help finding out what my dash notification means

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LiLspark

Active member
Joined
Apr 6, 2019
Messages
33
Hi I looked in the manual and could not find what does a orange car symbol with an exclamation point through it means?. I am wondering if this means the battery pack is going bad?.
 
LiLspark said:
hmm its got almost 26,000 miles on it im wondering what kind of service it needs?.
You can go to the dealer or get someone who has an OBD2 scanner to read the code for you. That will give you an idea of where the problem might be. Give the code number to the Chevy service representative and ask him to tell you what the code means for your car. I have a 2014 Spark EV that has a super sensitive transmission temperature sensor that keeps coming on in the hot summer but not at any other time of the year. When I reset the code and check the transmission temperature, everything is OK.

If something is wrong, it should be covered under warranty. Check with the dealer to be sure. Note: take the car to a Chevy dealer who services Chevy Bolts. They are more likely to have trained technicians who can "properly" service Chevy Bolts and Spark EVs.
 
welp that icon definitely means something major, the damn car was refusing to go in reverse or anything else and my range got @#$%^&*()_{. It came up saying waiting to initialize something... funny thing was last week for the life of me the damn braking wasn't working I almost had a nice accident as I almost went onto opposing traffic... braking system failure (that went away after shutting down the car cursing at it at the top of my lungs) random weird flukes have been happening and this POS car has no coverage the dealer wants a $180 diagnostic fee. Which basically means leave the car with them they let it sit for a day and say they found nothing...

boy am I screwed owning a gm car that despite being in some type of coverage they won't really cover anything... but the whole range thing of 2-4 miles is serious I almost had to just think how the %^&*() am I going to do anything now this car is totally dead a %&* and no service center nothin is open on a Sunday.
LnZFVKt
so 8 mins later I try again and the car starts up.. but is my 2015 spark becoming a scrap bucket before I'm even done paying it off ????

man this crap scares me as it's my main daily driver. I dont even know what to do with it anymore but maybe pray something bad happens and my 100k coverage spares me or something. I know its bad to think like this but jeebus im trying to find some kind of silver lining. if its a bad battery pack or something it gets fixed?. I just got my taste of 54kW charging the other day and it was the best $2 + membership fees spent maybe the DcFc killed something because this car cant handle 50kW charging?. even though it was 1st time using a DcFc in 6 months?.
 
I'm not sure about the brakes feeling like they were going out but the full charge with 3 miles and the service soon (shift to park for the volt) seems like the BECM failure we had in the Volt. You may want to google that there is a good description of what it is and does and that it was covered under the powertrain warranty on gm-volt.com. Either way Chevy should cover this under the Voltec system warrant. I wouldn't assume they won't find anything if there is a service soon light on. When we had our car in the shop we rented a car and they reimbursed us for the expense. You may want to contact the dealer and see if they will do this for you too and if they had a rental shop they usually use. Our insurance includes towing for no additional charge, if you have this you may want to utilize it. I wouldn't recommend driving it if the brakes aren't acting right. I hope you get this fixed soon!
 
LiLspark said:
welp that icon definitely means something major, the damn car was refusing to go in reverse or anything else and my range got @#$%^&*()_{. It came up saying waiting to initialize something... funny thing was last week for the life of me the damn braking wasn't working I almost had a nice accident as I almost went onto opposing traffic... braking system failure (that went away after shutting down the car cursing at it at the top of my lungs) random weird flukes have been happening and this POS car has no coverage the dealer wants a $180 diagnostic fee. Which basically means leave the car with them they let it sit for a day and say they found nothing...

boy am I screwed owning a gm car that despite being in some type of coverage they won't really cover anything... but the whole range thing of 2-4 miles is serious I almost had to just think how the %^&*() am I going to do anything now this car is totally dead a %&* and no service center nothin is open on a Sunday.
LnZFVKt
so 8 mins later I try again and the car starts up.. but is my 2015 spark becoming a scrap bucket before I'm even done paying it off ????

man this crap scares me as it's my main daily driver. I dont even know what to do with it anymore but maybe pray something bad happens and my 100k coverage spares me or something. I know its bad to think like this but jeebus im trying to find some kind of silver lining. if its a bad battery pack or something it gets fixed?. I just got my taste of 54kW charging the other day and it was the best $2 + membership fees spent maybe the DcFc killed something because this car cant handle 50kW charging?. even though it was 1st time using a DcFc in 6 months?.
First thing I would check is the 12 volt AGM battery under the hood. This battery powers up the car's computer when the car is first started and many Spark EV "gobblins" are attributable to the 12 volt battery going bad. Your 12 volt battery is 4 years old and it may be time to replace it. Have an auto parts store perform a battery load test or, better yet, just replace it with an exact replacement - AC Delco LN1AGM. The battery is somewhat expensive- ~$175 - $200.

You can also connect a jump start battery pack across your 12 volt battery and see if everything then starts up properly , including your display.
 
hi, thanks for the replies. I'm hoping its the 12v battery maybe that's why the brakes and weird messages are appearing at random times when shifting to reverse?. it's not always it's completely random. and that weird check engine light thing went away... weird.. I found a possible source for the battery its like $157 out the door shipped. The brakes not functioning that one time is totally computer-related... like out of the blue something came up on the screen saying the braking system is shutting down lol talk about my car feels like it has malware loaded... so far i created a case with gm and ill triple check how old the battery is its probably old as dirt. but there is no way to dodge a $180 diagnostic fee. so anyone with a 2014-2016 spark is screwed for that fee.
 
LiLspark said:
hi, thanks for the replies. I'm hoping its the 12v battery maybe that's why the brakes and weird messages are appearing at random times when shifting to reverse?. it's not always it's completely random. and that weird check engine light thing went away... weird.. I found a possible source for the battery its like $157 out the door shipped. The brakes not functioning that one time is totally computer-related... like out of the blue something came up on the screen saying the braking system is shutting down lol talk about my car feels like it has malware loaded... so far i created a case with gm and ill triple check how old the battery is its probably old as dirt. but there is no way to dodge a $180 diagnostic fee. so anyone with a 2014-2016 spark is screwed for that fee.
I would suggest you first have someone, other than the dealer, use an OBD2 scanner to read the codes in your car's memory. Don't reset them - just read them. Then post the codes on this forum and see if anyone else has had the same code(s) and what they did to correct the problem. Once you have more information, then discuss the codes with a Chevy dealer who also sells Bolt EVs - hopefully the dealer will have technicians who are trained to service Chevy EVs.

Regardless, I would still replace the 12 volt battery. Another suggestion is to purchase a good 12 volt AGM battery charger with a desulfating function and, once per month, charge your 12 volt battery overnight. This will prolong the life of your 12 volt battery. I use a BatteryMinder 2012-AGM. I also purchased a long extension for the charging cable and an adapter that allows me to charge through the OBD2 port inside of the car. It has been working great for over a year. I have the charger mounted on wall inside of my garage and the long cord allows me to charge either of my two Spark EVs without raising the hood and trying to connect to the battery.
 
My brakes felt like they went out when I hit a bump just right when I was braking and it said something like "low traction" and I can only assume the regenerative braking dropped out and the pedal went way down (about an inch) before it actually engaged the brakes. It didn't fail but it was rather scary. Similar to the feel of when ABS kicks in and the pedal drops out a bit, but it did not pulse like ABS.

Is your battery price from RockAuto? Be sure to find a coupon code too.
 
Kermit said:
My brakes felt like they went out when I hit a bump just right when I was braking and it said something like "low traction" and I can only assume the regenerative braking dropped out and the pedal went way down (about an inch) before it actually engaged the brakes. It didn't fail but it was rather scary. Similar to the feel of when ABS kicks in and the pedal drops out a bit, but it did not pulse like ABS.

Is your battery price from RockAuto? Be sure to find a coupon code too.


found a coupon, the car is officially dead won't accept a charge and cant start it. time to rely on an ICE car might have to tow it if the new battery don't work
 
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