Spark won't charge (charging fault)

My 3 month old Spark won't take a charge anymore and the onboard tutorial said that it was a "charging fault". I took it to the dealer and they said it will be four days before they can get to it :evil: I can't charge it, which means I can't drive it, so I left it there with 3 miles left on the battery.

Has anybody else had this problem?

I figured it would be like a five minute reset of the computer to clear the code. Not happy with my dealership...to say the least & I hope they charge it for me a few hours so that I can get home.

Jeeman0 said:

My 3 month old Spark won't take a charge anymore and the onboard tutorial said that it was a "charging fault". I took it to the dealer and they said it will be four days before they can get to it :evil: I can't charge it, which means I can't drive it, so I left it there with 3 miles left on the battery.

Has anybody else had this problem?

I figured it would be like a five minute reset of the computer to clear the code. Not happy with my dealership...to say the least & I hope they charge it for me a few hours so that I can get home.

Click to expand...

Not much hope for dealer, you know "you are not just a number" - yes you are, especially if they need four days "to get to it"
Have you tried disconnecting the 12V battery yourself or suggesting it to the almighty?

I was at work and had my wife take it to the dealer. I assumed that the dealer would fix it while my wife waited. I wonder if that would have done it, kinda like clearing a check engine light. Bummer I didn't try.

Jeeman0 said:

I was at work and had my wife take it to the dealer. I assumed that the dealer would fix it while my wife waited. I wonder if that would have done it, kinda like clearing a check engine light. Bummer I didn't try.

Click to expand...

Cal them tomorrow morning and tell them, you want them to disconnect the battery right now and see what happens or you will take it to another dealer. That should get them going. Towing it from dealer to dealer at their expense should get a rep's attention, oh who am I kidding

Any Update ?

I would have gone down the the dealer and did it myself. if it worked, great, if not ...

Well....The Stealership couldn't find anything wrong with it and cleared the fault allowing it to take a charge again. The service writer said that they couldn't find anything wrong, but the technician wanted to know if we ever plugged in the car while it was running or started the car with the key fob when it was plugged in since that would cause a problem. What???? Of course we have started it with the key fob when it was plugged in. The owners manual suggests that you do that so that you cool/heat the interior using your home power instead of the battery. Also, I have pulled in the garage and left it running for a few minutes and plugged in the cord without issue.

This service writer was also dumb enough to tell my wife that the car probably was due for an "oil change" and that is why it wasn't charging. Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with the Temecula dealership and will be going elsewhere if I have any more issues.

Other than that, love the Spark EV...hate the incompetent people that service them.

Perhaps there was some confusion in communication. If you pull in to your parking space, leave the car turned on, and plug it in, it won't start charging properly. You have to shut it off to begin charging. Once charging has started, you can turn it back on to use the HVAC, radio, etc. If you want to drive away, you just have to unplug it, no power cycle necessary. I've accidentally forgot to turn the car off more than once when pulling into a DC fast charger and realized my mistake when the car didn't begin charging properly. Silly mistake, obviously, but it took me a minute to figure it out the first time I did it.

Bryce

Bryce,
I only plugged it in when it was running once and that was weeks prior to the car not taking a charge. I think if that was the reason for the fault to be triggered, it would have prevented charging that night when I normally charge the car. It charged normally for days and then just stopped taking a charge at all.

PLEASE make sure to call the Service Manager and tell him what the Boob guy said about the OIL.

I think they should know that.

Either way that is weird.

Do you know who they cleared the fault ? I wonder if they unplugged the battery or did it through the computer.

The invoice showed the tech "hooked up vehicle to scan tool, retrieved multiple low voltage codes in multiple modules".

Thanks

Low-voltage codes sounds like car was turned off, but a door left open so the 12-volt battery ran down. But that is just a guess.

Two things to do next time:

1. Call OnStar and ask for and write down the codes. Then report them here. Doing so would help others in the future.

2. As nmikmik suggested above: Disconnect the 12V battery and reconnect it. That can clear up some computer glitches.

The oil change suggestion is just pathetic.

Can you report more of what happened: You had it plugged in but it refused to charge? Did you discover the trouble in the morning after being plugged in all night?

Leaving the door open won't kill the battery, the interior lights turn off after a period of inactivity. Low voltage errors sound to me more likely due to a loose connection or even a prematurely failing battery. The electronics on the car should protect against low voltage caused my general mishaps (such as leaving an interior light on).

Bryce

Jeeman0 said:

The invoice showed the tech "hooked up vehicle to scan tool, retrieved multiple low voltage codes in multiple modules".

Click to expand...

Unfortunately your experience pretty typical one for a new vehicle under a warranty.
The tech is not getting paid for investigating the problem on the "warranty" claim vehicle, he is barely getting paid anything for hooking up the scanner and pulling /resetting the codes, beyond that he doesn't care.
Hopefully there is no "next time", but for a future reference, force the service write at the time of the drop-off to write into the service order that you "The Owner" want to know what codes were there and what was done to take care of them.

SteveC5088 said:

Low-voltage codes sounds like car was turned off, but a door left open so the 12-volt battery ran down. But that is just a guess.

Two things to do next time:

1. Call OnStar and ask for and write down the codes. Then report them here. Doing so would help others in the future.

2. As nmikmik suggested above: Disconnect the 12V battery and reconnect it. That can clear up some computer glitches.

The oil change suggestion is just pathetic.

Can you report more of what happened: You had it plugged in but it refused to charge? Did you discover the trouble in the morning after being plugged in all night?

Click to expand...

A couple days prior to the vehicle not taking a charge, the yellow "service vehicle soon" light came on. It had done that in the past and then just disappeared on its own (normally after a few hours). The car continued to charge normally and then one morning, after it being plugged in all night, I noticed that it only had a range of 29 miles. Also the dash mentioned something about "failed to charge, charging fault detected". I drove it a few miles, plugged it back in and it wouldn't accept a charge. I made sure that my 240V charger didn't blow a fuse and was working properly.

Did you plug in your 110V EVSE to see if that charged correctly?

Bryce

Nashco said:

Did you plug in your 110V EVSE to see if that charged correctly?

Bryce

Click to expand...

No. I didn't try that.

Jeeman0 said:

My 3 month old Spark won't take a charge anymore and the onboard tutorial said that it was a "charging fault". I took it to the dealer and they said it will be four days before they can get to it :evil: I can't charge it, which means I can't drive it, so I left it there with 3 miles left on the battery.

Has anybody else had this problem?

I figured it would be like a five minute reset of the computer to clear the code. Not happy with my dealership...to say the least & I hope they charge it for me a few hours so that I can get home.

Click to expand...

Was your error message anything like the error message shown in this video ? http://vimeo.com/109513322

No, mine didn't fluctuate like that and refuse to turn off. The error code popped up in the middle of the display, just showing a charging fault. Your problem was much more severe.