Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2017 Chevrolet Volt
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 133 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Chevrolet Volt report control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 22 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 102,450 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
32% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,550 miles | 33,774 miles | 62,776 miles | 111,292 miles | 115,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $700–$3,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Vehicle brakes fail to fully engage intermittently. When slowing down on multiple separate occasions, the brakes work initially, then, the car feels like it's sliding on ice (dry summer roads) then the brakes engage again. The brake peddle generally feels normal at first, then goes soft and sinks. I've taken the vehicle to the dealership on multiple occasions who've stated there's nothing they can do. This is a serious safety concern to just send someone on their way with. I've also been working with general motors. While working with gm, they recommended I take the vehicle to a different dealership for a second opinion. The new dealership found error codes outlining the traction control module is malfunctioning and electrical ground issues exist.
While driving to the dealership to get my car serviced for nearly stalling at a stop light my car engine kept turning on and off and revving up and down randomly. I was in electric mode and the engine should not have been coming on. The car's speed randomly fluctuated as the engine randomly revved up and down. I pulled in to a grocery store parking lot where my car died. Before dying the gas range indicator changed from 87 miles to 'low fuel'. I called the dealership to have my car towed. After 16 days I got my car back. The dealership replaced the engine control module twice. The first replacement failed within a 1 mile test drive by the mechanic.
While driving to the dealership to get my car serviced for nearly stalling at a stop light my car engine kept turning on and off and revving up and down randomly. I was in electric mode and the engine should not have been coming on. The car's speed randomly fluctuated as the engine randomly revved up and down. I pulled in to a grocery store parking lot where my car died. Before dying the gas range indicator changed from 87 miles to 'low fuel'. I called the dealership to have my car towed. After 16 days I got my car back. The dealership replaced the engine control module twice. The first replacement failed within a 1 mile test drive by the mechanic.
Also reported on the 2017 Chevrolet Volt
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
DPF, EGR or DEF system failure
Other fuel system problem
Other engine problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 133 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2017 Chevrolet Volt?
Across 22 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2017 Chevrolet Volt?
133 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 19 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed