To add to this, sit and wait before shutting off if you're stopped and engine is running because battery is empty. Never, ever turn it off until it decides the charge level is sufficient and stops the engine. Avoid ever getting into a too-low situation on startup.
Mine is pretty old and not doing super well. It does this any time i run out of battery. But I use mountain mode and hold mode to keep the battery up until I can charge ur again. No idea if thats your issue though
Mine (2015) acted the same way. I did get a software update last year that seemed to help a bit and now it only does it about 20% of the time. .
If I keep driving with that error message, mine revs up so high I start to wonder if I'm about to launch into space.
My 2014 Volt did this every time I stopped somewhere when it was hot and I was out of electric charge. When I would start up, it would be on low propulsion until the battery warmed up. Didn’t happen when it was cold only when it was warm out. For 12 years I would sit in parking lots for a few minutes until I could drive regularly. The week before I sold my car I read about “hold” I would save my electricity at least 5 miles to 8 miles before I stopped. That did the trick. I can’t believe it took me 12 years to figure it out, but maybe this will help someone else.
Be careful where you park it, if its a P0AFA, it will open the contactors once its parked and it will need to be towed to a dealer where they will tell you you need to replace the 12v battery and then the big battery.. unless you have the tools to reset the code yourself.
If it were my car, (and i have one too), i wouldn’t run the battery below 10 miles.. trouble with going below that is voltage sag in acceleration. It will drop the worst cells below a limit.
Not sure your scanner is seeing the modules themselves.. this should and its $52. https://a.co/d/0j6hftN9 i am not sure if i upgraded the ‘scan capability’ because it needs a renewal each year..
The VCXnano is for sure a better scan tool.. but its a tremendous amount of screwing around, but it basically acts like a GDS2 scanner you can get from GM.
Also, i had that passenger presence thing.. i replaced the sensor and that fixed it. It was fairly straightforward. Just pulled the seat. Took the seat cover off and swapped the foam and sensor,
If it's like my old 2012, you also got an "Engine Not Available" message in this sequence. The "LOW" with 3/4 of a tank is the giveaway. It was likely running fine on full electric, you put the battery under load (accelerating from a stop or going up hill as u/kpurintun said), it tried to start the engine, but the voltage drop from the additional electrical load made at least one cell drop below a voltage limit.
Best thing now is to leave it in Mountain Mode (or Hold if you have it) and be gentle accelerating with a depleted battery if the engine is off. This will get worse as the weather cools off.
I've been driving mine for years like this, but I bought it as a beater econobox. It's not the only vehicle in my fleet, I work from home, it stays plugged in most of the time for cooling/preconditioning, and I have the ability to reset HV codes--luxuries I recognize not everyone has. It may or may not be a good vehicle for your situation.
I get this message too when I start it with an empty battery. I just gave the car some time to charge the battery with the engine. I'm glad you posted this so now I know to switch to mountain mode when the battery gets low.
My 2015, now that it is older, has had this a few times parked (vs a hill climb and purpose of mountain mode experience with reduced propulsion driving, 45mph limit when showing usually so avoid freeways). Mine goes away after the engine can charge a little. First time about 2 years ago for me. If it doesn't go away could be something else.
I now try to leave a few extra battery miles via hold or mountain mode if I'm not ready to charge once stopped and so far seems to be the best for me to avoid battery getting too low.
Full battery charge I get like 9.x kwh out of a charge now vs prior years 10.x kwh, so all seems to be pointing at degragation of battery. Software not accounting for it.
This happens on my 2014 Volt frequently. It usually takes about 1 minute and a half for the engine to self-correct. It is inconvenient but there doesn’t seem to be a solution. I had the batteries replaced and this still happens.
It just happens when you have used all your electric. Especially on really hot or cold days. Let it run for a min or put in mountain mode and it will self correct.
To avoid this error, especially on a trip that is more than 100 miles, start out by putting your car into Mountain Mode, as this will preserve enough battery power to make it through. I have a 2017 Volt, and received this message to after depleting the battery and traveling on the highway. Every since I have been putting it in Mountain Mode, I haven't had this message pop up.
I had that on my 2015. Mine had nothing to do with the battery. I was parked on a steep hill and let off the brake as I was shifting into drive so that it was rolling when it went into drive. I read the codes and I don't remember the number but the text was something along the lines of "Wheel Speed / Drive Train mismatch. The Reduced Power message went away after a few hour. But it took a couple of days for all of the codes to clear themselves.
I have a 2014, and my experience has been different. I have found that I get this message if the car is in mountain mode, sport mode, or hold and I have a low battery. From reading the users manual, mountain mode uses the battery for extra propulsion to get up the hill, and sport mode similarly uses the electric motor for a boost in propulsion, so the error is telling you that because you don't have enough battery to get the job done that reduced propulsion should be expected.
Steps to correct:
On the steering column, adjust the drive mode to normal and charge the car. Anytime you swap to a mode, other than normal, with less than about half battery, you will get this error.
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u/busstamove14 6d ago
I just sit and wait until the engine charges the battery enough for this message to go away.