2017 Chevrolet Volt: loss of power steering

Filed Jan 8, 2026 · Electrical · WA

Following a day trip involving sub-freezing temperatures and full depletion of the traction battery, the vehicle was plugged in at home and appeared to be charging. The following morning, I enable the preheat via the remote before leaving the house for work, and notice the CEL/MIL before starting the car. Car was cold, charging indicator was flashing green as if it was accepting charge. I went to investigate and was met with the following list of codes: P1E00, U2603, U2604-U2606, U2617-U2624, P1FD2, P1FD3, P3042, C326C, P0096. Car turns on but seems to only be accessories; no power steering. Seems like the state of charge indication kept transitioning from empty to full. I unplugged the car to see if it could still drive, but no luck. getting "Shift to Park" when I put it in drive. Switching to HOLD does not engage the engine. After plugging it in again, the car no longer receives charge and simply holds the orange charge indicator light. In an attempt to get the car into limp mode, I tried clearing the codes, but no luck. After reading the codes again in the afternoon, the following codes posted: P1E00, U2622, U2623, P1FD4, P0AFA. These codes and behavior are consistent with the following NTSB service documents, which call for the replacement of the BECM: Special Coverage N232432680 Technical Service Bulletin 18-NA-261 However, the vehicle in question does not appear to be one of the 19,000 vehicles covered under the special coverage, per GM’s warranty look-up. The vehicle has not yet been serviced for the above events, but it is assumed the BECM is failing, which is available for inspection. My safety was not put at risk this time, but it is possible for the BECM to fail in an unsafe manner. Additionally, the associated repairs are costly since the BECM is not easily accessible, requiring lifting the car and removing the entire traction battery.

Filed Apr 19, 2024 · Electrical, Engine · IN

My service engine light came on. After that happened, my engine started to get hot. It got up to 230degF, received a reduced propulsion message and wanted to shut down when going 70mph on the interstate (depended on the construction). Quick reaction on my side before the engine shut down I had "held" the battery (which i do for long trips to ensure options in event of emergencies). Meaning i still had energy in the battery that could be used to propel the vehicle. I was able to shut down the engine by unholding the battery before losing control of the vehicle due to no propulsion. The electric propulsion took over and I could get off the freeway. Conditions were: I was driving in a rain storm on a very busy interstate around Eau Claire wisconsin right around 5-6pm with lots of road construction. If I would have lost the engine and power, I would have crashed at a high rate of speed. I would have lost steering, windshield wipers and headlights. Investigation showed that fuse F03 (walk home fuse) was blown. Further investigation showed that the EGR Valve circuitry was causing this failure. After unplugging EGR valve and replacing the fuse, engine was able to run and not overheat. Plug the EGR valve back in and the fuse blows again This is a well known issue on these vehicles and has been around since 2019-2020. Lots of data and information available on this issue on the internet. To make the issue worse. No parts are available for replacing this faulty valve at the moment. Only 6 valves available in the whole USA with those promised to other customers (i Called the dealers). Additionally there are more vehicles waiting for these valves.. Vehicle goes to the shop on [XXX] for confirmation of issue and get on a waiting list for the EGR Valve. I can't believe this is allowed to continue with GM. THis needs to be fixed!!!! INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Apr 8, 2024 · Electrical, Engine · GA

Had to replace EGR valve after losing power on the highway back in 2022. Lost power steering and reduced engine power while driving at highway speeds, luckily was able to get off the highway and limp the car back to my house. I almost crashed due to loosing engine power and power steering. It's appears to be a BECM issue.

Filed Oct 9, 2023 · Acceleration, Fuel system · IA

While driving after the electric battery is used and switches over to gas, I have been getting the check engine, ABS, steering, parking, and brake lights. I have lost power steering, lost the speedometer, lost fuel range, lost stabilitrak, it has randomly turned on the emergency brake while all these other things are happening, It also has said “shift to park”, propulsion power reduced. I have taken it to the dealer and they read some of the codes but say they can’t find anything wrong and they need to be able to reproduce the problem to find it. I lost all propulsion and pulled over and turned it off and it stopped with a “clunk.” Then I turn it back on and just the check engine light is on. I’m very afraid to drive it but with the lack of vehicles available to buy and the dealer not knowing how to fix it I don’t know what to do.

Filed May 27, 2022 · Brakes, Electrical · TX

On 2 difference occasions over the past 3 weeks, my car has malfunctioned while I was driving. There were no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms prior to this. All of the lights on the dash came on, the power steering went out, the brakes would not work properly and I could not accelerate. I had my child in the car and we narrowly avoided being hit by other cars both times since I couldn't control the vehicle. I couldn't even power the car down initially but was finally able to turn it off and back on and function resumed after several cycles. I was driving on electric battery that time. The first time, the dealership stated that the following codes were present: P1e00 and P16BA. They replaced the g1 a/c compressor. The incident occurred again a week later when I was driving on gas. At that time, there were history U codes present for every module, per the technician but no current codes to identify the problem. The problem has not been able to be reproduced since. The 2nd incident occurred out of state and my car was towed back to Texas where I live. The dealership there refused to investigate the incidents since they couldn't reproduce them and there were no current codes showing. It has subsequently been towed to a different dealership where they are still trying to identify the issue. I contacted General Motors and was contacted by a rep who escalated the issue. The next rep escalated it again greater than 48 hours ago and I have received no further contact from GM. The 2nd rep informed me that since the dealership that it was originally at says that it's safe to drive that they can't do anything. This car is NOT safe to drive.

Filed Jan 22, 2020 · Steering · 28,000 miles · CA

Power steering failed while driving on neighborhood street. Message saying "service power steering" came up, cad only has 28k miles on it. This should not be happening. Dealer says I must replace entire steering assembly. Multiple people online having my same problem, all under 30k miles.

Filed Jun 18, 2019 · Steering · 28,000 miles · WA

Electric power steering failed - almost caused a wreck and it would have it it happened in traffic or parking garage or accident avoidance maneuver. The car is 3 yrs and 3 months old with approx 28,000 easy miles- the first 2017 in spokane delivered in 2016 (yes, a 2017 built in early 2016). The lt version. Happened after typical city drive on all electric in modest temperatures and clear weather and running on electric. My wife was turning into the driveway and it felt like the steering locked but I believe it just turned very hard at low speed with no power assist. No warning. After this occurred she powered down and powered back on the car and there was a message saying "power steering is working, drive carefully" so came in and told me because it was not working. This is the first time this happened, it recovered in about 10 minutes and worked like normal for a few days now. She does not want to drive the volt now. Fti another same model volt lt delivered to local dealer in the same batch of volts, the third volt delivered to same local dealer, had many many more issues with power steering. I love my volt, an otherwise great safe and well handling car.

Filed Feb 27, 2017 · Steering · 2,043 miles · OR

The power steering failed while driving approximately 50 MPH on a mild curve on a wet oregon state highway. It became extremely difficult to steer the vehicle. This surely could have caused injury or death had there been a sharp curve or pedestrian or vehicle to avoid. I am having the vehicle towed to the dealership for repair. This vehicle has 2043 miles on it.