Weird Behavior

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Kaitsuni

Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2015
Messages
13
So, my wife pulls into the driveway in our 2015 Spark, puts the gear into Park, waits until the garage door opens (sometimes it's slow), then puts the the gear into Drive and the car goes... BACK, as in REVERSE! Needless to say, she did not expect it. I tell her to turn off the car and check it out myself: yep, you put the car into D or L, and it goes back. Being a contrarian, I put the car in Reverse... but it still goes back (not forward). :) So, I disconnect the battery to flush whatever software code it keeps in battery-powered DRAM and to reboot it from some more permanent version of software. I reconnect the battery, restart the car, and now it is back to normal. So, my guess is some bit flipped in the memory. The car is still in warranty for another month, so I will take it for diagnostics. Anyone else experienced such weird behavior?
 
I have not had that specific issue, but I am starting to get things like propulsion reduced after being plugged in all day and having 100% charge. Reading other posts, it could be the accessory battery dying. Appa ntly, when it is not providing a high enough charge, the computer can go crazy.
 
So, I took the car to the dealer. Apparently, disconnecting the battery flushes all error codes, if any, so they could not diagnose the problem. The dealer called GM engineers, but they haven't heard of this kind of problem either. My conclusion: we are driving a cheap car where the software aspect is definitely limping. Of course, GM will not fix even the known software issues, since Spark is discontinued, so why invest in support. IMHO, as long as GM will continue to disregard the software aspect, it will always be viewed inferior to Tesla, even if, for example, Bolt specs are very competitive to Tesla. C'mon GM, get you act together! Fix the software glitches, allow over the air updates, support additional apps, like TuneIn, which is NOT working!
 
Kaitsuni said:
So, I took the car to the dealer. Apparently, disconnecting the battery flushes all error codes, if any, so they could not diagnose the problem. The dealer called GM engineers, but they haven't heard of this kind of problem either. My conclusion: we are driving a cheap car where the software aspect is definitely limping. Of course, GM will not fix even the known software issues, since Spark is discontinued, so why invest in support. IMHO, as long as GM will continue to disregard the software aspect, it will always be viewed inferior to Tesla, even if, for example, Bolt specs are very competitive to Tesla. C'mon GM, get you act together! Fix the software glitches, allow over the air updates, support additional apps, like TuneIn, which is NOT working!
My vote is the 12 volt AGM battery. There have been a number of "strange behavior" postings on this forum which have been traced to the 12 volt battery. Try charging you battery with a good 12 volt AGM battery charger (BatteryMinder 2012-AGM) with the desulfating option and see if that helps. I make it a point each month to fully charge the 12 volt AGM battery in both my 2014 and 2016 Spark EVs. The BatteryMinder 2012-AGM has an option that allows you to charge through the OBD connector. It works great!
 
This happened to my wife today. I wasn't there at the time, and she was unable to reproduce it. I'll see what happens when I go out tomorrow.
 
RSC said:
This happened to my wife today. I wasn't there at the time, and she was unable to reproduce it. I'll see what happens when I go out tomorrow.
If your 12 volt AGM battery is still the original, you may want to replace it or at least give it a full charge. You will need an AGM 12-volt battery charger with the de-sulfating function. I bought one and, during the first week of each month, I make it a point to fully charge the 12 volt AGM battery in both of my Spark EVs.

I did replace the 12-volt battery in my 2014 Spark EV a couple of years ago as a precaution after reading about the "weird" things some Spark EV drivers experienced. The12-volt battery in my 2016 Spark EV is still the original. These batteries are expensive - between $150 and $200!
 
Not reproducible.
MrDRMorgan said:
If your 12 volt AGM battery is still the original, you may want to replace it or at least give it a full charge. You will need an AGM 12-volt battery charger with the de-sulfating function. I bought one and, during the first week of each month, I make it a point to fully charge the 12 volt AGM battery in both of my Spark EVs.

I did replace the 12-volt battery in my 2014 Spark EV a couple of years ago as a precaution after reading about the "weird" things some Spark EV drivers experienced. The12-volt battery in my 2016 Spark EV is still the original. These batteries are expensive - between $150 and $200!

Might not be a bad idea. I'm retired, and on vacations, road trips, or during extended periods of snow or bad weather we take our backup ICE vehicle and the Spark may sit for a while. The backup ICE vehicle may also sit for a while because, well, it's a backup vehicle, and I have a Battery Tender Jr. for it. However, the Battery Tender Jr. doesn't have the de-sulfating option and I'm not sure that it's OK for AGM batteries.

Kaitsuni said:
Thanks. I didn't know about this one. I've added this to my Amazon wish list along with another 2 amp version that I added earlier.
 
After doing some research I concluded that Battery Minder is a better option than Battery Tender (desulfating function + warranty). Note that model 1510 carries a 10yr warranty and better clips than model 1500 (5yr warranty). I originally got the charger for my family 6-seater non-electric Mazda 5, which we don't drive much, so the battery got discharged quite often. But the charger works fine on Spark as well. Definitely recommend it.
 
Kaitsuni said:
After doing some research I concluded that Battery Minder is a better option than Battery Tender (desulfating function + warranty). Note that model 1510 carries a 10yr warranty and better clips than model 1500 (5yr warranty). I originally got the charger for my family 6-seater non-electric Mazda 5, which we don't drive much, so the battery got discharged quite often. But the charger works fine on Spark as well. Definitely recommend it.
Thank you. My daughter has a Mazda 5 6-seater as well. Pretty impressive that we could get all six of us (daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren with car seats, and two grandparents) in such a small footprint.
 
RSC said:
Kaitsuni said:
After doing some research I concluded that Battery Minder is a better option than Battery Tender (desulfating function + warranty). Note that model 1510 carries a 10yr warranty and better clips than model 1500 (5yr warranty). I originally got the charger for my family 6-seater non-electric Mazda 5, which we don't drive much, so the battery got discharged quite often. But the charger works fine on Spark as well. Definitely recommend it.
Thank you. My daughter has a Mazda 5 6-seater as well. Pretty impressive that we could get all six of us (daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren with car seats, and two grandparents) in such a small footprint.
Please be aware that the charging voltage / profile for a 12 volt AGM battery is different than that for a standard 12 volt flooded-cell lead-acid battery. Charging a 12 volt AGM battery with a charger designed for a 12 volt flooded-cell lead-acid battery may eventually damage the AGM battery.

I am using a Battery Minder model 2012-AGM to charge the 12 volt AGM batteries in both of my Spark EVs. This charger also has an option to allow charging through the OBD 2 connector inside of the car. It works great!
 
MrDRMorgan said:
Please be aware that the charging voltage / profile for a 12 volt AGM battery is different than that for a standard 12 volt flooded-cell lead-acid battery. Charging a 12 volt AGM battery with a charger designed for a 12 volt flooded-cell lead-acid battery may eventually damage the AGM battery.

I am using a Battery Minder model 2012-AGM to charge the 12 volt AGM batteries in both of my Spark EVs. This charger also has an option to allow charging through the OBD 2 connector inside of the car. It works great!
Thank you. I have both the 2012-AGM and the 1510 in my Amazon wish list. I thought that the 1510 was specified as working with AGM batteries, but on reading more carefully I see that the 1510 is described as working with Optima brand sealed AGM batteries, not AGM batteries in general. I'll look into this before placing an order.
 
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