My Chevy Spark EV 2016 is just 3 weeks old, but already I've had to take it in for servicing as the ABS Service light came on and my brakes stopped working! The service crew updated software and things ran well again...for a couple of days. Then the Service ABS light came on again. Thing is, I turned the car off and turned it back on and the brakes worked and the light didn't come on. Instead, the Service Vehicle light came on. Drove without problem. Every time since then, though, and this was about 3 days ago, the car turns on with no warning lights. What is going on? Do I need to take this thing in for servicing or what? Is this a common problem with Sparks? EVs?
To cmoreman, the exact same thing happened to me in a 2016 Spark EV at about 5,000 miles on the odometer. The general warning light would come on, then the StabiliTrak light would come on, and then finally, and sometimes minutes later, the brake light. When the brake light came on, the brake boost (vacuum assist in an ICE car) fails and the pedal gets very stiff. Yes, the brake still "works", but without the boost, a much larger force is required to stop the car. Some might not be able to apply enough force and even a very strong person loses the ability to gently modulate the brakes to control the deceleration. It's a bad scene, but not necessarily terminal.
Another related issue with the Spark is the electronic emergency brake. It's an all-or-nothing thing now, so tripping it while moving fast will lock up the back wheels and possibly spin the car out or otherwise brake the car uncontrollably. I miss the old hand brake.
And, because this was clearly an electronic/electromechanical problem, when the car was stopped and turned off, and then restarted, the problem would disappear. The car would then drive again perfectly normally...until the whole cycle would happen again. The problem was intermittent enough and seemingly randomly-triggered that it became hard to diagnose. One possible trigger could be water or moisture as the car behaved fine all summer and the fall rains (I'm in the Pacific Northwest) and generally wet road conditions occurred about when the problem started.
GM is now replacing my ABS module and who knows what else. I have no idea yet what the result will be, but I hope they got wind of this earlier problem, solved it, and now are doing the right thing in my case. Anyway, it seems like it's not an uncommon problem, despite confusing two dealerships for weeks thus far in my saga.