Sudden catastrophic loss in range

[agdodgerfan]

Did this ever happen to you again after that time? I just had A very similar event. Going downhill. a route I take everyday. I went from my normal 8 miles per kilowatt down to 2.1. I had to stop and charge to make it to work I usually make it there with only half a charge I had a full charge when I left my house. the only odd factor was rain. it was 60 degrees for not cold once I finally charged it did improve back to normal but then my Stabilitrakand my service power steering lights turned on. this happened Thursday today Saturday at my car is still at the dealership they couldn't find the reason for the increase in use of energy. they are keeping it to figure out the issue with the Stabilitrak code that keeps turning on.

 

[amndrin]

nothing directly to do with this thread but similar enough, has anyone else noticed their climate control randomly turning on to 100% power?

 

[JoeSchmoe]

^^I can't get mine to turn off completely when trying to just set it to outside air + the fan on. It cycles the A/C on and off, bumping up to something like 25% then back down. Not frequently but I can't get it stay off while the fan is on.

 

[WattEV]

^^I can't get mine to turn off completely when trying to just set it to outside air + the fan on. It cycles the A/C on and off, bumping up to something like 25% then back down. Not frequently but I can't get it stay off while the fan is on.

I believe this is because of the "Auto Defog" setting. There is a humidity sensor under the cover behind the rear view mirror. If there is sufficient humidity in the air, the A/C will kick on, even if it shows off, to dehumidify the air.

If you go to Vehicle Settings, under I believe Climate/Comfort, you can turn the Auto Defog function off so the A/C is not turning off and on automatically. I set mine to off and my A/C does not come on anymore.

 

[DrPhoton]

Thanks for the tip on the Auto Defog. It's been driving me nuts trying to figure out why the climate control power consumption is sometimes 23% and sometimes 6% when it seems like I only have the fan on at the lowest setting. I was also noticing that it would register 6% when on recirc, but it would increase to 23% when I start drawing in outside air. I just finished re-reading the climate control section of the Owner's Manual without finding out anything that would explain this until I saw your post.

 

[jiminoregon]

I just had this happen to me today. I started out leaving the house fully charged with 83 miles of range - my normal. Four miles later I noticed that my range had dropped without warning to 23 miles. I had another 32 miles to go, so I headed back home. When I returned, I had 25 miles (regen at work) of range, had driven 8.2 miles, using 8.5 kWh of energy.

It was 50 ° F out when I left, no heating on, no AC, just the seat-warmer, radio/USB/phone, and occasional defogging.

8.5 kWh is 30.6 MJ, enough to heat 73 L of ice-water (about 2.5 ft^3) to boiling. I think I would have noticed this release of energy had it occurred.

I plugged in the car and took the ICE to work. I am now at work, and can see that the car is fully charged, but now with only 69 mi of range.

I will take it into the dealer next week and keep you posted on the outcomes.

This has been a great car. I've driven 25k miles, and this is the first major problem.

 

[sdenzin]

Howdy all,

I have had my spark about 1 1/2 years with 24k on it. In that time I have had this occur at least 3 times. after the second I took it to the dealer and they worked on it for 2 weeks and decided the "ignition" was to blame. They replaced the circuit board and sent me on my way. The last time it happened I was unable to re-charge at my destination and ran out of power on my way home. I had it towed to the dealer and they have now had it for 3 weeks.

chevy has told the dealership to return the car to me even though they haven't fixed anything. Luckily the dealership is fighting back as I don't feel safe about getting stranded again.

A note to watch for after this type of occurrence. I think you will all see the same thing as I have. I make the exact same drive to work each day and depending on weather my car is done charging at the office at roughly the same time each day. On the days that this has occurred the iphone app has stated the car will need until 8 - 10 pm to complete a charge on 110. (I get to work at 6am) By the normal time for a recharge I get the text saying it is done charging which is nomally between noon and 2pm. So the same thing is happening in reverse on the charge side of things.

When I dropped off my car this time I asked them to watch the charge cycle to see what I am describing. Actually I asked them to use whatever equipment they had to monitor the charge to see the sudden jump. I don't think they did that part but I did grab a couple of screen grabs from that day to show the sudden jump in charge. In this case it went from 17% to 96% in 3 hours. With a battery of 21Kw that would be about 16.69 Kw of charge. With the onboard charger at 3.3kw, the math works out to taking 5 hours of time to charge that much.

So, unless they have found a way to bend the laws of physics, this feat would be impossible unless there was an issue. As I said, my dealership is still trying to diagnose the issue. The only thing I have noticed in my case is it usually happens just after entering the highway. So most likely goosing the accelerator for a quick burst may be a trigger for the result. But it definitely seems to loose memory in the battery until it cycles a full charge again.

If anyone has found an actual cause or solution for this please let us know.

 

[mczajka]

I've only experienced something like this once, but not to the same extreme. I've got about 800 miles on the car now. I drove from So. MD to MOMs Organic Market in College Park MD (everything normal and efficient). I charged there for about 1.5 hours, but the car was sitting in the glaring sun in 85 degree heat while charging. Beating down right on the back of the car. I remote started it and sat there for a few minutes (perhaps not long enough).

I proceeded from College Park to Silver Spring for a graduation party, only about 7 miles away. I was getting close to 3 miles per kwh in stop and go traffic. I was not monitoring where the power consumption was coming from.

Last weekend I was driving in 95 degree heat on the DC beltway and everything was fine. Prior to that I was parked and charging in a covered garage in the Mosaic District. It was hot in there, but the sun wasn't beating down on the car.

For me, the morale of the story is to look for covered charging spots in parking garages or other shady areas. I think in the heat, it's actually better to be moving faster so you are getting some natural cooling.

My issue doesn't sound the same as the start of this thread, but only related to smart driving/charging.

 

[mickeybiosense]

I park and charge and 100d sunny weather in Houston Texas all the time with no issues. It's should not matter how and when or where you charge.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Make sure your parking brake is working correctly. I received an email from a Spark EV owner who had a problem with the range suddenly dropping off for his Spark EV. The problem was traced to the electric parking brake which had to be replaced.

 

[sdenzin]

MrDRMorgan, Do you know how they traced the problem to the parking brake? I do have an incline on my driveway and use the parking brake each night.

 

[NORTON]

If a dragging parking brake is a problem this could be verified with an IR temp reader like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/infrared-thermometer-93984.html

This would also settle the questions about if the brake pads are working when braking in D vs L. Make a decent stop and get out and read the brake discs.

I need to carry mine around in my car and make sure everything is fine with the brakes.

 

[cwerdna]

sudden jump in charge. In this case it went from 17% to 96% in 3 hours. With a battery of 21 kWh that would be about 16.69 kWh of charge. With the onboard charger at 3.3 kW, the math works out to taking 5 hours of time to charge that much.

To be clear, I've fixed your units, as you'd confused kW vs. kWh twice.

kW and kWh are very different metrics. It's the same as confusing gallons with horsepower. Think of kW = horsepower, kWh = gallons.

If one charges at 1 kW (or 1000 watts) for 3 hours, 3 kWh came out of the wall. If it's at 3 kW for 1 hour, it's also 3 kWh. If it's 1 watt for 3000 hours, it's also 3 kWh.

One pays for electricity at home in cents per kWh. There are a few utilities w/residential plans where they not only bill per kWh but also have demand charges, but that's rare and complicates calculations. (Demand charges aren't unusual on many commercial plans.)

 

[dutyfree]

so did anyone with the sudden drop of range issue solved? or the remove the 12V battery for 10 minutes to reset to vehicle solved the problem.

Appreciate anyone's feedback before I take my spark EV to dealer tomorrow for a check up.

thanks

 

[NORTON]

Yeah, I'd like to hear too.
The HV battery didn't suddenly use up all that power.
As we say in the biz,,, 'Glitch Happens' .
Hard reboot fixes it. (disconnect 12V battery)

 

[MrDRMorgan]

MrDRMorgan, Do you know how they traced the problem to the parking brake? I do have an incline on my driveway and use the parking brake each night.

Sorry. I missed this post. No. There was no explanation as to how the problem was found. I know you can hear noise from the electric parking brake mechanism as it engages and disengages. I suspect the problem might have something to do with not fully engaging or disengaging. This fault might cause the parking brake circuit to keep applying power to get the mechanism to fully engage or disengage.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

My wife did not report a sudden drop in range but when I reviewed the vehicle's consumption data before the last 2 full charging cycles, I noticed the climate % values on 8/26 and 8/29 were both equal to or slightly greater than the drive %. So, I dropped my A/C temp setting to 68 deg. F and turned off the auto defog setting. A 20 mile test run today showed a normal reading for the climate %. I will continue to monitor this to see if I fixed anything or not.

 

[nozferatu]

MrDRMorgan, Do you know how they traced the problem to the parking brake? I do have an incline on my driveway and use the parking brake each night.

Sorry. I missed this post. No. There was no explanation as to how the problem was found. I know you can hear noise from the electric parking brake mechanism as it engages and disengages. I suspect the problem might have something to do with not fully engaging or disengaging. This fault might cause the parking brake circuit to keep applying power to get the mechanism to fully engage or disengage.

No I have 100% doubt in it being caused by the parking brake. I think it's a software issue regulating battery performance and temperature. I have a feeling it's related to that. When mine happened, I was really gunning it at very very hot temperatures...well over 105 F ambient. The mileage just suddenly dropped within 10-15 seconds as if someone had opened up a drain and the water is rushing out.

 

[MrDRMorgan]

Is it possible that "gunning it" + over 105 deg. F + heavy AC & high fan speed caused the car's computer to make a sudden re-adjustment to your "Guess-O-Meter" range value?

When I picked up my used 2014 Spark EV 2LT a month ago it would only charge to 77 miles as shown on the GOM. By conservatively driving - AC was in use most of the time ( 2 fan speed bars) - I now see 100 to 102 miles after a full L2 charging session. It took about 250 miles of careful driving to get the GOM number up over 100.

 

[nozferatu]

Is it possible that "gunning it" + over 105 deg. F + heavy AC & high fan speed caused the car's computer to make a sudden re-adjustment to your "Guess-O-Meter" range value?

When I picked up my used 2014 Spark EV 2LT a month ago it would only charge to 77 miles as shown on the GOM. By conservatively driving - AC was in use most of the time ( 2 fan speed bars) - I now see 100 to 102 miles after a full L2 charging session. It took about 250 miles of careful driving to get the GOM number up over 100.

Yes of course range will drop when gunning it....but I did so for about 3-4 seconds. But an almost 70 mile drop in range??? I doubt it very very much.

Clearly something else was going on.