Dead Spark EV at 656 miles 3 weeks

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tfordbend

New member
Joined
May 20, 2016
Messages
3
Dead since last night. Although the instrument displays inside appear to work fine, locks, windows stereo, auto-beep when keys left in the car when door closed all good, but the car doesn't move when put into gear. A couple days ago the service light was on and then went off on its own. Another odd thing is that it is difficult to turn the power off...the display just comes on again and re-initiates after pushing the power button, but still no movement or power to the wheels. I tried disconnecting the ground from the battery for 30 seconds, ten minutes and 6 hours, reconnecting and still no change in the condition. I called OnStar and the fault is something like, "electrical propulsion battery system not functioning as expected"...not helpful. Got it towed to the dealer tonight.

Recent events:
Charged at a free commercial 40amp charger (Clipper Creek) 2 days ago otherwise nightly 120v house plug in.
switched to 12amp charge rate instead of 8 amp after that 40amp 2hour charge didn't seem to bump the milage range much ( 16 miles added)
System seemed to default back to 8 amp on its own previously. I am pretty sure that the last charge was the first/only charge at the 12amp rate on 120 volt connection. I don't think anything happened on the house side of the charging cable.

For the past 4 nights I have been messing around with the speakers, working on a stereo upgrade. replaced the front speakers. So stereo and dome light powered on intermittently while charging car. Prior to the 2 hours working on the stereo last night, I briefly had the car on the charger after work, and I was able to back it out of the garage. However the night that the car died, the stereo was intermittently on without charging the car. Propulsion battery reads 48 miles.
I unplugged and plugged three multi-wire harnesses looking to see if any of the factory speaker wires ran through them ( two under passenger seat 3 nights ago, and one behind the glove box yesterday). No new connections or wire breaks except for T-ing into the rear speaker wires for speaker level input to line out converter
I drilled a screw hole in the rear interior sheet metal towards the rear bumper and scuffed the paint for ground contact
I connected a wire to the 12v battery and ran power to an amp, powered sub-woofer and line out converter to test out components before install.
The sound was great, except the car was later found to be dead.

I find it hard to believe that messing around with the stereo upgrade could kill the car. I am willing to accept the possibility , perhaps the charge on the 12V system was run down, but it seems unlikely. I am thinking that perhaps I should have put the 12V on a trickle charger before calling the tow truck, but I saw no evidence that the 12V battery was depleted. I am an engineer, and I've done many previous installs, so I am not completely clueless. But in this case, the mystery of the software and this fault make me feel pretty clueless.
 
Ahhh...the ol' "I installed the speakers and now car's dead" routine. Well, good news is that you've got an inkling of what might've caused it, though too bad you didn't have a chance to test the voltage on the 12V battery before getting it towed. I don't know how integrated the motor/generator system is to the 12v battery but I hope it's something minor. Keep us posted!
 
It sounds like you were working on the stereo while the car was plugged in/being charged. Even though one doesn't have to do with the other, for my own piece of mind, I probably would have taken the car off the charger during that time. That being said, I am assuming that you expected the car to have a full charge rather than the 48 miles it was showing last? You were still driving the car during those days and able to fully charge afterwards?

Just as a FYI, the 8A/12A setting resets each time you shift into park, so that is why the 12A setting disappeared.
 
I didn't find the "electrical propulsion malfunction" message helpful because it sounds like a description of the symptom, not a diagnosis. I already know that the propulsion system is not functioning because when I put it in drive , the car is not propelled either forward or backward. Perhaps this is a glib answer, but I am interested in understanding why this is occurring. If for example the message RULES OUT the possibility of say, a depleted 12V battery, a software glitch or communication failure from the shifter to the drive train, then I suppose this IS quite helpful, and I would stand humbly corrected.
 
Spark EV is running again! I picked it up before close of business today. Stereo installed.

Here is what the service summary from Chevrolet of Bend says,
"scanned for codes and found ple00 and plf17 codes stored as current, checked for si documents and found doc.3126501, followed diagnosis, checked sir module for updated calibrations, performed sir reprogram, performed clear secured high voltage dtc's procedure, erased all vehicle module codes, codes did not reset, no further repair was required, test drove vehicle to verify repairs."

The service guy said that the ABS module had a glitch which affected (disabled?) the drive system. they updated the vehicle software, and everything was peachy.

hope it lasts for 100k
 
Also glad that , presumably , it was under warranty . :)

Hopefully all the software updates will prevent future problems .

God bless
Wyr
 
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