Well, this is annoying. Our newest car, 2017 Chevy Volt,has stranded us on I 26 about 140 miles from home.
Was driving in the gas engine mode (because electric range is only 50 miles) and got a message that "drive power reduced", but car seemed to be running fine. A few miles later, new message: "engine not available" and much less fine. Car switched itself to battery mode and had greatly reduced power.
Still had about 15 miles of battery, so was able to get off at next exit and park at a truck stop.
No cab or Uber service in East Bumbleberkley.
Wife was able to reserve the last rental car at the Columbia Airport and convince a cab to come out from the city.
I think it's going to be a long night!
Talk about a wild night incoming. Keep us updated.
Random thoughts while I wait for wife unit to return.:
1. Was trying to remember last time a car left me stranded, and I'm pretty sure it was 1997. Fragged a clutch disk during a redline shift in my fb rx7. I knew the hydraulics felt a little off, so that was sorta (totally!) my fault.
2. It is not confidence inspiring when the Onstar representative pronounces the 't' when she says Chevrolet, lol.
So something went wrong with the gas engine. Do you have fuel? :) An OBD scanner might be useful if you have one but most people don't carry one around.
Good luck. Glad the battery got you to safety.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
So Google says it could be as simple as a dead 12v battery freaking the system out
Car actually gave the first "reduced power" message and then we stopped for food and refueled. Since car seemed to be running fine, we carried on. Engine not available happened after that.
Some quick googling from my end also made it seem like the 12V could be the culprit, can AAA change out the 12V battery for you?
another tidbit. My wife Googled the reduced power message and what she found was someone explaining that it was a situation that could happen climbing mountains and that it would never happen on flat land "if the car was being driven by a sane person". Well there's your problem!
Reminds me of an old Eddie Murphy joke
yo somebody stole your battery..
But seriously if you need help tonight I'm in Camden.
In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :
I called the local parts stores and nobody had a battery that fit, plus we had no way to get to a store before closing. Truck stop doesnt sell batt chargers or jump boxes, so it is what it is.
Chevy roadside assist is towing the car to a dealer in Columbia, wife just got back in a spiffy dodge warlock rental. Tow truck should be here in a few, then we can head home.
Really just an annoyance, not a crisis or anything. If my wife had been traveling alone, would be a bit of a different story.
In reply to scottdownsouth :
Really appreciate the offer, but I think it is pretty much sorted out.
Glad you got going again. Update us with what the problem is
car39
Dork
10/30/21 8:44 a.m.
"engine not available"? What does it do, take a vacation, or unplug the phone. That is just bizarre
docwyte
PowerDork
10/30/21 8:58 a.m.
Well that's not a stunning endorsement for a hybrid car...
And now you know why my wife doesn't drive a Volt anymore. Chevy told us (while still under Powertrain warranty) that the car was supposed to coast to a lifeless stop on the highway multiple times on flat ground. Dealer techs asked GM for a new hybrid battery, GM kept saying "no."
So we traded it on a new Honda Clarity. It hasn't left us stranded yet. 
I hope you have better luck than we did. I would throw a 12v battery at it first since worn starting batteries cause all sorts of weirdness on those cars.
Glad this ended up being more of an inconvenience than an emergency for you. Interested in hearing whether the root cause ends up being the 12V battery, or something else.
(Glances suspiciously at the 2015 Volt in the driveway with its original 12V battery...)
My biggest fear is they don't find anything wrong and just give it back to us to roll the dice again.
About to head back from Charlotte to Columbia to return the rented truck because apparently the Dollar rental place there isn't associated with the dollar in Charlotte, so it can't be returned here. After a lengthy conversation trying to determine why the truck id number wasn't in the dollar rental inventory, the associate ended the call by saying thanks for calling Thrifty! The amalgamation of rental car brands is a bit of a headscratcher.
Worn batteries cause all sorts of weirdness in all modern cars. Electronics don't approve of unstable voltage.
We had a 2012 Volt whose 12 volt battery seemed to have a bad cell. It would be 12.6 v at one minute, then 10.2 a few minutes later, then back to 12.6. It would throw nearly every error code the car had available. We replaced the battery and all was miraculously cured. That and one stuck rear brake caliper were all that ever went wrong with that car in 6 years of ownership.
Heard back from dealer. Saying it's a bad egr valve. Part is on backorder, they need to check Monday if they can find one to get from another dealer.
pointofdeparture said:
docwyte said:
Well that's not a stunning endorsement for a GM hybrid car...
FTFY.
Volts are generally very reliable cars.
dculberson said:
Volts are generally very reliable cars.
That's been my experience.
A bad egr valve made it shut off on the highway.
Yeah. No.
I cannot imagine a power train engineer that would be stupid enough to write code to strand their customer over a part that has so many good ways to compensate for it being out of range.
Unless it was stuck wide open, but that would just make it idle really badly. It would still start.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
My thought too. A bad EGR might make it run poorly but should still run.
At least that is my armchair analysis.
I can see a bad EGR valve taking out the 5vref, so a whole lot of important sensors don't function. Have seen it happen on 3.8 engines.
My question is, what the hell is an EGR valve doing on a modern engine. Half the reason for variable valve timing is so they could eliminate the EGR valve.
