[RickMGoldie]

Took me by surprise when I meant to press the button above in order to change from normal to sport. An orange motor icon came on and I had to park and restart the car. At least the lights brakes indicators and steering still worked.
I had pressed the blue button by mistake.
Just don't do it!

 

[Duncan]

Took me by surprise when I meant to press the button above in order to change from normal to sport. An orange motor icon came on and I had to park and restart the car. At least the lights brakes indicators and steering still worked.
I had pressed the blue button by mistake.
Just don't do it!

There was discussion of this on the US forum: in short don't do that, but if you do then switch to neutral and press the power button twice and it will turn back on.
See http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...r-accidentally-turning-it-OFF-while-in-motion

 

[RickMGoldie]

Yep! Step AWAY from the blue button.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Just had a look at the online manual and the restart procedure (N, press button twice) is there... not sure I would have spotted it or even remembered it tho

 

[garetht]

I must admit that I'm very tempted to put some sort of flap over the button to stop this sort of danger happening... Though knowing just how shockingly bad my DIY is then id better leave it the hell alone

cheers

g

 

[ALC]

Warning - you CAN switch off an Ampera whilst on the move! I'm still getting to grips with the myriad buttons and managed to 'power down' the car by mistake a couple of days ago!

I pressed the blue button (in mistake for the Sport button) and then when it didn't change to Sport, I pressed it a 2nd time. (But I did get a prompt asking me if I wanted to switch off - which I foolishly ignored).

Fortunately, I was only doing 20mph - but the car progressively started shutting down (steering went heavy, no power, but indicators still worked, so I pulled to the side). Switched to Park and then Powered up again as normal - but it gave me a shock.

I doubt I'll every do that again - but from now on, I'm taking special care which buttons I press...

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

IIRC I think you just have to press the blue button twice to fire it up again but I could be wrong.

 

[LK13]

IIRC I think you just have to press the blue button twice to fire it up again but I could be wrong.

The following is an extract from the Owners Manual.

Caution
If the vehicle must be restarted
while it is still moving, move the
shift lever to N and press 'power button' twice
without pressing the brake pedal.
The propulsion system will not
restart in any other way.

I have not tried it !

 

[Lee Howard]

We tried that here with the Volt a week ago. We did it intentionally in an empty parking lot. It behaves the same as is being described here.

I suspect that this option is there merely for the "runaway" emergency condition. If the brake stops working (for some reason) and the accelerator is stuck (for some reason), then you need to do something to get yourself stopped.

As for the reasons that could lead to a brake and accelerator malfunction - since the whole bit is programmed and computerized I suspect that the possibility exists - at least in some kind of freakish electronics mishap.

 

[derekb]

Yes I tried this soon after I first got it - out of curiosity really. It didn't power down but it did prompt me to press the blue button a second time if I really wanted to (so I didn't). So it would be difficult to do by mistake but you can if you really need to.

 

[Geoff]

Yes I tried this soon after I first got it - out of curiosity really. It didn't power down but it did prompt me to press the blue button a second time if I really wanted to (so I didn't). So it would be difficult to do by mistake but you can if you really need to.

I managed it quite easily by mistake. I was watching the road at the time and sid not notice that I was pressing the wrong button soon after buying the Ampera. It is on my wish list to have to have the mode switch on the steering wheel perhaps instead of the radio volume switch which I never use.

 

[RickMGoldie]

Last time I tried it was deliberate, but it would not power back up in neutral. I've done it as per the manual successfully before but not since the update that introduced the second step to turning it off. I ended up parking and shutting right down and starting up again. I only wanted to get my battery range back after using mountain mode briefly.