Does Onstar cause charging problems? help

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evboy

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 12, 2015
Messages
198
I went to charge my car today and the light was blinking so it wouldnt charge. last time this happened was in Feb. I brought it to the dealer in FEB. the tech was gone at 4pm so it sat overnight. the next morning at 8am when the tech came in he said it was already working properly. the light was solid green. he did some tests and all and didnt find a problem.

today I went for the same problem and the same writer i had before said it was too late for the tech but he asked to look up my account so he could check some things. come to find out the first time the tech put some notes in my file in Feb that mentioned onstar was interfering with my charging and once it sat overnight it reset and thats why it worked the next morning. the writer told me to just plug it in and let it sit till morning and the car should start charging again when onstar does whatever it does to reset.

my question is does any of this make sense. why is onstar messing with my charging. they should be unrelated. does anyone else have experience with this problem im having. i called onstar but the ev team was closed. have to call monday.


Update: I checked my charge point app and it looks like it started charging again after a 2.5 hour delay. my app is showing 10 miles added. this doesnt make sense. why the delay. how is onstar causing the light to blink green for 2.5 hours and then turn solid green and start charging.
 
evboy said:
I went to charge my car today and the light was blinking so it wouldnt charge. last time this happened was in Feb. I brought it to the dealer in FEB. the tech was gone at 4pm so it sat overnight. the next morning at 8am when the tech came in he said it was already working properly. the light was solid green. he did some tests and all and didnt find a problem.

today I went for the same problem and the same writer i had before said it was too late for the tech but he asked to look up my account so he could check some things. come to find out the first time the tech put some notes in my file in Feb that mentioned onstar was interfering with my charging and once it sat overnight it reset and thats why it worked the next morning. the writer told me to just plug it in and let it sit till morning and the car should start charging again when onstar does whatever it does to reset.

my question is does any of this make sense. why is onstar messing with my charging. they should be unrelated. does anyone else have experience with this problem im having. i called onstar but the ev team was closed. have to call monday.


Update: I checked my charge point app and it looks like it started charging again after a 2.5 hour delay. my app is showing 10 miles added. this doesnt make sense. why the delay. how is onstar causing the light to blink green for 2.5 hours and then turn solid green and start charging.

Sounds like you have set your charging set to DELAYED CHARGING. In that mode, the car will calculate when to start charging in order to be ready at the programmed time. I set both of my Spark EVs to DELAYED CHARGING with a completion time of 6am. When I plug in before I go to bed, the green light will blink until the calculated start time [from OnStar?] is reached at which time the green light turns solid and the car starts charging. Press the LEAF button and check your charging settings.
 
thanks. i went to Charging and then Edit. it looks like the previous owner had the program circle checked. i clicked Immediately instead. i had no idea i had that option. 2 months ago when my charging unit went out completely and there was no light do u think onstar was the reason for that or did the charging part just go bad after 3 years. the dealership replaced the whole unit.hhe couldnt get it to come back on. im assuming the tech would know if onstar caused it and could reverse it w/o changing the part. i got a new part either way so i guess i cant bitch. I love my sparke again. we had a fight but the make up sex was great.
 
how long will this onstar stay free. i cant turn it off for the life of me. i hope its a 3 year free trial and then it will die a quick death.
 
It sounds like you should read the manual that came with the car. The whole "blinking light while plugged in to charge" thing is explained (as are all the other options/parameters that can be set).
 
evboy said:
thanks. i went to Charging and then Edit. it looks like the previous owner had the program circle checked. i clicked Immediately instead. i had no idea i had that option. 2 months ago when my charging unit went out completely and there was no light do u think onstar was the reason for that or did the charging part just go bad after 3 years. the dealership replaced the whole unit.hhe couldnt get it to come back on. im assuming the tech would know if onstar caused it and could reverse it w/o changing the part. i got a new part either way so i guess i cant bitch. I love my sparke again. we had a fight but the make up sex was great.

I do not think OnStar had anything to do with your charging unit. Unfortunately, electronics do sometimes fail. HV batteries do too as mentioned in other postings on this forum.

I do not use all of the features of OnStar but I like those that I do use - especially the car having its own phone number. Many of the other features protect or track the car if stolen. I just renewed my OnStar subscription for my 2014 Spark EV. My 2015 Spark EV has a year left before I have to renew its subscription.

So far, both cars have been absolutely 100% trouble-free with excellent performance and mileage.
 
evboy said:
how long will this onstar stay free. i cant turn it off for the life of me. i hope its a 3 year free trial and then it will die a quick death.

OnStar is free for the first 3 years. At the end of 3 years you will have an option to renew your subscription or just cancel it.
 
I believe you continue to get a Basic Plan for a few more years (I forget how long) after 3 yrs of the original plan.

That's where I am right now. I get txt when the car is done charging and gets unplugged, but I can't ask its status or do a precondition from the app.
 
evboy said:
how long will this onstar stay free. i cant turn it off for the life of me. i hope its a 3 year free trial and then it will die a quick death.

Onstar has nothing to do with the delayed charge settings. They are built-in to the car.

If you have time-of-use variable rate electricity billing available at your house, you should look into using the delayed charge settings so the car only charges during low cost hours.

For example my electricity costs about half as much during off-peak hours as it does during peak hours. My peak hours are 12PM-8PM weekdays, so I set the car not to charge during those hours.

It's all in the manual, including the meaning of the different colors and blink rates of the dashboard charging status light.
 
CCIE said:
evboy said:
how long will this onstar stay free. i cant turn it off for the life of me. i hope its a 3 year free trial and then it will die a quick death.

Onstar has nothing to do with the delayed charge settings. They are built-in to the car.

If you have time-of-use variable rate electricity billing available at your house, you should look into using the delayed charge settings so the car only charges during low cost hours.

For example my electricity costs about half as much during off-peak hours as it does during peak hours. My peak hours are 12PM-8PM weekdays, so I set the car not to charge during those hours.

It's all in the manual, including the meaning of the different colors and blink rates of the dashboard charging status light.
i know where it is now. i charge for free so i just checked immediately on the settings. the owners manual does mention something about onstar interfering with all electrical output. can u explain what they r talking about.
 
evboy said:
i know where it is now. i charge for free so i just checked immediately on the settings. the owners manual does mention something about onstar interfering with all electrical output. can u explain what they r talking about.

Where are you finding this in the manual? In certain cases the local utility can send a message thru OnStar to delay charging until the grid is less fully loaded. I believe you have to agree to this beforehand and in any case a popup message should appear on the screen if this happens.
 
emv said:
evboy said:
i know where it is now. i charge for free so i just checked immediately on the settings. the owners manual does mention something about onstar interfering with all electrical output. can u explain what they r talking about.

Where are you finding this in the manual? In certain cases the local utility can send a message thru OnStar to delay charging until the grid is less fully loaded. I believe you have to agree to this beforehand and in any case a popup message should appear on the screen if this happens.

I'd be amazed if that's been implemented anywhere.
 
emv said:
evboy said:
i know where it is now. i charge for free so i just checked immediately on the settings. the owners manual does mention something about onstar interfering with all electrical output. can u explain what they r talking about.

Where are you finding this in the manual? In certain cases the local utility can send a message thru OnStar to delay charging until the grid is less fully loaded. I believe you have to agree to this beforehand and in any case a popup message should appear on the screen if this happens.

"can u explain what they r talking about".

First, RTFM. Secondly, the most important observation is that you completely misunderstood. OnStar does NOT "interfere with all electrical output". It CAN change the charging system parameters remotely, however.

Searching for OnStar as it relates to charging, in the PDF version of the manual...

page 95 :
"A CHARGING OVERRIDE/INTERRUPTION OCCURRED
message may display on the lower right of the screen to indicate that a charging override or interruption has occurred due to one or more of the following events:
* Override of the charge settings by the owner using OnStar. {...}
* Interruption of charging by the utility company using OnStar as authorized by the vehicle owner."

Page 113 :
"The Charging Override/Interruption pop-up will appear if any of the following conditions occur:
* The charging settings have been modified via OnStar through the website or the Mobile App. For example, the Departure Time Tables, the Rate Tables, or the Charge Mode were updated using the customer website."

Page 206-208 (Charging Status Indicator" topic)

p. 210 : "Utility Interruption of Charging"
 
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