General Motors announced a new car service campaign for the Chevrolet Volt electric car this Friday in an effort to fix an issue with the vehicle’s battery coolant.
According to the automotive giant, some of the Volts didn’t get filled with the appropriate amount of coolant in the Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) during the car’s manufacturing process. The sited reason is the presence of air bubbles in the fluid. Because of this, the Volt’s cooling system has been spitting out the remaining air over the first 12 months of its lifespan, which could potentially leave the car with lower coolant levels than necessary. So far, the affected Volts belong to the 2012 and 2013 model years.
Owners of the affected vehicles should be able to see a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) light appear along with the message “Service High Voltage Charging System” in the instrument panel. Once that happens, the battery will stop working until the issue is resolved.
To resolve this, owners will need to take their Volt to the local GM dealership and show their car’s Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to get the battery checked. If the coolant level is at an acceptable level, then no further service will be necessary. However, if it is below the normal level, then the dealership will conduct a test to make sure there aren’t any leaks. If they don’t find any leaks, then they will simply fill the system to the proper level, while purging any remaining air.
This sort of issue isn’t anything new, but the fact that GM has avoided a recall is commendable because this hasn’t been the case before. In 2012, for instance, GM recalled 8,000 Volts in the U.S. due to poor protection around the car’s battery pack, which caused fires after a crash.
Despite this issue, the Volt has still received top scores in the Customer Reports’ satisfaction survey for two years in a row. In 2013, it ranked third, right behind the Tesla and Porsche’s Boxster sports car.
Still, issues like that signify that the Volt is still in need of improvements, one of which could be a lower sticker price – since the 2014 variant is currently priced at about $36,000 (pre-incentives). What improvements would you like to see in the future Volt models? Let us know in the comments below!
