Other powertrain problem on the 2018 Chevrolet Volt
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2018 Chevrolet Volt report other powertrain problem at a median of 25,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 30,000 miles, from 19 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 40,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 30,824 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
84% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9,176 miles | 16,203 miles | 24,000 miles | 31,650 miles | 40,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 2,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 75,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 156; the 2018 has 65. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
I was driving my car on freeway at 65 MPH and suddenly car displayed warning on dash board to shift the car in park position. Car immediately lost power from engine. I had to immediately pull over car from left most lane to buffer lane between freeway and exit. My move until it had momentum. But them it stopped on freeway. After stopping car, it did not start or stop engine. It displayed check engine light. While restarting car, it keep displaying "initializing" and immediately system reboot by itself. Car did not start at all and eventually car had to be towed to dealership. Chevrolet dealer could not identify root cause and reported the issue is fixed. After five days, exactly same error occurred again on the freeway. At this time, with help from onstar, multiple error code were retrieved and they were related to failure in hybrid power train system. Above two incidents were quite riskier as car lost engine power on busy freeway. It could have serious collision. Also, incident occur on almost newly leased car.
While driving the vehicle at around 60 MPH, the 'check engine' light came on and a message saying 'shift to park' appears on the dashboard. Once the vehicle was stopped at the traffic light, the driver shifted to park and was not able to pull down to drive again. Vehicle was stranded in the middle of the road while cars were approaching from behind with high speed. After repeated attempts to press the vehicle 'start' button, we finally were able to pull down to neutral and pushed the vehicle to the side of the road. Vehicle needed to be towed to dealership for diagnosis.
Also reported on the 2018 Chevrolet Volt
Other electrical problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
DPF, EGR or DEF system failure
Other engine problem
Other fuel system problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 65 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 other powertrain problem happen on the 2018 Chevrolet Volt?
Across 19 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 30,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2018 Chevrolet Volt?
65 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 9.3 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