.

The vehicle stopped on its own without obstacles. The vehicle fails to stop under adaptive cruse control and you have to disengage to stop or it will hit the car in front. When stepping on break during adaptive cruse it lurching forward before breaking takes over causing a hazzard. When you shif to park it doesn't register and will kill battery. Adaptive cruse does not keep it centered in clearly marked lanes.

When attempting to engage the vehicles drive system, it would occasionally fail to recognize the propulsion system battery. This could potentially leave someone stranded in dangerously high or low temperature environments without food or water. Powering off the vehicle and then powering the vehicle back on would sometimes fix the issue. The issue occurred very randomly and was unable to be reproduced once working again. It would continue to happen more frequently and require more tinkering to get it working until almost complete failure. This appears to be a common issue and found to be the result of a failed BECM (battery energy control module). It triggers the check engine light and a series of trouble codes. It is estimated that the replacement of this module takes roughly five hours. Unfortunately, supply chain issues have recently resulted in owners being without their vehicle for multiple months with no loaner vehicles available and no additional compensation. See discussion https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/becm.343297/

Our VOLT yesterday had a complete Battery Electronic Control Module Failure. This is apparently a VERY common problem with 2017 models. The car is not drivable once this happens are parts are back ordered. I read 1 dealer had 4 just sitting there waiting for the part. Some people over the past year have been waiting up to 100 days for the part. Yesterday at Keys Chevrolet in Van Nuys, CA we were told it would take at least 1 month to get the part is. If the problem is this prolific GM needs to produce more parts or issue a recall for these cars. All these customers should not be without their car for months at a time because parts are not available.

This Chevy Volt experiences transmission's shift-to-park error. This error prevents car from turning off due to not recognizing the shift gear is in the park position. After placing the shift into park and turning the power button off, the car turns back on again and flashes the shift-to-park error message. This apparently is a malfunction of gear shift which has been widely reported on GM-Volt community board on 2nd generation Volts.

Bulletin 18-NA-261 BECM failure. This is a known problem on Chevy Volts dating to 2018. This should have been a recall. Instead Chevy waited for individual customers cars to fail. Currently people have been waiting for 3 months for the part. The car is undrivable until part is replaced. GM should have ordered a recall in 2018/2019 or should have had a stockpile of these parts. My car is currently at the dealership, it has been there for 10 days and they have no idea when the part will be available.