2016 CHEVROLET VOLT Complaints

Vehicle has been to dealership numerous times starting in 2021 to address issue with loss of power between ev and gas. No results were found, but I believe the BECM was failing for awhile. Vehicle has continued to lose power until this year check engine light came on. 12V battery was changed and no change. Dealership said vehicle was fixed. It barely made it home and light came back on. Loss of propulsion message. Vehicle loses all ev charge, will not go over 35 miles per hour, barely makes it up a hill. Brakes and steering are hard to control. Vehicle is not included by VIN for the BECM replacement. Dealership is now saying that is the problem. Dealership is quoting $2500 for the fix. This is very dangerous to drive this vehicle. You have no warning of when car is going to stop or lose power. This is a vehicle that was supposed to be for my teenagers to drive and it is not safe at all. This has been discussed numerous times at the dealership with no solution.

Car displayed a lower power mode on dashboard. Approximately 20 miles later car switched from gas mode to electrical battery mode. Fortunately there was some charge remaining in the battery that I was able to get off freeway and charge car for 3 hours to make the 30 miles home. Dealer thinks problem is a defective EGR valve and I am awaiting a part for this repair for 37 days and counting. The low power mode states it is limited to 35 KW of power but I was surprised when the engine cut off to battery mode. If I had used up the battery charge on the first portion of this trip I do not know how suddenly the car would have stopped on freeway.

While on the freeway, the instrument screen displayed a message about reduced propulsion power, then the check engine lit up. I pressed the gas pedal, but nothing happened. I took precautions and let it rolled over to the side of the road. I turned off the car and turned it back on, and I was able to put it in drive mode, but it still wouldn't move. I also tried reverse, but nothing happened there either. The car was completely disabled, so I had to call a tow truck to take it home.

The car has experienced a ‘BECM’ failure, which is very common on the Chevy volt. When it fails the car becomes undrivable and will slow down into reduced propulsion mode. It will not start and required us to have it towed to the dealer. The 2016-2019 Chevy volt BECM issue has been investigated by the nhtsa and gm. It is a common enough issue that gm has voluntarily issued ‘special coverage N232432680’. This covers the becm failure on 2016-2019 volts for free for up to 150k miles 10 years. We have a 2016 volt with 144k miles so we assumed it would be covered. The dealer said it wasn’t covered based on my vin but they didn’t know why our vin was left out of the coverage. Obviously if they thought our car didn’t have a suspect becm, they were wrong because it failed during the special coverage time. The repair is $2600 and gm will not assist us with this repair. I have attached a copy of gm special coverage and the bill. This seems to be a clerical error that our vin and maybe others were missed despite the fact our car falls right in the special coverage criteria. I believe this should be a full recall or 2016-2019 volts, especially if the becm has failed.

I'm driving a 2016 Chevy Volt in California that I bought in 2022 from Carmax. In the middle of driving on the highway, the error "Propulsion Power is reduced" alongside the check engine light. In the middle of driving on a highway at 65mi/h, I could not accelerate even though I floored the gas pedal and the car quickly decelerated. This is extremely dangerous especially in the middle of the highway. I had an auto shop look at it and they replaced a fuse and told me it was good to go. When I got it back, I though the problem was fixed but the issue came up again after only 1 week and had to take it to a different shop where I originally bought the car used at ~49k miles (CarMax). It took ~3 weeks before they were able to get it diagnosed at another auto shop. I received this email from them after diagnosis (attached file). A quick search on the internet and it seems a lot of people with this car is having the same issue. Everyone is also having issue with the EGR valve being backordered that is taking a couple months to over a year to get the parts in. Those people are resorting to unplugging the valve and driving as is. I don't want to have to do this either. Please see attached file for inspection report.

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.

The EGR valve failed, blew up a fuse, and the internal combustion engine started to overheat and run very roughly and unsteady. I almost lost control

The EGR valve in the 2016 Chevy volt will fail blowing fuse 3 which will also take out the engine oil pressure control solenoid, the evap emission purge solenoid valve, the engine coolant thermostat heater, and the oxygen sensor 1 as they all share the same fuse. The car will tell you that the engine is unavailable and, if you are out of hybrid battery power, will leave you unable to move the vehicle. In my particular situation it left me stranded blocking one lane on a two lane s-bend road on a 5-9% grade mountainside with no cellphone reception. Thankfully the car stopped far enough away from the previous bend that people had time to see me and I didn't get rear-ended. If I had stopped 20 feet sooner that likely would not have been the case. The replacement part for the EGR valve is impossible to find as it is back ordered everywhere and places that will let you back order it will try to charge $1927 just for the part (no installation service included). If you live in a state without emission checks then you can unplug the EGR valve and replace the fuse but that means your producing more pollutants. Until GM gets their act together and offers affordable replacement parts I don't see another alternative.

EGR valve failed. When switched from Battery to gas car stalled and we were stuck. Dealer said it needs a new EGR valve. But it was on back order. This was a year ago and Chevy still claims the part is on back order! Now the car is ready to renew registration. But it cannot pass inspection because it must have been driven on gas for many miles for the inspection to work! The part is obviously no longer available and Chevy has not offered a solution.

Fuse #3 shorts out every time the engine changes from electric power to gas. We have been told this can be dangerous because this fuse controls several important systems in the car.