Becm failure Car suddenly stopped driving and or starting Had to have it towed home

- Rosemead, CA, USA

On [XXX] the check engine light turned on in my 2016 Chevy Volt (VIN: [XXX] miles 145, xxx). I was 2 hours from home in the freezing cold snow but thankfully the vehicle allowed me to drive home without any issues (no reduced propulsion power). When I returned to the vehicle to have a diagnostic check the error light disappeared and I was unable to check for error codes. Still no issues driving under EV/gasoline. Later that day, the car stopped going completely, no shifting out of park either. EV range was reporting 0 miles despite having full charge. I plugged in the charger but it would not work (first time this happened), " Not able to Charge" message displayed. After cycling power the EV range was full range and I was able to shift into drive again. These issues were intermittent over 3 weeks, frequently standing me temporarily. After cycling power, opening and closing the door, cycling power again, the car would function normally and I could drive under battery or gasoline power. I managed to capture these error codes while the MIL light was on: U2603, U2604, U2605, U2606, U2617, U2618, U2619, U2620, U2621, U2622, U2623, U2624 [XXX] my vehicle no longer drives or shifts out of park, "Not able to charge" message displayed, CEL light on. A class action lawsuit revealed a technical service bulletin 18-NA-261 released in 2018 (see attached) accusing GM of continuing support of the known faulty module. The result of the case was Special Coverage Bulletin N232432680 which acknowledges and addresses the above mentioned issues by replacing a faulty BECM common to ALL Chevy Volt models years 2016-2018. My VIN is EXCLUDED from coverage due to being a CARB compliant vehicle despite exhibiting the same behaviors, error codes, and sharing the same faulty BECM. Of the 60,000 Volts sold in 2016-2018, only 19,000 (~33%) qualify under the special coverage terms. 100% of the vehicles that qualify for coverage are NON-CARB compliant. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552

- West Hills, CA, USA

BECM failure leaving car stranded in traffic with no ability to move under its own power.

- Mankato, MN, USA

Vehicle had the Battery Energy Control Module fail at about 87,000 miles. Vehicle will not start and will leave you stranded when this happens. This is a known defect and GM issued a special coverage to extend the warranty for this specific component, but for some reason only applies to a handful of VINs. Mine was not one of them, so I got stuck with a $2500 repair bill. I love the car and am not mad that they are breaking, engineering is hard. I am mad that even after a requirement from the NHTSA, Chevy is refusing to repair a known defect with their vehicles that can leave the owner stranded and is making the owners foot the several thousand-dollar repair bill. This was my first Chevy, and due to the poor way this has been handled, probably my last.

- Palm Bay, FL, USA

The contact owns a 2016 Chevrolet Volt. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the check engine warning light illuminated. The contact used a scanner and retrieved DTC: U2603-U2606 and U2607-U2622. The dealer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was scheduled for an upcoming diagnostic test. The vehicle was not yet diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or the dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was filed. The failure mileage was approximately 95,000.

- Brookville, MA, USA

Car lost power in 02/2024, was taken to dealer. Issue was not addressed properly. 12/2024 the car would not move, towed to dealer, estimate $2000 to replace becm, know issue for these vehicles.

- Lancaster, PA, USA

My experience is proof for the investigation on -??loss of motive power, including a stall, reduced power state, and/or a no-start condition due to the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM).-?? My safety and the safety of others were affected because the reduced engine propulsion caused me to drive at a max speed of around 50 mph, and eventually the car left my stranded a few weeks later when it would not start at all in a parking lot. The gas engine would run at an extremely high RPM to make up for the failure of battery propulsion. The dealer covered the work under warranty. The work was performed during the pandemic chip shortage in 2022 and my car was at the dealership for two months from about August to October. The check engine light would come on sporadically before the problem started, and when the failure would occur, I would get a -??Propulsion reduced-?? message in the driver screen and the gas engine would kick on to an extremely high RPM even when the car should have been running on battery. Accelerating from a stop to a normal speed would sound like you are flooring down the accelerator to get on a highway on-ramp. I no longer have the paperwork to confirm this, but it was performed at the Fort Collins (Colorado) Dellenbach Chevrolet dealer, it may be possible for me to get the paperwork, but I no longer live in Colorado. The process went all the way up to corporate Chevrolet before the warranty was honored, and I was compensated with company points.

- Edgewater, MD, USA

Shift to park message & audible alarm. Display while in motion pulling into home driveway. Vehicle stalled midway while in motion. Halfway in the street & half driveway. Displaying propulsion power reduced & Engine not available service soon. After 30 minutes of starting & restarting was able to move out of the street. However vehicle will NOT move. Transmission will shift, however will not move. Shift to park keeps popping up.

- Reno, NV, USA

The contact owns a 2016 Chevrolet Volt. The contact stated that while starting and driving at an undisclosed speed, the "Reduced Propulsion" message was displayed. Additionally, after parking the vehicle, the "Shift To Park" message was displayed, and the vehicle failed to turn off. The contact pressed the Start/Stop button and then opened and closed the front driver's side door to turn off the vehicle. The vehicle later failed to charge and start as needed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was determined that the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) needed to be replaced; however, the part was on backorder. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. The failure mileage was approximately 83,574. The VIN was unavailable.

- Orangevale, CA, USA

My 2016 Chevrolet Volt loses power while driving and the "propulsion power reduced" warning message appears. This has happened multiple times in the past few weeks and it is very dangerous losing power while traveling. After taking it to a Chevy dealer for service, they advised that it was an internal failure of the BECM (battery energy control module) and that it would need replaced. After searching online it appears that this is a common issue with the Chevy Volt models from 2016 - 2019. So much so that GM extended a special warranty to cover this failure up to 15yrs and 150,000 miles. Unfortunately for reasons I still don't understand, I was informed that my vehicle is not covered under this special warranty despite it specifically being the year and model that is affected. My vehicle currently has 93k miles and was purchased in 2016. So I am just outside the original 8 year 100k mile warranty but thought I was covered under this new special coverage given that this is an issue that GM is clearly aware of. I was also shocked to find out that there apparently was never a recall for this issue. My wife and child normally take this vehicle across town at highway speeds and I'm lucky the issue only happened to me. I fear for those who brought their vehicles and are not aware of the issue and will be told that theirs isn't covered as well.

- Pickerington, OH, USA

Took the car in for service to Simi Valley Chevrolet on 8/16/2023 due to the check engine light illuminated on dashboard. They determined that the EGR valve had internally shorted so they unplugged it so as not to take down the rest of the system and placed a special order for the valve. It has now been over one year and they still don't have the replacement part. The car runs rough and occasionally stalls and sputters. I'm concerned that the car could stall while driving and is unsafe.

- Port Hueneme, CA, USA

Driving to work one morning, I noticed an engine light with a "Propulsion Power Reduced" on my 2016 Chevy Volt. Upon closer arrival to work, the car was behaving quite erratically with constant "Propulsion Power Reduced" errors on the dash. The A/C stopped blowing cold and immediately fogged up the front window, making me unable to see the road. After arriving at work, I could smell what could be described as a burning electrical smell coming from the vehicle, although no fires were seen. Upon checking diagnostic codes, the car had a list of codes pointing to the failure of the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM.) I researched the issue and discovered "N232432680 - Special Coverage Battery Energy Control Module Malfunction" listed by GM and the NHTSA. My Chevy Volt is within the model years (2016-18) and mileage (<150,000) for the special coverage warranty from March 2024. Upon checking with the local GM dealer, they said that my VIN is not included in the special coverage and I must pay out of pocket, even though I have the exact problem described in the warranty and my Volt satisfies other conditions (model year and mileage). I am scheduling a service appointment this week with the local dealer to formally diagnose and repair the issue.

- Weaverville, NC, USA

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.

- Gilbert, AZ, USA

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.

- New Carlisle, OH, USA

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.

- Arlington, VA, USA

The BECM has failed and causes a reduction in engine power. There is a Special Coverage N232432680 for this issue. Dealership Service Center is saying my car doesn-??t qualify based on the VIN, even though it matches the year, make, and model on the Special Coverage. GM is failing to cover the issue despite it matching everything on the Special Coverage.

- Beaumont, CA, USA

I was driving in clear weather (with my ICE engine as propulsion) when an Engine Warning Fault light appeared on my dash and the vehicle slowed to 5mph with no response from the throttle pedal. I pulled into a parking lot, had the vehicle towed to an independent service shop, and had them check the codes. There were a dozen faults stored, but they found the 'Non Walk Home' fuse had blown, and faults pointed to the EGR Valve as having faulty electronics. They could not find an EGR valve for sale so they unplugged the EGR Valve and replaced the fuse, which allowed the engine to drive normally again, but with the Check Engine Light on at all times. I called my local Chevy dealer and they told me the EGR I needed was Part Number 12691147 for $243, but they were backordered and there were dozens of people in front of me for their dealer alone. Now, 11 months later, I'm still waiting on the part, I have found hundreds of other Volt owners online with the same issue, and the Part Number has been changed by GM to 19436113, with a price increase of 1100% to $2642. And the part is still not available because of "high demand" on a car that was discontinued five years ago.

- Gregory, MI, USA

Started vehicle with > 50mi on the EV-range. Pulled out onto road, stopped at red light. Now showed 0mi and refused to move when pressing the gas (did not fail over to gas on series PHEV) Garbage truck coming up behind me had to swerve to avoid rear-ending me as I was frantically trying to start the car. Kept saying 'shift to park' (condition required to start the vehicle) Took several minutes and 20+ tries before I got it to start (GAS engine) and was able to proceed. Car keeps randomly dropping to 0mi EV range. Has refused ot start on occasion. All symptoms align with the N232432680 bulletin but GM saying my car isn't covered"?"

- Saline, MI, USA

I bought the car new in 2015 and after about only 40,000 miles I began getting a Propulsion Reduced error and the car would have very slow acceleration. I took it to the dealer and they replaced the accelerator for $500. It drove fine for a month, but then the acceleration was reduced again. I took it back to the dealer and they were stumped. They wanted to charge me $1300 just to replace some wires, but they weren't confident that would fix the problem. I declined. As it stands now I can toggle the F08 fuse and that temporarily fixes it for about an hour or so, but the error always comes back and the car has a hard time accelerating. Not safe. I called GM and they suggest I take it to another Chevrolet dealer, so I'm going to do that. I'm also going to reference NHSTA Special Coverage N232432680 Battery Energy Control Module Malfunction to see if they can replace the BECM. This is a common problem with 2016 Chevy Volts. If they can't fix it, I'll look into the California Lemon Law to see if I can get my money back on the car. I appreciate your support on this.

- Fresno, CA, USA

The car states the battery will not charge and cannot move the car. I connected it to a code reader with the following codes showing: P1E00 U2618 U2606 U2605 U2617 U2604

- Cumming, GA, USA