service battery charging system

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mczajka

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Messages
92
I just got my car yesterday. I think there were only about 18 miles on it when I left the dealer (which can be a little scary sometimes). I noticed the 12 volt battery light was on, but I didn't pay much attention to it since the car was powered on (I didn't yet know what the icon meant, although red usually isn't good). The light went away after driving a few miles.

This morning, the red battery icon was on again when I powered on (it was plugged in over night), but I also had a message come up "service battery charging system". I called OnStar from my driveway and they couldn't find the icon (exclamation point inside a triangle). They told me Volt advisors don't work over the weekend, so I should call monday.

I figured since I would be tooling around town, I would just head out and take my chances. I've had my share of 12 volt problems with my Fusion Energi. I drove and stopped a few times (powered off and on), and the message had gone away. I have my jumper backup in the car just in case.

Anyone experience this? A manual I found listed this:

Service battery charging system

This message displays when there is a fault in the 12-volt battery charging system. Take the vehicle to your dealer for service.
 
Maybe your vehicle had been on the lot for a while before you picked it up and the 12v battery died. When a lead acid battery is fully discharged, odds are it won't ever work like it use to. If the issue persist, I would check the manufacturing date of your car to try to figure out how old the car was before they sold it, and also maybe try to get a replacement auxiliary battery for it if it was a bad battery. Of course consult the On-Star adviser just in case i'm just shooting bad advice.
 
Same icon and message this morning. Comes up after the car sits for a while (at least overnight). Goes away after driving.

Fortunately I had a volt meter from experiences I had with my other car (30 days of a 12 volt nightmare which turned out to be a short in a wire). It read 12.13 this morning (using a lighter port reader). Somewhere in the middle (yellow) zone. We'll see what it reads about 9 hours from now.

According to this website (http://sandyblogs.com/techlink/?p=2081) the 12V battery, located in the front compartment, is an AGM (Absorbed Gas Mat) type that requires different charging voltages than conventional lead acid batteries.

600_437605615.jpeg
 
This is a long post I made in another forum but it applies to all Lead Acid batteries. AGM batteries have a very slightly different 'float charge' level, this is not a big factor.

I had a recent experience with the 12V battery in a 1st Gen Honda Insight.
I had a few cases of the battery inexplicably going dead or almost dead, once immediately after 40 mile road trip out of town.

This battery tested fine twice with the classic auto parts store 'Load Tester'.
This is a 500 CCA battery. The load tester hits the battery with a quick load to watch the voltage drop.

So I charged it overnight and tested it on an Aviation type 'Capacity Tester'.
This test is a steady load and lets the battery discharge to 10.0V, stops and records the minutes.

Automotive batteries do not have an Amp/hour rating.
They use a 'Reserve Capacity' number in minutes with a set discharge at 25A @ 70°F, to 10.5V.

My Insight battery is rated as 'RC' of 85 minutes. It tested 9 minutes to 10.0V...

I bought a brand new battery and did the same test after an overnight charge on a 2A Batteryminder.
It was still at 12.3 Volts after 25 minutes with a 25A load.
I stopped the test at that point and recharged it.

The lesson is: A quickie automotive 'load' test does not really tell the condition of the battery.
 
That's good to know, but I've learned from experience. I'm dropping it off the night before, so it will sit. Hopefully when these messages are coming up, it's throwing some codes they can analyze.

I like OnStar. First time I've used it. I called them from my office today and got to an electrical expert. He's going to follow up with the dealer too.

When they ship these cars (from South Korea), do they disable the 12 volt battery? One would think yes.
 
Good point.
There is a way to put the Volt system in 'Storage Mode', or some such term, to keep the background load off the 12 V battery.
Hopefully the Spark EV has a similar mode. But then when it arrives at the dealership and they power it up and put it on the lot, they probably don't put it back in that mode.
I also read on this forum about someone buying a Spark EV that sat on the dealership lot for 500 days. Is that possible?

As said before, a few days with the 12 V lead acid totally discharge damages the battery irreversibly.

You could suggest a sort of load test by leaving the headlights on with the car not powered up. They could measure the current being used with a clamp-on ammeter and calculate if the battery is meeting its 'Reserve Capacity'.

Good luck.
 
NORTON said:
I also read on this forum about someone buying a Spark EV that sat on the dealership lot for 500 days. Is that possible?

Some Dealers still have a few 2014's in their lot. So at the minimum it's been 530 days since Jan 1, 2104... even longer if they got the car in late 2013.
Even a lot of the 2015 that sold last month are 6 months old...
 
My Spark EV I purchase on 4/28/15 is a 2014 model without DCFC that had been sitting for 500 days+. I haven't done a battery test so I haven't had an issue. There was another one on the lot, a Black Granite 2 LT 2014 that had a dead battery which they replaced. Both were sold shortly afterwards.

*edit*
Just checked my manufactured date via the VIN plate by the driver side door. Made In Korea on 09/13 so its ~600+ days.
 
I think mine was ordered in Feb. 2015.

I got the message again this morning with the 12 volt battery light and took a reading of 12.04 volts. I'm taking it in this afternoon and will keep you up to date.
 
When I dropped it off, the service guy implied that it was software related. He asked the sales guy if he setup the charge time, which he didn't. I've got a whole checklist of things to do that we never did on checkout. I would find it hard to believe the car would be engineered like that.

I have been getting alerts from OnStar once a day: "Your 2015 Chevrolet Spark EV is scheduled to be plugged in. Check your charge status; plug in as convenient." During these times, the car has plenty of miles in the traction battery.
 
Hopefully they are saying it's totally a SW problem and not 'Operator Error'.

If the car is indicating battery state of charge and an amount of miles of range, of course it should not leave you stranded, no matter what settings are in the configuration pages.

Thanks for keeping us informed,, and watch those guys.....
 
So the latest is they replaced the 12 volt battery today after running some tests, they then needed to charge the car fully, and then they will run a battery of tests Thurs. morning all while communicating with a Volt advisor. I hope this is an isolated incident. I'm going to pick the car up Fri. or Sat., if all goes well, so it will have another night to sit after tomorrow.
 
Sounds like there are several cars experiencing this problem and they've got engineering working on it. They believe it is software related. That's all I know right now.
 
Day 8. No news yet. No contact yesterday. I had to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the second EV sociability run in DC with my Fusion Energi yesterday.
 
I get Sparky back tomorrow. They updated the C/F temp. thingy too.

According to the service manager, I guess the car was throwing some codes which related to the communication of components (sorry I don't have the technical details). This was setting off the 12 volt warning light and "service battery charging system" dialog when you first power up the vehicle. Voltage after sitting overnight appears to be normal now. GM engineering worked with the dealer to do "some things" and the car has sat a few days and appears to be ok. I'll be doing some extended road testing this weekend of course. GM engineering will be checking back with me too. I guess anytime something like this happens with a very new vehicle, they are concerned, of course.

Apparently this has been an issue with a few other cars. This is not an isolated incident.
 
I actually got a copy of the technicians notes, but they are a little hard to read.

I know they ran some diagnostics first. These might be some of the codes:

1)
ECM - PIE00
HPCM2 U0111 lost com. with BECM
U185A lost com. with BECM on high voltage Can buss
U0100 lost com. with ECM
- diagnostics

2)
-14 power modul data charger charging voltage
-purch/punch? m for dynostes (can't tell what this word is, may just be abb. for diagnostics)
-data buss diag. tool, monitor it keep charging while on test
-battery and sys. dynostes doc no. X104
3666404
14 charger data - under startup

3)
batt com fuse box com
R/R battery remove fuse box and major fuses. Inspect all fuses and connection
R/R connector at 14 volt power module - ck yellow and violet wire circuit 1262 from ECM to APM. Resistence very good. Terminal tension also good.


THE PRINTED STATEMENT SAYS:

CAUSE: .
5430922 CONNECTOR RECONNECTION
 
Sorry you were without your car, and, that's a great story and very good work by GM and the dealer.


All the times I've had a vehicle in for service and have it come back with "no problem found" from an indifferent service department :roll:
 
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