BOLT DEAD - REPLACING BATTERY...They should REPLACE THE CAR!

[markbolt11]

There's a thread on this forum tracking how many members are actual Bolt owners. I think we've reached something like 30 or 40. And I think we have two owners who have reported dead Bolts. Let's call it 2 of 50. That's 4% of Bolts dying in the first three months.

Why do I get the feeling the Bolt won't get very good grades from JD Power or Consumer Reports?

This makes no sense. People who join forums are usually either people who are big fans or people with problems. As people with problems are going to be far more vocal than a regular person, they're going to stick out more.

My left mirror blind zone alert is acting weird. It's the only Bolt I've driven, so that's 1/1, right? 100% of Bolts will have this issue!

 

[dandrewk]

There's a thread on this forum tracking how many members are actual Bolt owners. I think we've reached something like 30 or 40. And I think we have two owners who have reported dead Bolts. Let's call it 2 of 50. That's 4% of Bolts dying in the first three months.

Why do I get the feeling the Bolt won't get very good grades from JD Power or Consumer Reports?

This makes no sense. People who join forums are usually either people who are big fans or people with problems. As people with problems are going to be far more vocal than a regular person, they're going to stick out more.

My left mirror blind zone alert is acting weird. It's the only Bolt I've driven, so that's 1/1, right? 100% of Bolts will have this issue!

Agreed. People who had/have issues with their Bolt are almost always going to post about it somewhere. Those who have had zero issues are not nearly as proactive.

 

[evboy]

I was very happy with my new Chevy Bolt until a week ago when I received a cryptic text from my car telling me an error had occurred. OnStar then sent a diagnostic email that a critical error had occurred. When I got into the vehicle to drive to work that morning the indicator gauge showed almost full charge but range said 10 miles (I had driven just fine the day before with about 150 miles of range left when parked in drive way). The service vehicle light was on so figured I would see if I could drive to dealer...NO GO. Attempting to shift the transmission into anything other than Neutral or Park resulted in a beep and a error in the cluster saying roughly "Incorrect conditions to shift". I had the vehicle towed to the dealer and was given a loaner (gas Malibu). It has been there all week and I have just received notice that GM has indicated that the battery needs to be replaced...they are sending a battery....will take a couple days to install once it arrives could be another 2 weeks. All of this is being covered under warrantee. I have contacted Chevrolet asking for replacement. I paid for a brand new car NOT a car that within a month would require major repair by the dealer. So far they claim that nothing else can be done...UNACCEPTABLE!
Has anyone else seen similar issues?

Do you have any musical talent? If so, you can make a video like the following guy did with millions of hits and they will send u 2 new cars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

 

[stevewa]

...That is an assembly line where specialized techs focus on their respective tasks (thank you Henry Ford). The disassemble and replacement of my battery will not look like that. This will be done by one or 2 dealer techs who may or may not have been trained and are now doing their first Bolt battery replacement. If the dealer or GM want to prove to me that experienced techs will do the work then that would be great. But it doesn't change the fact, Chevy gave me a defective car right out of the gate. There is a simple way to set this right. If they want the car to study and make sure it doesnt happen to anybody else then have at it...I simply want what was promised.

Frankly I think replacing the entire battery pack is a good deal for you compared with what might have happened. They could have instructed the dealer to troubleshoot individual components inside the pack for service, for instance.

As far as "diagnosing" car problems these days most technicians' skillset consists of pulling a code, looking the code up, and doing what the service manual says to do. The actual code (or combination of codes) tend to be the extent of what can be determined short of some major component failure where the magic smoke gets let out. The systems involved are simply too complicated, even if you get the rare tech with "calibrated eyeballs"...

Mind you, I'm sure that battery will go back to Michigan for a complete tear-down and failure analysis.

Replacing parts (even major ones) is well within what the systems and processes in a manufacturer are capable of. Replacing entire units with serial numbers or VINs is a major exception in the process, and would probably take you longer than getting your current car fixed would. Basically, GM would have to buy your car from you (you bought it from the dealer, not from GM), then pay the dealer to sell you a new one. All your financing would have to be re-done (it all has the old vehicle's VIN on it) as well as insurance, title, license, etc. If you're in CA, I'm guessing you get to pay tax and registration again, too!

I know of very few cases where a manufacturer has come out and replaced a vehicle wholesale. One instance I can think of is some of the early Tennessee manufactured LEAFs had a mis-welded front suspension member that would have been so difficult to repair they simply replaced the cars. In this case, it was a major safety issue (the front end could have detached from the rest of the car!) and a federally mandated recall would have happened in any case. In your car's case, the battery is a component that was designed to be replaced as a service item.

 

[evboy]

The charging unit on my 2014 chevy spark ev went out a few days ago. They are sending the dealer a whole charging unit brand new. Im happy with that. all under warranty. They cant troubleshoot it like you said. Just send everything new.

 

[boltage]

I know of very few cases where a manufacturer has come out and replaced a vehicle wholesale. One instance I can think of is some of the early Tennessee manufactured LEAFs had a mis-welded front suspension member that would have been so difficult to repair they simply replaced the cars. In this case, it was a major safety issue (the front end could have detached from the rest of the car!) and a federally mandated recall would have happened in any case. In your car's case, the battery is a component that was designed to be replaced as a service item.

An older example of replacing the entire car was when some early Saturn S-series cars had the cooling systems filled with incorrect coolant at the factory. They replaced the entire cars. That got good press and customer goodwill for GM's then-new Saturn brand, although it may not have been that much more expensive than replacing engines and cooling systems of the affected cars.

A Bolt battery is probably easier to replace with less chance of error than many other major car repairs, due to it being a mostly flat pack on the bottom of the car.

 

[peteblair]

This video makes it appear that the install is pretty straight forward. None of the drive components would be affected, just whatever is under the battery to cover/protect it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67jJ90cacV0

Of all of the major components I would be the least concerned about the battery install being messed up. The body is shaped around it. The mount points should be pretty simple. Interface points for the electrical wires and coolant lines should all be simple.

I get being pissed your new car has to get work, lost time in the car, etc.

I just don't think you should be that concerned with the dealer technicians installing it, they do a lot of much more complicated jobs than installing a giant battery. I would also bet that dealer is going to have their very best techs being the ones doing it since it is a new model. They will want their most experienced techs doing it to get the experience so they can teach others. Those master mechanics do transmission rebuilds and other ridiculously complicated stuff without issue, they can replace a battery.

I bought a Mustang back in 2002 and ended up getting one with a cracked engine block. Of course that meant a whole new engine, I didn't even blink about the dealer techs doing that. Doing an entire ICE engine replacement is much more complicated that replacing the battery in the Bolt.

 

[Dreaderus]

And I thought I was entitled lol.

if they fix it so it works like new, what does the rest of the car have to do with this?

If they have some gimp fix it and its not done professionally complain.

 

[oilerlord]

Yeah, sucks but they aren't going to replace the car unless Lemon Law circumstances force them to. I do empathize, but would also suggest that people that buy EV's (especially all-new models) are essentially beta testers. It's probably small comfort in knowing that your car's failure will help to make Bolt V1.1 better - but the truth is, that's part of the process in the evolution of electric cars.

 

[evboy]

quit ya whining. u are getting a new pack. it looks like i could install it from that video. u have a 8 year warranty on it anyway.

 

[flamaest]

GM will come through. That is what you are REALLY buying when you bought a Bolt; a big company which will back up it's product. It sucks that this happened but at least the failure happened in your driveway and not in the middle of nowhere.

That being said, I also think this is not totally wrong:

""
My concern is that a dealer technician who is probably going to be doing their first battery replacement, which will require removing significant components to get the battery out, will be doing the work.
""

 

[Sqwalker]

Mark, my left mirror blind spot is acting weird as well, and has so from the day I purchased it two months ago. After driving for a little bit, the blind spot will illuminate for about 30 seconds or so, even though there's no car in my left lane. It eventually starts working correctly, but then will suddenly illuminate again at various points along the way. The right mirror works perfectly.

Did you ever get your blind spot fixed? I plan on making an appointment with Chevy soon to address this.