Guessometer acting strange

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Tvenuto

New member
Joined
Mar 21, 2020
Messages
2
Hi all, my 2016 Chevy Spark EV died on me while on the freeway and the guessometer was showing 30 miles left. Luckily I was able to coast most of the way home and when I plugged it in the display showed 0 miles left. After a charge it seems fine but I’m wondering if I should take it in to the dealer for servicing.

My commute is very regular, 28 miles round trip with minimal traffic in the morning and lots of traffic on the way home. I usually charge after two days of commuting. With the recent “shelter-in-place” traffic very light both directions and I drove much faster then usual. So it makes sense that I ran out, but shouldn’t have the guessometer realized I was about to run out of juice? The car didn’t cut off the radio or anything so I thought all was good (minimum showing was at least 20 miles).

I’ve noticed in the past week or two the miles has jumped as I drive. For example, I’ll start the car and it says 60 then after 10 minutes of driving it’s showing 80.

Is there a way I can reset this system myself?

Thanks all, I love this car and hope to figure this out.
 
Tvenuto said:
Hi all, my 2016 Chevy Spark EV died on me while on the freeway and the guessometer was showing 30 miles left. Luckily I was able to coast most of the way home and when I plugged it in the display showed 0 miles left. After a charge it seems fine but I’m wondering if I should take it in to the dealer for servicing.

My commute is very regular, 28 miles round trip with minimal traffic in the morning and lots of traffic on the way home. I usually charge after two days of commuting. With the recent “shelter-in-place” traffic very light both directions and I drove much faster then usual. So it makes sense that I ran out, but shouldn’t have the guessometer realized I was about to run out of juice? The car didn’t cut off the radio or anything so I thought all was good (minimum showing was at least 20 miles).

I’ve noticed in the past week or two the miles has jumped as I drive. For example, I’ll start the car and it says 60 then after 10 minutes of driving it’s showing 80.

Is there a way I can reset this system myself?

Thanks all, I love this car and hope to figure this out.
The first thing I would check / replace is the 12 volt AGM battery under the hood. If you can find someone who has a 12 volt AGM battery charger with a desulfating function, use it to charge your battery for a couple of days and then test how the car responds. A defective 12 volt AGM battery seems to cause all kinds of gremlins in the Spark EV. Regardless, if you replace the battery or not, start a program to charge the battery monthly for about 12 hours or more using a 12 volt AGM battery charger that also has the desulfating function too.
 
Tvenuto said:
Hi all, my 2016 Chevy Spark EV died on me ......

Is there a way I can reset this system myself?

Your 1st step should be a 'Hard Reboot', which is disconnecting the 12V battery at the Neg. terminal, for a few minutes.

If you can:
>Measure the 12V battery voltage before reconnecting the neg. cable.
>Then after reconnecting it and booting up the car, Then ~5 mins later, just sitting there powered up.
>Also, you could test the battery with power off and the headlights and emer. flashers on to load the 12V battery. Watch for 5-10 mins.

This will be good data to have. You can plug-in the car after this testing is done.


I would not take the car to the local Chevy dealer. Do you want them going on a fishing adventure?
Save it for when you have lots of photo evidence of what's happening.
Start getting good at the 'Quick Draw' and taking pictures of problems!

The 12V battery is high on the list of suspect problems.
Good luck, keep us posted !
 
If you choose not to take it to a dealer I wouldn't suggest disconnecting the 12volt battery so the code remains stored. If the problem repeats or something else happens you will want to give them a chance to properly diagnose the problem.

You can test the 12 volt and charge the 12 volt without disconnecting the battery. I

f the problem is bad enough that you feel unsafe just call to make sure the dealership/service senter has a certified mechanic to work on electric cars like the Bolt or Volt, I wouldn't hesitate to take it in. Most of the stuff on our cars are under warranty.
 
Thanks everybody for the tips! That makes sense about the battery, but I hadn’t thought of that.

Really appreciate you all taking the time to help!
 
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