Equipment Problems of Chevrolet Volt - part 1

While driving 50mph on a 4 lane highway, propulsion reduced speed and engine unavailable message came on and the car immediately shut down, a car almost hit me because of it. I had to hurry up jump out and try and push it off the road out of oncoming traffic! after about 15 minutes of turning car off and then back on. It finally started again, I then drove 1/4 mile and it did it again this time as turning left across a 2 lane highway with traffic oncoming, once again had to hurry up and jump out and push it out of the road! this was such an extremely scary situation for me and I thank god my wife wasn’t driving with our daughter and grand kids! this is the 2nd time because on 8/1/2025 it did the same thing while driving on a major 4 lane toll road, was able to pull off to side of the highway but had to be towed home!.

See all problems of the 2014 Chevrolet Volt 🔎.

On [xxx], our 2018 chevy Volt experienced a critical becm (battery energy control module) failure while being driven by our [xxx] daughter. The failure caused the vehicle to enter limp mode, resulting in a severe loss of power and the inability to shift properly. Most alarmingly, the brakes failed to function correctly—despite being fully engaged, the car continued to move forward at a red light, placing our daughter in immediate danger. She was only able to safely stop the vehicle by maneuvering it off the road into a parking lot. This becm defect is a well-documented issue for chevy Volts from 2016 to 2018. However, Chevrolet has refused to cover our VIN under the existing special service bulletin, despite our vehicle using the same faulty part number as those included in the recall, and has provided no explanation for this exclusion. As a result, we are being forced to pay $2,100 out of pocket to replace a part that gm knows is defective. This is an unacceptable financial burden for a safety-critical issue. Gm should immediately issue a recall for all vehicles equipped with this faulty part number to ensure the safety of all drivers and prevent further undue costs. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

See all problems of the 2018 Chevrolet Volt 🔎.

I was attempting to purchase this vehicle from payless used car sales in anchorage alaska. I noticed odometer discrepancies between the mechanic reported odometer in 2022 and the present odometer in 2025. The 2022 reported odometer was 60000, and now in 2025 it is 47000. When I made this concern to the salesman he asked me to leave. I left and won’t consider purchasing from this dealership in the future.

See all problems of the 2017 Chevrolet Volt 🔎.

While driving northbound on a freeway downhill, my vehicle suddenly lost power and displayed a "shift to park" message while still in motion. I was unable to accelerate, and the engine became unresponsive. The vehicle began coasting with no power, creating a dangerous situation. A semi-truck was in the lane next to me, and a car was behind me — I nearly got into an accident while trying to safely exit the roadway. This is the second report I’ve made regarding the same issue. The unexpected "shift to park" malfunction while driving is a serious safety concern that needs immediate attention.

I am submitting this complaint regarding a recurring and potentially hazardous issue in my Chevrolet Volt 2017. The vehicle frequently displays a “shift to park” warning message even when the gear shifter is correctly in the park position. This malfunction prevents the car from shutting off properly, posing both safety and operational concerns. This issue is widely reported among Chevrolet Volt owners, and general motors has acknowledged it in technical service bulletin (TSB 19-na-206). Despite this, no formal recall has been issued to ensure a permanent solution for affected drivers. My Volt currently has 138000miles, and although it is outside of the Voltec warranty period, this is clearly a manufacturer defect—not a result of normal wear and tear. The problem affects the safe operation of the vehicle and may lead to battery drain, inability to power down the car, and driver confusion. I strongly urge the national highway traffic safety administration (NHTSA) to investigate this issue and consider initiating a recall to protect drivers and ensure accountability. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

Becm is broken. Not covered under special warranty but have been told the pzev warranty would cover it. Dealer & gm will not even discuss covering it. This should not be a VIN specific fix as the part is identical in all 2016-2018 chevy Volts.

When moving the shifter to the "p" position after parking, the car will refuse to turn off with the message on the dash: "action needed: shift to park". Shifter is in park position but car will not recognize this and does not turn off. The issue can sometimes be resolved by pressing the shifter knob button repeatedly, or by pulling the shifter all the way back to drive and forth to park multiple times until the message is cleared. This happens about 4/10 times that I drive, there is currently a bulletin posted by chevy for a fix. However, the fix is only covered under a "warranty" and the chevy repair center at the dealership quoted $400 to complete the repair out of warranty.

Passenger presence detection system is malfunctioning, and causing a "service airbag" warning. This is a huge safety issue that could be detrimental or deathly in the event of an accident. This is a common issue among generation 1 Volt owners, and should be considered for a recall or warranty coverage. The passenger presence detection system parts are discontinued, and even if I found the part the dealership cannot confirm for the pricey repair, that the airbag / sensor will not simply malfunction again -- which makes this a persistent safety concern and huge owner inconvenience to say the least.

See all problems of the 2012 Chevrolet Volt 🔎.

Propulsion power reduced and car had trouble breaking and would stall for a moment. Will not let me use the ev range even though the ev battery is at fully charge.

The Volt experienced a "shift to park" error, preventing it from recognizing when it was in park, even when the gearshift was engaged. While this issue was frustrating, it initially didn’t affect the car’s driving capability. I simply had to wiggle the gearshift until the system registered that it was in park. This problem persisted for a month until one day, the vehicle would no longer shift into any mode, though the "shift to park" message remained on the dashboard. The car turned on but would not accelerate. The issue was eventually repaired at the dealership, a process that took about two weeks. During this time, we were not initially offered a rental car. It was only after we called and insisted that the dealership provided one while waiting for the necessary parts. This issue appeared to be a factory defect. While part of the repair was covered under warranty, we still had to pay $685 out of pocket.

When shifted into park, persistent error message that car was not in park. Unable to shut off the car despite numerous manipulations of shift. Few similar preceeding incidents were resolved by shift to drive then back to park. Goes to dealer tomorrow. Car running endlessly is dangerous. What if I could not stay with the car, or the car was on the local ferry. No one has inspected it yet. First time problem occured was in November 2024. Most recent more serious problem occured Friday. I am afraid to use the car since, and have not driven it since.

See all problems of the 2019 Chevrolet Volt 🔎.

Been having issues with the dealership sierra chevy of monrovia. Brake fluid light came on. My car has been at the dealer for over two months now in counting. Closer to 3 months. First time was in July 24, 2024 for a check engine light. Fast forward to today Nov 19th, 2025. The car has been back at the dealer for the same issue the brake fluid light. Its now almost past 2 weeks. I have talked to the service manager and advisor a week ago. They told me they are having issues finding where the leak is coming from after having my vehicle there the past month. So I told them it was fine for the mechanic to drive the vehicle and figure it out. Now its almost another week and the service manager and advisor are not responding to my calls and texts. Left the service manager 2 voicemails already. Please help me get my car fixed and back to me. Service manager told me he would help me out with a rental since its a reoccurring issues . No communication from the dealership at all. No one is responding. After they claim to have fixed my vehicle the issue came back in less than a week. Dropped my car at the dealership on Nov 6th, 2024. Scared my vehicle's brakes will fail! its still under warranty. Dont want the car back till its fixed properly. Just want my vehicle to be fixed.

•vehicle lost power while driving on the highway at speed. The vehicle would not run with gas engine power or ev charge basically died on the road in traffic. After coming to a stop safely but not without some close calls vehicle would not start even with car having fuel of two types in it. •the battery charge would not register, and the car would not start for a little while. Display showed nothing and was only making a dinging sound. Around half hour later the vehicle started, and I drove it to my home and parked it. I have not been driving it as it seems like a safety concern with the battery system and not feeling reliable. I had tried to charge it after the initial event and it did not charge. I did only a little research on cost for battery issues and the cost made me very put off even looking at the car. The car has been sitting sense August of last year. I took the car into a gm repair shop a week ago and the shop told me that the becm module is weak. I looked this up and found that there is a lot of people having the same issue! also, there are 19000 cars just like mine who got a recall or special coverage. I am told I don’t meet the requirements for the coverage even though my car has the issues. They say my VIN is not on the list, clearly this special coverage did not go far enough. There appears to be some gaps in the coverage of this issue there are tons of people having this issue a full recall should be investigated and enacted there is clearly a problem that should be addressed. The fact that most cases do not happen when the car is running seem to put this on everyone’s back burner but people are being harmed financially while gm uses loop holes to not address an issue that could cost people there time, hard earned money, lost wages, even there life if this malfunction causes accidents. There was and is clearly enough to warrant action. Letting gm get away with a half hearted attempted at fixing this is a crime.

See all problems of the 2016 Chevrolet Volt 🔎.

Egr valve failed while driving on the freeway. Loss power. Check engine light on. Propulsion power reduced. It is safety and emissions related.

I was driving on the highway when suddenly the car lost power, it was very dangerous. I had to glide to the side of the road. The car will not move forward or back after I stopped, it had to be towed.

Egr valve short circuit caused f3fuse to blow causing engine light to go on and propulsion reduced power warning. The f3 fuse affects 4-5 other systems.

Shift to park issue. Known issue with 2018 Volts but dealer is charging diagnostic fee when they know it is the issue because it displays shift to park when you try to shut car off. There is a bulletin stating this 19-na-206. It states the Voltec warranty covers this but dealer states it is not. Dealer is west herr chevy, east syracuse. Had to wait two weeks with the problem and then they left me stranded at the dealer ship because they did not fix it. This dealer had computer issues and sent service home early and left me without a ride home when I returned. Gm needs to notify these dealerships that this problem is covered.

Three incidents in the last few weeks. My 2017 chevy Volt today has about 84,000 miles. First incident, while driving on an interstate at about 50 mph I suddenly lose ability to accelerate. There was some beeping, dashboard turns yellow, I get a low fuel warning and I cannot accelerate. I pull over on interstate. Re-start vehicle and car restarts. Second incident, driving about 20 mph leaving a neighborhood. I have 4 passengers, all kids. The same exact error happens. I’m unable to accelerate though I’m pushing down on gas, fuel light turns yellow. Low fuel light. I pull over. I restart vehicle. Car starts normally. Car goes into shop. Chevy dealership says it’s the catalytic converter. About a week later, 3rd incident. Entering highway at about 60 mph, trying to accelerate and merge into traffic doing 70 mph. I cannot accelerate past 60 mph, I hear the beeps, fuel gauge turns yellow, low fuel warning. Check engine light turns on. Several days prior to this, I had a low propulsion error on dashboard momentarily. But it went away when I restarted vehicle. Safety of myself, passengers and other drivers were out at risk as there was no warning that I would lose ability to accelerate. There was a no fuel warning but my gas tank was mostly full.

Vehicle propolusion reduced and engine not available messages were suddenly showing. Check engine light turned on. Suddenly stalled/stopped in the middle of highway. Safety concerns.

When attempting to power down car after shifting into park, message states shift to park. Car cannot be locked or secured.

2016 chevy Volt started to not shut off with the message that car needed to shift to park. Car is just over 100,000 miles (104,000) spent a few weeks jiggling shifter to get car turned off then made an appointment at platinum chevy of santa rosa. While waiting we researched the issue to find that the shift to park is a known issue and the Volt has in fact been named in a class action suit. Am currently at crossroad as I cannot get gm to stand behind their product. It’s taken four calls and an escalation to management to find out that they may offer a percentage to fix the problem but because we’re out of warranty it is a customer problem. So, to cap it off, gm has sold us a vehicle with a known safety issue with no recall and will not fix their problem.

My 2018 chevy Volt has experienced the gm knows becm issue. There are several Volt owners that have experienced this issue. I would like to bring this to the attention for gm to post a recall/mandatory service repair as my car stopped working, would not start, was displaying false information on the electrical module, etc. Issue: 1. Car would not start 2. Battery stated fully charged with solid green light but display showed only 1 electric mile available 3. Tried to shift car to reverse press gas nothing happened 4. Tried to shift car to drive press gas nothing happened. 5. Car engine light is on 6. Utter confusion as stress as I’m stranded with no way to get my car working 7. Chevy dealership has had my car for one week now with the only update of ordered becm module. No eta on when this will be fixed 8. No indication of what caused the issue.

Battery failure is still under warranty but they don’t make batteries any more.

While driving, an engine warning "reduced propulsion message" came on. Then it said " engine unavailable". The car would not go to gas engine. We panicked as we were 20mi from home and only had a few miles of electric left. I was able to drive to the nearest Chevrolet dealership. It has been sitting there parked for 2 months. Uncharged. We are told that the problem is the egr valve but no part is available anywhere. It is a known problem but gm has no parts available to fix. I am not getting any answer as to how long it may take to get the part. Meanwhile, I am without a vehicle. I only have approx 25,000 on the car. We have not been given a replacement car or been given any clear response from gm or the dealership as to how long this may take to locate a part.

Failure of the becm and “shift to park” message. The vehicle will spontaneously produce a shift to park message when starting up the vehicle and turning it off. The vehicle will also show a 0 mile ev range and use the engine where a message saying “propulsion power reduced”. This will also cause the car to shut off randomly. The vehicle has not been inspected by a shop or the dealership. There is no warning or message when this happen. Check engine will appear once the vehicle has these issues.

Vehicle is 2018 Chevrolet Volt with approx 91000 miles, purchased new in California with both pzev and Voltec warranties in place. Vehicle produced mil in December, in colorado, with exterior temperatures ~30 degrees, after attempting to remote start. The resulting onstar codes p1aee, p1aef, and p0ac4 indicating "the electric propulsion system is not performing as expected. Please service immediately. " drove the vehicle to the nearest dealership assuming there could be an unexpected loss of power. Identified pic6285b as trouble shooting aid for the dealership. The dealership stated they contacted their gm tac representative and the service foreman and tac agreed the vehicle needed a transmission flush. No indication that the work would be covered by the bulletin found. Customer contacted Chevrolet ev advisor and confirmed vehicle did not qualify for any warranty as the diagnostics indicated a category 4 issue associated with the bulletin but the repairs required were a transmission flush. This was contrary to the published bulletin, other customer reports, as well as the specific dtcs expected. Customer believes diagnostics would be covered by bulletin or warranty given a repair was identified based on the trouble codes that were pulled. Dealership and gm did not agree with customers belief. Customer forced to pay in order to recover vehicle after 1 week.

All of a sudden while braking on a freeway offramp, the check engine light came on and a reduced propulsion warning came on my screen. The car ran weird for about a day, then it wouldn't start. I had it towed to a dealer, they diagnosed the becm went bad, now my car has been there 2. 5 weeks and there's no estimated ship date for the part, much less repair date. If they said they had enough parts for becm failures, they're either lying to you or they're lying to me.

I am getting "shift to park" error when turning off vehicle. Vehicle does not shut off--problem is defect in the transmission and apparently this is fairly common defect yet there is no recall???.

My 2018 chevy Volt was at a Chevrolet dealership in burbank and they have been running tests on my car to re-create the problem which they have not been able to do. On November 8th my car suddenly stopped and shakes violently after I turned it on after about driving 15 feet, and my screen was telling me “engine not available, service needed soon” so I got it towed to the dealership (no prior warning signs on dash or anything). On November 15th they told me they were not able to find the fix or recreate it and also said “this is definitely very rare. Drive it around and bring it back in if it happens again” which felt like they really didn’t care for my safety at all. On December 4th, the same exact problem happened with my car, “engine not available, service needed soon”and shook violently (my girlfriend witnessed it) after 100 yards of driving it and then towed my car back to the dealership. On December 27th, 23 days later, the chevy dealership calls to tell me they still haven’t been able to recreate the problem or find a solution again. I haven’t been able to drive my car this whole time. I have had a case open with gm this whole time where they have been extremely spotty on communication and pretty much just ignoring me the alot of the time. They called me on Saturday, Dec. 30th @ 8:29 am (when they’re “closed”) to tell me their solution but I missed the call, I called Monday and Tuesday but can’t get in contact with my advisor until finally Wednesday, I call and they are able to connect me and they gave me a final solution on Jan. 3rd of $1500 off a new gm brand car so they weren’t in any rush to contact me about the final solution. They should repurchase the car from me and pay for damages. Car feels extremely unsafe and there should at least be some type of diagnosis… Chevrolet cant fix their own cars, unreal!!!!.

During a drive the car began warning of loss of propulsion. The vehicle is at a dealer waiting for repair since oct 16, 2023. There is no eta on back ordered egr valve that the technician anticipates a fix.

My 2018 Volt had a reduced propulsion power message and stopped running on its ice in early oct 2023 and because the battery was dead the vehicle wouldn't run at all. The next day 10-3-23 I was able to charge the battery and then brought the vehicle to the dealer for diagnosis. The problem seems to be with the egr valve and the dealer ordered one at that time. It's been 3 1/2 months and there is no sign of the part. The car is only usable for its 55 mile all electric range which is often not enough but our family by borrowing cars and getting taxi rides and taking buses. This is by most measures unacceptable.

On 2023/09/09, my check engine light came on, and my car showed a "reduced propulsion" warning. As I continued to drive home, the car later began overheating, requiring me to reduce speed & stop frequently to let the car cool down. The local Chevrolet dealership diagnosed it as a failed egr valve that caused the "non walk home" fuse to blow, which also disables the car's engine coolant thermostat heater (hence the overheating). Also three months later, this part is still on backorder with no estimated time of delivery.

My car is demonstrating a "shift to park" error when I put it in park, which means I cannot turn off the vehicle fully. I am concerned I will be stuck somewhere if this issue is not fixed. It appears to be a known problem at gm and they irregularly cover it under warranty. It should be a recall issue that is fixed for free because it is a problem.

I purchased this vehicle from east bay BMW in pleasanton, CA on April 8, 2023. On August 28, 2023, to September 4, 2023, I began to receive messages on the dashboard stating shift to park. The shift lever was in park but was not registering this. I had to wiggle the shift lever to get the message to go away and be able to turn my vehicle off. On September 5, 2023, I had the same issue but this time no matter what I did the message would not go away and I was not able to turn my car off for 10 minutes. On September 5, 2023, I called the dealership and spoke with jonathan kumar -the service advisor who told me he would need to speak with his colleagues and get back to me. As of today September 5, 2023. I have no solution to this problem and cannot drive this vehicle for fear I won't be able to have it recognized when it is in park.

The egr valve in my Volt suddenly failed with no warning while driving 70 mph on the highway. I had to pull over before the engine overheated and I stopped on the side of interstate in a very tight shoulder on a curve with traffic and semi trucks passing by very closely. I’ve now been waiting over one year for repair as Chevrolet is unable to make this part for a repair that is still covered under warranty. Very disappointed and I hope this report will help push a larger message through that Chevrolet is being irresponsible with making parts for the needed warranty repairs.