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Transmission Service Bulletin - PIP5101


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I actually had this happen, about a week into driving the car, the gear indicator went blank, and the car wouldn't go above 20 mph. I pulled off to the side of the road, shut the car off, and restarted it, at which point it was fine. I mentioned it to the service manager, when I went to pick up my paperwork, and he shrugged it off, saying "it just needed a reboot". It's never happened since, I actually forgot about it, until I saw this post.

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I just had this happen to me yesterday. I was driving down the street and the DIC went blank for about 2 seconds. When it came back on, the MPG portion was on the trip timer (all zeroes) and I had to scroll the menus to get it back to average MPG. I also had to press the menu button 3 times before it even made the display flash.

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When mine messed up, the DIC didn't change at all, with the exception of the "D" (Drive) disappearing, I tried different gears, but no letters appeared, and the car wouldn't go above 20 mph. I thought possibly I was in some sort of "limp mode", which some cars will do, if a serious problem occurs, so I pulled it over, shut it off, and restarted it. Everything was back to normal. That was about 3 1/2 months ago, and has been fine ever since.

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  • 3 months later...

I had this problem in December 2012, three months after I bought my Spark. I pulled over and turned the car off and back on and it was fine. (That seems to be the solution for a few other weird things my Spark does) I called the dealer afterwards and they said they couldn't help because there wasn't a check engine light. I thought maybe something froze in the engine and it couldn't do its usual shift past first gear. I applied the right accelerator pressure for 35-40mph and hear the engine rev hard but it was stuck on 25mph.

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  • 6 months later...

This happen to me tonight. I just left work & my check engine light started flashing & traction light came on. It was running really rough & wouldn't shift. I pulled over & called my husband to come get me. It was 10:45pm & we live 35 mins from my work. I never shut mine off, but by the time he got there he drove it & it was fine. The only thing we noticed is it had a rotten egg smell after he got it moving. Needless to say it's going to the dealership tomorrow. It's got less than 17,000 miles on it.

Edited by Jennie Seward
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  • 4 months later...
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  • 1 month later...

For everyone that is happy that they were able to turn off their car and have the problem fixed when they restarted it, this will not last! That was the resolve for me several months ago. I had it taken in for service anyway because regardless of whether the problem seemed fixed, I was still left with no power in the middle of the highway and didn't want it happening again! I was told by the dealer it was towed to that there was no problem with the car. Period. And that there was no record of this kind of problem I was describing ever happening with the Spark. (this forum proves that to be a lie). That was in July. On November first it happened again, this time the dashboard lit up with lights including the check engine and traction lights. The car didn't want to move at ALL this time. It was towed to Chevy dealer #2 who said the problem was an internal parking switch that they fixed and my car would be as good as new. Less than two weeks later, it happened again. Last night it was towed to dealer #3. I just spoke with them and first they said my car wasn't there. A little while later they said they 'found' my car, but there was no key. Okay, that was found eventually. Then they wanted me to explain everything that happened. I asked if they didn't have the ability to look at the activity of the other two dealers' service departments so they could see what had been done. They said no. There was no record of a problem with my car that they were able to see. So we're starting from scratch. I was told about this forum by a friend and given what I'm going through, I really wanted to let anyone know, if it's happened to you once, THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE CAR! Don't let them tell you that your car is fine and send you on your way. This has the potential to be a dangerous problem if you were to lose power suddenly on an interstate or other busy road! I am researching Lemon Laws as I honestly don't even want this Spark back. Buyer definitely beware!!

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It looks like possibly 2 separate issues . The problem I had happened twice , both times after fueling and hastily leaving before computer reset . Also both times I was resetting the trip and mpg control while moving . The car PRND disappeared and car went into limp mode . No other lights came on . This happened within a block or so after leaving the gas station , I stopped and restarted and been ok ( 25k miles now ) . In short it only happened immediately after starting haphazardly in my case , though it shouldn't have happened at all . The dealer did do the TSB for it though I can't see how that would be a fix . I have a Nissan that also did the same thing minus the digital PRND blanking. It also happened twice when the car was new and hasn't reoccurred in the near 20 years I have owned it . If it turns out to be more of a problem with the Spark then I'm sure there will be another recall .

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So got my car back from the dealer. They said it was the #4 spark plug. They replaced it and that's it. I asked why and was the problem fixed not just repairing the symptom. They said that unless the check engine light was coming on at the time of the pcv recall they couldn't change the spark plug. So hopefully it was already fouled before the recall and now all is fixed. Idk. They were supposed to check it at the time of the recall at least that's what they told me when I took it in for the recall. They said all was fine. Also I have been burning more oil since the recall. So if the problem still exists I'll know soon enough.

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  • 2 months later...

So got my car back from the dealer. They said it was the #4 spark plug. They replaced it and that's it. I asked why and was the problem fixed not just repairing the symptom. They said that unless the check engine light was coming on at the time of the pcv recall they couldn't change the spark plug. So hopefully it was already fouled before the recall and now all is fixed. Idk. They were supposed to check it at the time of the recall at least that's what they told me when I took it in for the recall. They said all was fine. Also I have been burning more oil since the recall. So if the problem still exists I'll know soon enough.

My wife's car is also just experience this and then some. Hers is a 2013 2LT automatic with almost 40k miles.

Last year her car did this similar thing, but was barely accelerating, and there was some sort of TSB about a neutral switch or something that was taking care of. For a year the car has been pretty good until yesterday.

Traction control/stabilitrac/service engine soon came on and car wouldn't shift.

Dealer said it had misfire codes on cylinder #4, plug was fouled badly, they replaceed. They took it for a ride and all the traction control/ stabilitrac came back on again. Currently awaiting more details.

Looking for some help.

Been a chevy person my entire life. Own multiple NEW chevys: 2003 SILVERADO, 2009 traverse, 2007 Silverado, 2010 Camaro, AND THE SPARK

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  • 1 year later...
On 5/16/2013 at 2:07 PM, WaltK said:

When mine messed up, the DIC didn't change at all, with the exception of the "D" (Drive) disappearing, I tried different gears, but no letters appeared, and the car wouldn't go above 20 mph. I thought possibly I was in some sort of "limp mode", which some cars will do, if a serious problem occurs, so I pulled it over, shut it off, and restarted it. Everything was back to normal. That was about 3 1/2 months ago, and has been fine ever since.

 

 

Mine just did this this first thing this morning. I started the spark to go to work. When I shifted into reverse to back out the drive way the spark shifted hard like the rpms were high but not. I backed out and shifted to drive, same jerk like before, puzzled. On main neighborhood road the RPMs were very high in second gear so I looked down to make sure it was in drive and not low. So I decided to pull over and put into park, same jerk. Turned off the spark, removed key, opened door, waited a few minutes, closed door and restarted. No issues and drove to work and posting what happened. 

 

I wonder if if I should pull the electric plug in the position sensor at the trans and clean and grease like the tsb states??

 

I only have 22800 in my 13 Spark LT1. 

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