Dealer Wants $10,000...for THIS?? (Chevy Volt Not CHARGING: P0AA6)

good morning everyone welcome back to Pine Hollow out of Diagnostics it's a wet rainy cool morning today and we have a 2013 Chevy Volt with the Death code that's the one that disables charging of the EV high voltage battery so let's power this thing up and you see this service high voltage charging system check engine light what are the codes so you'll have one code in the ECM says hybrid power control module to requested Illumination in here we have hybrid EV battery voltage system isolation loss the P0 aa6 that is the Death code now the P1 FFF that sets um because of this code It also says SL coolant level sensor fault so the owner of this car uh the history is you know right now has 52,000 Mi he bought it last year with like 48,000 miles he just uses it around town to run some errands and it was fine for about a year and just recently oh you hear that the engine just started up recently he got this code took it to the dealer and they replaced a coolant level sensor okay he said he drove it for 80 miles and this same code popped up and here we are um you know uh I'm sure they the dealer updated the module whatever remember that 2012 Chevy Volt we cleared the code and it never came back so these things are very touchy the the the isolation test for these batteries so the dealer said now you need the main big battery that's you know in the middle of the car here there's three batteries total and this this is the one that sets this coat I guess but they said a they can't get the battery B it would be over 10 grand to replace that battery so the owner is kind of like hey I'm out of options can you give me a second opinion uh I'm like sure but you might not get lucky like uh you know the previous guy did with the 2012 volt so let's go in here and see look at the data see what this isolation resistance isolation test resistance shows 250 kiloohms and we know from service information it needs to be over 350 to um to pass the test so is this due to either a coolant in coolant leaking in the battery in the middle battery there or is it due to this wet weather not sure but you know we're going to follow the OEM service procedure to diagnose this thing uh my question right now is can we clear the codes and get this thing driving yesterday I actually did that took it to town drove it here it was fine I wanted to try to charge the EV battery from the wall you know from 120 outlet and the service charging cord is missing in the trunk so I guess the owner didn't bring it with him I'm like well that's kind of inconvenient if you want want me to diagnose charging your car from the house I don't have the court so I can't really do that right now so maybe he'll bring it by but let's uh let's try clear fault code just go back here and say clear dtc's okay so now it's happy shut it off this isolation status you know when when does it test it I think at every startup see is it still happy it's still happy it's go into here again read fault code no DTC and let's look at data again you know did it pass the test this time so isolation test status incomplete and it says 0.0 kohms so I guess after a code clear it hasn't run this test yet when it does it'll set the cat again so let's look up some service info see what the next diagnostic procedure is I think we have to Jack the car up and take out this drain plug from the middle battery and see if there's any moisture inside H and then we'll go from there Chevy bolt in the garage the owner brought me special charging cable station thing got the little cap undone and this is my first time in my life I'm actually plugging in a car into an outlet let's see what let's see what happens here we got green lights we got green lights we got red lights isn't supposed to here we go got an orange light got green lights I guess green is good so there we go it's charging so with the codes cleared out it's charging just fine now I'm going to let it just charge overnight get it get the batteries nice and uh and full tomorrow morning we'll see if it sets that coat again with the uh isolation fault if it does we'll have to look up that code and check that battery for condensation or humidity or coolant in it I think there's a drain plug we'll have to jack it up and take it out but we'll uh see you tomorrow morning all all right next morning fully charged battery range 34 miles so when that blinks I guess you're fully charged so we're done with this plug [Applause] that unplug that now let's uh scan it for codes and see if it passed the isolation test or or what all right we're on the scanner in the Hybrid Power training control module no trouble codes and let's read the data stream and see if this thing passed its isolation test so isolation test status passed isolation test status complete everything's energized but it says isolation test resistance 250 KMS why did that not fail warm up since DTC is cleared we can take it for a test drive park it and see if that code comes back I want to monitor this isolation test resistance okay so it's the next day after the volt accepted a full charge no trouble code set I took it on a spin it sat overnight uh it's kind of wet and snowy in the morning and so far so good okay so now let's uh look up service info and two things I want to do uh there's actually a TSB on this the same one that the 2012 volt had for it for this P0 aa6 uh battery isolation Lost Code so let's follow the TSB do those steps and see if that resolves the customer complaint all right so here's a TSB it's updated TSB released uh a year ago 2022 and it replaces this pic 5920 J which we looked at um for the 2012 volt so Chevy Volt 11 to 15 Electronic Drive Unit conditioned some customers comment the vehicle will not charge check engine light illuminated find a code P0 aa6 yes on 201 or 13 volt that's exactly what we have loss of hybrid EV battery pack coolant so the coolant level I checked it's full so I don't think there's any coolant leaking into the battery or loss of high voltage isolation within the battery cells or battery section themselves so the correction first we already did this now locate the isolation test resistance in the hpcm 2 Data list note that on the work order it was 225 kmss which is low um it should be much higher than that so inspect a hybrid EV battery pack coolant by doing both of the following coolant level is fine remove this drain plug we'll we're going to do do that as a last step see if any water coolant drains out um I don't know if the battery pack is vented if if it can get moisture in there that could also cause this problem um okay 2011 2015 program the hpcm 2 and the becm with the latest calibration that's what I want to do now let's check if these modules have been updated it this car has been to the dealer for this concern so they should have updated the modules but we don't know so we're going to log into GM sps2 and see if that's been done and down here just kind of gives you some programming tips make sure the VIN matches blah blah blah power hybrid powertrain control module two and the battery energy control module so two modules we want to check the calibrations are up to date so let's do that and go from there uh oh there it is service high voltage charging system how about that so that was just from this morning driving to the garage and leaving it here for a little while um maybe the moisture from the melting snow somehow affected it but the problem is still there all right let's look at the codes sure enough p08 A6 so let's um let's actually save this in a report you know document your readings and that's what I love about think tool Pros are similar launch product it's super easy to save a nice Health Report so there we go let's jump into the battery control module let's look at that isolation resistance right there hybrid EV battery pack isolation test status failed 225 kiloohms so that's a bad number too low so that's it let's just jump out of here let's let's just clear these codes out while we're here with the scanner and we're back to normal so it's interesting that we can clear the codes here remember on that 2012 we have to do the reprogramming to clear the codes so this calibration might be more up to date but let's plug in sps2 and check those numbers all righty we're in read the VIN we're using the Bosch MasterTech 2 pass through so sps2 so program the hpcm 2 and the becm Let's uh let's do just that reprogram next so if you go through with the programming it'll take up the VIN slot that you paid for but if everything's up to date let's see here so k11 14b next let say proceed so this is the one that I wants to do 24296 334 current calibration 24296 334 so if you hit next it is up to date so we can screenshot this and tell the customer that we checked for the latest calibrations if you hit start programming it'll say attempting program with the same calibration select okay to continue cancel the stop so we don't want to waste the VIN it'll it'll just do the same thing for the programming so let's go to reprogramming this um becm k16 battery energy control module so next proceed current calibration unrecognized calibration uh 23 28770 okay so we'll select next so it's interesting why is the k16 have an unrecognized calibration well that's kind of weird did they not program this so let's screenshot this and select next we didn't have any codes that this you know module had an incomplete calibration or whatever this is interesting I mean there's definitely a problem that it was unrecognized let's see how long this takes and then we can go back in once the programming is done and try to reprogram it again and see if it like lost calibration or if it sticks then we definitely change something to the vehicle so very strange that this battery whatever control module had an unrecognized calibration so the process is going pretty quickly and I'll turn the camera back on once that finishes vehicle processing update may take several minutes please do not shut down techline connect all right so programming is complete k16 so we'll screenshot this and let's click clear dtc's and then um we'll try to go back in say you know reprogram and see if that calibration number is uh currently in it all right so let's hit the power button let this thing reset always beeps when you do that I don't know why um let's power it up again okay we got 19 miles on our battery 74 mil on the fuel everything's green everything's happy let's go to k16 again says current calibration unrecognized calibration what the heck that doesn't make any sense why look at that can we try programming it again so this is the this is very weird and we didn't have any codes so I'm going to hit cancel H so I'm looking at the old video for the 2012 Chevy Volt when we're reprogram the becm and it says current calibration 2 three you know 2155 74 so there was a current calibration in there and it was you know already updated so one of those say unrecognized calibration do that this this one is kind of weird all right back in the vault it's been sitting here for a few hours check this out isolation test resistance went up to 1,000 KMS that's well above that threshold and now it's says it passed right there we can force an isolation test you know like real time so if you go to actuation test right here hybrid EV battery pack isolation test and if to shut the vehicle off and then say enabled it says running and this uh isolation test resistance should update in real time once it finishes running that test it should take about a minute well as soon as I turned the camera off so it went up so the car is happy right now should we still pull that drain plug out of the battery I guess we could see I don't know I don't expect fluid to come gushing out um but yeah let's that's the only thing really left here we did the programming check the calibrations it was weird that the battery control module the calibrations were unrecognized I don't know if that's a glitch with SPS 2 the GM software but no you know it's not setting any codes so you know if you go into that battery control module this becm battery energy control module we can read module information and maybe Compare the numbers here to that screenshot that we took on sps2 oh we should probably turn the car on first there we go so ID number this software module identifier 1 and two I don't know if those will match up to anything but just something to look at all right so from the screenshot we have four ID numbers for this k16 controller battery energy control module and here these two do match up the 7070 and the 7074 they are the first two on our screenshot the next two I don't know the scanner doesn't report them it's just one page of data so it's up to date Let's uh let's Jack it get up find that drain plug by the way these lowprofile Jacks from Harbor Freight are worth their weight and gold look just barely squeezed in under the super low EV we'll find that drain plug all right so I got the front of the volt jacked up on Big Jack Stands this thing is heavy I mean it's a big battery what do you expect and the drain plug is right here on the side it's this rubber thing with some kind of sealant goop you just have to do we see any moisture that's my question not really I mean how do you look through that little hole it's hard to see anything at all they say stick a paper towel in there or cotton swab maybe a boroscope I don't know it's not pouring out but does that look shiny and wet or is that just shiny because it's paint well you stuck a paper towel in there just to see if there's any moisture at all and it's it's bone dry there is nothing going on inside this battery compartment silliness what do we tell the customer so looking at this isolation fault test what exactly happens when the test is run so the purpose of the battery energy control module high voltage isolation monitor circuit is to test the resistance between the high voltage positive and negative direct current bus and Chassis ground the becm isolation monitoring system measures the resistance between the high voltage system and Chassis ground in the following way the battery the BM places an AC signal on the high voltage system monitors its amplitude A reduced amplitude return signal indicates a loss of resistance to chassis ground so the key here is the hybrid Powertrain control module 2 requests the becm to perform this test so the becm sends that um value isolation resistance back to the hybrid control module okay measurement values are reported to the hpcm which makes determination of an isolation fall so that's why in that TSB they want you to reprogram both modules so this isolation check runs when all the contactors are open okay this check uh checks uh monitors isolation in the drive motor battery system check runs only once during the time the hybrid powert Train control module two is awake and runs after the contactors have been open for 10 seconds typically after the vehicle is turned off after a drive interesting you could also run when the vehicle is first started if there's a long enough period so so there's that 275 kiloohm magic number so you want to check the coolant level circuit system testing a lot of red you don't want to kill yourself you want to disable the battery pack and then only perform these tests with this special insulation multimeter which I don't have so test for 550 Mega ohms between the battery pack harness connector terminals listed below and Chassis ground using the insulation multimeter so I'm assuming if you disable the battery pack these wires are now not live so I don't know why you would need a special meter to check for this 550 megaohm I mean most meters only go to 20 Mega ohm see if less than 550 megaohms disconnect the X4 connector place the DC cables test replace the maxi fuse so bottom line is I've gone as far as I want to go in this diagnosis on this Chevy Volt follow the TSB there's no moisture in the battery pack and coolant level's fine check the um calibration numbers in both modules I don't know why the second one the BCM set was unrecognized kind of strange but apparently you know it still works and the scanner shows that it does have the correct calibration numbers what what do you tell the owner I mean you know the dealer told him he needs a new EV battery 10 grand not available back order so is this car it's not disabled but you can't charge it from the wall which is kind of the point of an EV I guess so you know if this is my car and I don't know why I would have one I mean it's a heavy thing that only seats four people and I don't know it's kind of a toy but you can get a scanner and just whenever that warning pops up clear it out and then you can charge it from the wall easy solution no problems it's just a little annoying so that's that's my final conclusion here we didn't pinpoint which component to replace but there is a way out you know any good scanner can clear those that code out of the hybrid control module and you can still charge it from the wallet works perfectly fine so this test is very sensitive I guess I don't know if it depends on the weather it seems like on cool wet mornings it sets more often but again I would need to have it for a month to get some statistics um but sometimes it's perfectly happy you know no problems at all so that's it thanks lot for watching keep in mind if you buy one of these things you're pretty much locked into the dealer and often times they can't help you out and if something goes wrong it is a heavy potentially be whale or you lose the EV functionality which then it just becomes an annoying heavy car um thanks all for watching we'll see you next time byebye little bonus footage if the owner wants to buy a capable scanner but doesn't want to spend like $1,000 here's a cool alternative the top Dawn top scan dongles so it's just a Bluetooth dongle plugs into your DLC and you download the app and you can just download whichever make your car is so I downloaded the Chevy app and look it scanned all of the modules in the vehicle there's our H hybrid powertrain control module and we can easily do diagnostic trouble code clear click okay clearing dtc's awesome um let's do data display uh let's see which one here we can check our isolation resistance so this is the same software basically the launch software on your smartphone which is pretty neat this is powerful so after I clear the codes it did not run the isolation test resistance now can we force it to run is there a bidirectional control here let's see control functions isolation test and you want to shut the vehicle off click enabled contactors must be open see disabled enabled in progress It's running 150 kmss that's pretty dang powerful from your smartphone you can go into these hybrid control module and do an isolation test how cool is that and the dongle itself uh I think it's less than a 100 bucks on Amazon now you might ask what's the catch here do you have to pay a yearly subscription fee um go to the link in the description I'll post it and you can do that research again I I've only used a handful of times they just sent it to me but that might be you know if you're only working on your own car if you only have one car that's actually a very powerful um thing to have in your glove box just a little dongle boom right in your smartphone you can check all codes you can clear all the modules out pretty neat stuff so I'll probably recommend that to the owner certainly beats buying a $10,000 battery if he wants to charge it from the wall just clear out the code and you can charge your battery no problems um that's it for this one thanks all for watching we'll see you next time bye by the way it does a fantastic report Vin mileage well I guess didn't read the mileage um there you go fault all these have no fault then it goes to individual modules you can save that you can share it send it to email whatever saves it as a PDF that's that's really fantastic

Channel: Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics

Views: 250,365

Keywords: EV, electric, battery, green, charge, fault, broken, expensive, volt, amp, water, moisture, isolation, programming

Id: FdDK7tmAQIM

Length: 35min 26sec (2126 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 02 2023