What are the odds that a Spark with the message "Not able to charge" can be fixed?

[maybespark]

Looking at a cheap '14 Spark EV with 80k miles with that message. Seller claims they haven't pulled any codes and don't know what's wrong with it besides that code. Looking at the Carfax I believe it's out of warranty because it looks to have been purchased in 2013.

Wondering what's y'alls take on this situation? Chances of it being a fixable problem short of replacing a whole battery pack? I'm pretty handy on ICE vehicles, and have done more complicated repairs there. I would be happy with 30< mile range when it's all said and done.

 

[NORTON]

Somehow I would hope it's a glitch.
First step would be removing the Neg post on the 12V under the hood for a few minutes.
But don't do this with the owner there. You might fix it for him.

I kind of doubt the pack just died. It's probably a glitch in one of the boxes.
There is a youtube of an independent shop replacing the Onboard Charger. Might be others also.
But fixing it might be expensive at the dealer.
I have a '14 with 98k miles and it's doing great. The '14 had A123 cells and they age great!

Offer less than a $1000 and hope for the best....? .....! ....

Keep in touch !!

 

[maybespark]

Somehow I would hope it's a glitch.
First step would be removing the Neg post on the 12V under the hood for a few minutes.
But don't do this with the owner there. You might fix it for him.

I kind of doubt the pack just died. It's probably a glitch in one of the boxes.
There is a youtube of an independent shop replacing the Onboard Charger. Might be others also.
But fixing it might be expensive at the dealer.
I have a '14 with 98k miles and it's doing great. The '14 had A123 cells and they age great!

Offer less than a $1000 and hope for the best....? .....! ....

Keep in touch !!

What are your thoughts on a purchase price of 1.5k? I already offered before I saw your comment. worth the gamble?

 

[Porsche]

$1.5k? If he say OK, and you really can't fix it, and you're patient, you could part the car out for a LOT more

 

[maybespark]

Alright guys, I got the car! Only took all day!

The car runs and drives on it's own! Took it to a charging station and it gave the same "Not Able to Charge Message".
Battery voltage is very good, 12.7V+
Tried the disconnect lead acid battery and touch the pos+neg leads trick too, didn't make a difference.
On the small amounts of driving that I did I noticed there were intermittent messages like check stablitrak, and messages related to power steering. Sometimes it worked completely normally no messages.

Seems like it will be fixable! If you guys have any suggestions on what I should try, please let me know. My next steps are to get it to post messages and pull OBD codes (with the appropriate PIDS)

 

[maybespark]

I was able to get it to charge on 120v! But the option for amperage is --.-- so I can't change it to 12a from 8a! I think the negative battery terminal is loose? It seems like the charging started working after I wiggled it in a bit. Not sure

 

[ElDobro]

Does it still have the OEM 12V battery?

 

[maybespark]

Does it still have the OEM 12V battery?

I think so? AC Delco LN1AGM. Previous owner said he got it replaced when it got the vehicle at 29XXX in 2020. It does read 12.7v.

 

[ElDobro]

These cars are very picky about their 12V batteries. Mine was working fine one day and went belly up the next. I replaced it and it was like nothing happened.

 

[maybespark]

These cars are very picky about their 12V batteries. Mine was working fine one day and went belly up the next. I replaced it and it was like nothing happened.

Noted, this will be my next plan of attack if my research comes up with nothing.

Update for today:

I drove it around after fully charging. At first it says "propulsion rate reduced" but that went away after a bit of driving. Drove great! Very fun!

Check engine light was on, so I pulled codes. This is what I got: C1221, C1222, P1E79, P1FEE.

Even after clearing them and having the check engine light go away, these codes persisted. Time to do some research

EDIT: I guess I these codes are useless because I'm finding nothing on the internet. I think I'll need to install Torque with the vehicle specific PIDs.

 

[maybespark]

Another day, another update. Drove it a bunch since clearing, no codes have come up. No idea what the issue was that it wouldn't charge before. It's been working great and it's absolutely awesome to drive. Way more fun than my ICE vehicle.

 

[ZNuts]

Good luck! Seems you are having fun.

 

[xupthree60]

I would be interested in an update about this? Did you end up changing the battery?

I have some bad DC chargers around me, they used to be the only ones around and were free but would randomly disconnect while charging. Do it three times and it would say fast charging not available until I fully charge it off level 1 or 2 a couple times. If you didn't replace anything, I wonder if it had some issue while charging at level 1 or 2 that caused all this.

 

[Porsche]

So let me get this straight. When all is said and done, you just bought a nice 2014 Spark EV for only $1.5k, and all you had to do to fix it was ... charge it up and drive it for a while?

 

[sdsparkev]

I have a similar problem. Our 2016 spark ev (60k miles) ran fine for a couple years. Then, a couple months ago, I was nursing it home w 5 miles left on the guessometer and it gave a low battery warning and went dark. I rolled it in neutral into a lot. Towed home and it would not take a charge. Took to dealer and they put in a new agm and did some kind of ‘reset’. Drove fine.

Now, two months later, I’m nursing it home with 6 miles on the guesser and it does the same thing. ( I’m always about 400 yds from home when this happens). Got the minivan to push it home the rest of the way (wife is pissed). Codes are p0afa and p1e00. Message on center display is ‘not able to charge’. Agm had 12.4V no load. Put the trickle charged old agm back in w 12.8V. Nothing. Just long boot up, kind of hard to turn off and won’t charge w L2 in my garage. Still figuring out what to do…

 

[sdsparkev]

OK. I had it towed to the dealer. However, when it was getting loaded onto the tow truck, I saw this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUk3Un1HgP8 from Pink Caddy Garage

Service High-Voltage Charging System Error Message...Fix and Reset

This was for the chevy volt, but maybe it is relevant here. My coolant reservoir is completely empty. Why? I figured I'd send it to the dealer and see if they see a reason why there is no coolant like a leak or something. But from that video, that could be the reason the car is not letting me charge it. I'll post the findings (or not) and monetary losses (for sure) when the dust settles.

 

[sdsparkev]

Just wanted to update how Spark is doing. The dealer said the main hv voltage battery is dead. They didn't give me any other details. I'm not sure they totally know what happened to the battery, but they said they are replacing it. The new battery is on back-order. They don't know when a replacement will come in. They put me in a rental car (a gas chevy spark). With GM bogged down with chevy bolt battery replacements (I think there are 100-200,000 bolts) I guess my little spark EV is small potatoes, but maybe I'll be surprised.

Anyway, if you are trying to buy a spark that is dead, or won't take a charge, it might be a non-problem like the previous poster, but it might also need a new battery. Be careful if it is out of warranty (100,000, 8 years).

 

[RJ12]

These vehicles are very particular about their 12V batteries. Mine was fine one day and then failed the next. When I replaced it, it was as if nothing had happened.

 

[RJ12]

These vehicles are very particular about their 12V batteries. Mine was fine one day and then failed the next. When I replaced it, it was as if nothing had happened.