Sudden & Major Drop in Range on Meter

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CopperRoad

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2013
Messages
12
Backstory -> My girlfriend went out of town last Wednesday. The Spark had about 80 miles at the mid. The car was not driven Thursday-Saturday. I drove it about 15 miles Sunday. Charged it to full Sunday with 94 miles at the mid. It was not driven Monday.

The Strange Thing -> The GF drove the 1 mile round–trip to work and back yesterday. The range now read 88 Miles down from 94. Ok. A little strange. She then drove 8 miles that evening. No significant terrain impact on the route. She didn't note mileage at arrival at destination. She then drove the 8 Miles back home. The car was still on when I jumped in and noticed her range was now 22 miles at the mid! And the Avg. KWH was 1.0! I pointed it out, and she said she had just looked and noted that it was at 77 miles sometime during the return trip. So, did the miles just go away? The battery bar was 1 ring below the middle as we drove the 1 mile round-trip to her work to pick something up, and then moved to 2 rings below the middle. Her seat warmer was the only thing she used during that evening drive.

We plugged the car in last night at 10:15pm. 120v @ 12Amps. The readout said the car would be fully charged at 11:30am. The car was complete at 3:30am. Showing 77 Miles at the mid. There's always a bit of variance in complete times, but 8hrs!? It almost appears that the missing miles, or at least more than the 22 being shown left, were still in the car but the display was wrong?

I checked the stats since last charge after plugging in last night and it showed a 60MPGe since full charge. Again, very strange behavior. The car has a lifetime 123 MPGe and 3200 Miles.

Called On Star this morning, per Chevy dealers recommendation, so they could run an onboard diagnostic. No codes were shown. Talked to someone in their EV dept. They had no insight. Except for, "the charge readout will calculate based on your last drive".... OK. Yes. Perfect. Where are the 55 miles that disappeared?

Could it be because the car sat for 3 days? Unlikely. Could it be because it sat a day or so at a full charge. Again, unlikely. Or, at least it shouldn't be the cause. The car had never sat 3 days without being driven. But if that's the cause. That's an issue. Plus, it was charged after that. The Weather in LA was mild. Lows of 55 at night. The car was parked in a carport. So, we'll now watch the car. She has the Leaf. I have the Spark today. We'll take it into Chevy if this happens again.
 
It doesn't sound like a problem with the battery, just the range meter. Perhaps if it does this again, just drive it for a while until the range is back in an acceptable area.
 
That's very strange behavior indeed, I haven't had that happen to me at all. Like the others said, it sounds like it was an issue with the way the battery was read, not so much the actual charge.

The problem I ran into a couple of times is the car charging itself right away after being plugged in, even though it is set to "departure time/rate " mode and the 40% quick charge option is set to OFF. It took a couple of power cycles- turning it completely on and off with and without the power adapter plugged in to get it back to normal.

I think there are still quite a few software bugs in there...
 
Has she been running the heater at full blast? With this cold weather, I've been running the heater a lot, and it really impacts my range. Now I could wear heavy clothing and keep the heat turned off but that's not me. I can't stand being cold. When I got in my car this A.M., my mid range was 78 miles. Yes, I use a little extra electricity to keep me toasty, but I want to enjoy my car and the ride. I do find if I warm the car up to 78 degrees before leaving the garage and then turn the heater off, I stay warm all the way to work and gain some of my mileage back that was lost before I ever unplugged the Spark from the Level 2 charger.

At work, when the weather was hot, I'd make sure to park the car so it was in the shade when it was time to head home. Now, with the cold weather, I try to park the car so it will be in the sun when it's time to leave work and use the sun to heat my car.
 
The miles disappeared during driving. This wasn't range after charging. I always expect variation in range readout after a charging.

This was after the car been sitting for 3 full days. That, and the cold-ish weather had to be the culprit. It was just such a precipitous drop during mid-drive that using the heat (or drag racing. ha) couldn't really explain an instant 55 mile loss. Never seen anything like that. It hasn't happened again. Of course the car has not sat for 3 days un-driven since. The miles were probably there, just a strange anomaly. All seems fine now.
 
I had something similar happen to me today. see my post on this thread:: Re: Sudden catastrophic loss in range.
 
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