Spark thinks it is charging at 240 volts???

I charge using the stock cable with a 120 volt outlet at 12 amps. It usually takes 9 hours to fully charge the car from half empty.

Yesterday I changed the charging schedule on my Spark. I set it to charge between 12 am and 6 am, the cheapest electric rate. All the other times were set to off-peak and do not charge. I usually let it charge longer than that and use the cheapest rate (super off peak) and the off peak rate.

After that I plugged the cable I got FOUR honk chirps rather than the usual TWO. I wondered why??? When I checked the Remote Link App it told me that my car will start charging at 12 am and finish at 3:30 AM. I know that this is wrong information and figured out that the four horn chirps was an indication of 240 volts charging.

I am wondering if the reason for the wrong info from the car has to do with making the charging time too short and the car thinking that it is now charging on 240 volts? I have no other explanation for this odd behavior.

Anyone has that happen to them?

That sounds bizarre. I'd test and see if it's repeatable. Maybe have the dealer check it out.

My Spark has been on 240V from day one. Never heard 4 honks when plugging in. One means immediate charge, two means delayed charge.

No idea what 4 means, but it's not 240V.

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Page 9-39 4 chirps = Insufficient time to fully charge by departure time.

Sparkler said:

My Spark has been on 240V from day one. Never heard 4 honks when plugging in. One means immediate charge, two means delayed charge.

No idea what 4 means, but it's not 240V.

/Edit

Page 9-39 4 chirps = Insufficient time to fully charge by departure time.

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I contacted the GM Electric Car Team and told them my issue this is their reply:

"Thank you for contacting The General Motors Electric Vehicle Team.

The four horn chirps is actually indicating that there is not enough time to fully charge. You can get four horn chirps with either the 120V charger or with a 240V charger. The vehicle is just indicating that the 6 hours you have set for charging is not allowing enough time to fully charge the battery. If you were using a 240V charging station and you only had 2 hours of charging time selected you would also get the four horn chirps.

The delay charge setting is based on rate and departure time. Please ensure your departure time is set for after 6 AM if you want charging between 12-6 AM. This is the only way we can think that the charging summary would indicate completion time of 3:30 AM.

You can find this information in your owner’s manual on page 9-38. Please note the page numbers may be a few pages off as our team utilizes a digital copy of the owner’s manual.

Please feel free to contact our team anytime you have any questions or concerns regarding your Chevrolet Spark EV. As a reminder, our hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8:00am - 9:00pm EST and Saturday from 11:00am - 8:00pm EST."

Now I know what the 4 chirps are, but that does not solve the wrong times given from the car to fully charge the car since I have departure time set at 1 pm on Friday and I started charging the car at 12 am Friday.

nj1266 said:

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Now I know what the 4 chirps are, but that does not solve the wrong times given from the car to fully charge the car since I have departure time set at 1 pm on Friday and I started charging the car at 12 am Friday.

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Exactly 12 A.M. may be the problem as it's sort of arbitrary whether that means the middle of the night or the middle of the day. Try setting 12:01 AM.

I figured out what the problem was. I was forgetting to reset the charging amp from the default 8 to 12. Once I did that, the car started giving me two chirps when I was charging and had about 75% full charge. When I charge @ 12 amps with 50% full charge it still gives me 4 chirps since 6 hours are not enough to fully charge the car.

nj1266 said:

I figured out what the problem was. I was forgetting to reset the charging amp from the default 8 to 12. Once I did that, the car started giving me two chirps when I was charging and had about 75% full charge. When I charge @ 12 amps with 50% full charge it still gives me 4 chirps since 6 hours are not enough to fully charge the car.

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I never would have thought of that, my 120V EVSE is still right where it belongs in the trunk, have not even looked at it yet.