Dealer says...

They told me they could confirm on FOB was "erratic" and would not consistently handshake with the car. Unfortunately, they need to order FOBs because only GM can cut the flip out key (that I never, ever use). So they released the car back to me and identified which FOB worked and which one to bring back when the replacement comes in. Worked fine on the way home but we'll see. I had experienced trouble with both FOBs at one point, though I have no way to know which one I had been using mostly and which had been sitting on the shelf for Bob to use occasionally.

No Remote Detected...

Yep, got this message again this morning. I called OnStar and they suggested that I remove the rubber bottom from the storage compartment in the top center of the dash, right above the center stack display, and insert the tip of the key on the remote into a small hole I would find there. Supposedly this would resync the fob to the car. Hmmm... well I did that and I don't know if that worked or not, but I was able to get the car to take me to work. I called my dealer from work and told them about the issue and so I have an appointment tomorrow morning to have them check it out.

I had almost no trouble coming home. The remote wouldn't unlock the car at first, until I got right up to it... usually I can unlock the car from a football field away. Yes, I already thought of the battery being low and had replaced it a couple of weeks ago. Anyway the car did unlock eventually and it didn't argue with me about powering up and driving home. Once home, I opened the door and then closed it again and I got the message about the missing remote. That seemed to repeatedly trigger it. For fun, I opened the fob and took the battery out, wiped it down and put it back in. The doors promptly locked themselves and I got no further message about a missing remote. Hmmm... could it be that simple? I will still take the car over to the dealer tomorrow.

I asked OnStar if they would be able to get the car "started" for me if I ran into this on the road somewhere, and they said no but they could get me a tow truck. Seems like all the neat stuff you see them doing via OnStar on TV would include bypassing the missing remote thing too. I bet they really can...  :-)

FOB Presence Issue?

My Volt has been very trouble free the entire time I've owned it, with only very minor items needing attention. I am beginning to see one of those minor items show up now with the occasional message saying the FOB isn't detected, or something to that effect. So far it hasn't been a problem, but of course, one can't move the car if the system decides it can't see the FOB. Will hope that should the system decide not to let me drive, I can call OnStar and get help! :-) Something to mention to the service writer next time I get the tires rotated.

July OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics report

Wow, I drove a total of 255 miles last month? Driving to Redlands last time skewed my Gas uses alright...

And GM wants to remind me to rotate my tires again. Seems like I just did that. :-)

June OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics report

:-)

Fuel Maintenance

My car says I'm not using enough gas and it's getting a bit stale. So it has switched me to fuel maintenance mode where it runs a lot more on the gas engine to use up some of the fuel. Not that you can really tell from driving. It shuts off the engine at stops and when it's running I really don't notice. Just that I have the blue fuel indicator instead of the green battery indicator for range. So when I get the fuel down to below half, I can gas up and then it will go back to normal mode.

Since I have a car in the barn that needs fuel, I may cheat a bit and pump out some of the gas for the '55 Pontiac and then fuel up Voltie. We'll see.

Service Required

13028 miles and I had about 82% oil life left but apparently GM thinks if you haven't changed your oil in two years, you should get it changed even if you have plenty of oil life left! So I have an appointment to visit Community Chevrolet on this coming Tuesday. Estimated cost = $49.

I also am supposed to get my tires rotated and I mentioned the charge door which still occasionally thinks it's open when it isn't. So...

I thought I would not need to get an oil change in the time I had the car, but looks like I was wrong. I found Community's web site a bit of a mess... I couldn't directly create an account with them until I scheduled service through the web site. Then at the end it invites you to create an account with the info you've just entered. Then they get back to you after matching existing service records with your new account. Only thing is, they now have my Volt in twice... once with historical data and once with my new appointment and no historical data... each a unique car tab in my list of cars. No way I can merge them myself. Also, they still have my old GMC Sierra pick up and I don't own that any longer so I want to delete it... no, can't delete a vehicle. Somebody should show their webmaster how to design web sites. :-(