Nissan Leaf

Batesy

Either way, that's some impressive mileage for a Leaf Soarer!
What's the current SOH as a matter of interest?

My 142 only has 56000km, SOH = 92.67 on last reading.

Soarer

Batesy wrote: »

Either way, that's some impressive mileage for a Leaf Soarer!
What's the current SOH as a matter of interest?

My 142 only has 56000km, SOH = 92.67 on last reading.

She’s around 67% and 9 bars. She’s holding up well to be fair. Especially when she’s only being used as a workhorse for all our short trips.

Soarer

There's never a week goes by; the latest episode.

So I was having the i-key issue a couple of weeks ago, which I put down to a weak 12V. I changed the 12V two weeks ago tomorrow, and everything seemed spot on....until last evening.

I had to drop the inlaws to the airport at around 18:30 yesterday. Given the fact it was pissing rain, I parked in front of their drive for quick access. Turned off the car to run in and get them, and the i-key showed up! Couldn't start the car or even get the ignition on to put it in neutral, push it, and use their car!

Between the jigs and the reels, about 20 minutes later the ignition turned on allowing me to push it. Unfortunately she wouldn't turn off! So I had to leave her with the ignition on, doors open, and take their car.

Got back nearly an hour later, and she was still there!

Plugged in LeafSpy, cleared all but a couple of errors (they wouldn't clear), and that allowed me to get home.

Once home, she still wouldn't turn off. So I disconnected the 12V and she went dead. Left it off for a few minutes, and when I reconnected it, she immediately restarted while I was still under the bonnet!

I decided to leave her like that for a few hours to leave the 12V recharge.

At 00:30 this morning (after a Ray Donovan marathon!), I decided to check on things.

Still wouldn't turn off (bings to shut down but immediately restarts), but strangely wouldn't die when I unplugged the 12V either! LeafSpy would still clear all but the same 2 errors.

I was at my wits end at that stage, so I decided to drive the car until the HV battery went dead (from 75%). Two errors keep popping up while driving. While in motion, a "T/M System Malfunction" error would appear, and when I stopped "Please Apply Parking Brake When Parked" error.

A lot of aggressive driving later, and I rolled into the drive in turtle mode, and LeafSpy telling me I had 6.8% (I think) left. Didn't want to risk driving anymore, so turned up the heater to full, and sat there watching the battery slowly dropping 0.1% at a time.
Eventually drained the HV, went under the bonnet and disconnected the 12V, and she went to sleep! Thank fukk!

Left her that way until 09:30 this morning, when I went out to check on things.
Reconnected the 12V, little spark, but nothing automatic from the ignition.
Sat in and pressed the start button, and ignition came on as normal.
Plugged in LeafSpy, and all errors were gone!
Pressed the button twice more, and she turned off without issue.

I'm still of the opinion that it's the (new) 12V, but why?
I always drive with my headlights on. Maybe that?
I always disconnect my dongle when not being used now, so it's not that.
Have a battery monitor plugged into the 12V outlet all the time. Possible.
Have my 3 interior lights changed to LED. Have read online that sometimes they can draw current even when off. Again possible.

So I have the car charging at the minute and will leave it go until completely finished.
I have disconnected the dongle, monitor, and 3 bulbs. I'm gonna leave the headlights on in a "divide and conquer" approach to trying to solve this.
Of course it mightn't be any of the above. It might be the HV isn't charging the 12V enough/quickly.

All I know is I'm getting rightly pissed off at the minute. Took the kid to swimming in the wife's car this morning. She still has childlocks on the back doors, meaning I had to open the door for him. Immediately put me in the mind of an i3, and equated the i3 back doors to having childlocks. It lessened my hatred a bit!

Gumbo

Dashcam?

Soarer

Nope.
Everything I have, I've listed.
Except the 2 LED number plate bulbs. But if is happens again with the headlights on, I'll swap them out.

unkel

Any autoelectrician would very quickly establish if there is a draw on the battery and then they should be able to find out what it is. Just hope it is a draw and not the HV though, that might not be so easy / cheap to fix

Soarer

I may as well keep this going!

Same thing happened yesterday as happened Saturday ie. once I started the car (approx. 13:00), it wouldn't turn off. Left her running all day, did a few trips, and eventually ran the HV battery to 2.2% (according to LeafSpy) before being able to turn her off.
Plugged her in, and let her charge fully overnight.
Jumped in this morning to go to work, fully expecting to bring her to the main dealer. Got to work after having the heating on for the whole journey, pressed the start button, and....silence! She turned off straight away!

Now, a bit of background.
I have one of these yokes that I bought from Amazon from the last time I'd an issue.


TBH, I never understood the readings! I always thought that once it was over 12.0V I was ok, and when it was up up around 14.5+ she was charging.
Doing some reading this morning, I've learned that...
Somewhere around 12.8-12.9V is fully charged.
Around 12.4V is half full.
Around 12.0V is goosed.

So this morning before I turned off the car, she was reading 14.7V. So I knew she was charging, and was reluctant to turn her off. But I did, and twas grand.
In the last hour or so, I borrowed a multimeter from one of the lads to check things out.
Resting rate of the battery was 12.8V, which shows a full battery.
With the car running, it was at 13.1V (I think).
When the charging kicked in, it was up around 14.7V.
Best thing is, the little internal meter had the same readings as the multimeter! So I know now that it's accurate.

So I'm back to my original diagnosis of 12V battery running low (full battery this morning and the car turned off and no errors on LeafSpy).
Why it's runs low is the next issue. Is the car not charging it quickly enough? Does it not charge it after doing a full HV charge? Do I just use too much from the 12V for the HV to catch up?

Haven't a clue. But I feel a whole pile better this morning than I did last night!

slave1

Around 12.0V is goosed

I'm not sure of that, I have one of those too and my battery reads 11.9 as I'm turning on the car (I mean it's a 12v battery so that's what I would be expecting), then it goes to 13-14odd as I'm driving and the alternator is charging it (ICE car)

Soarer

slave1 wrote: »

Around 12.0V is goosed

I'm not sure of that, I have one of those too and my battery reads 11.9 as I'm turning on the car (I mean it's a 12v battery so that's what I would be expecting), then it goes to 13-14odd as I'm driving and the alternator is charging it (ICE car)

Ah yeah.

I was talking about if it's reading about 12V sitting with no load, then it's goosed.
Starting the car will obviously draw from it momentarily.

unkel

If you charge your battery up fully (longish spin), park up for the night, check the battery voltage in the morning and it reads 12V (emtpy) then either the battery is gone or there was a drain.

Technically speaking at 12V it is 50% full, but you should never discharge a lead acid battery below 50%. It is unlikely to start your car when is is at 12V

Soarer

Funny you should say that.
Just went out there after having the car parked up from 18:00 yesterday, and she’s reading 12.55V. So she’s fairly good at the minute.

I have a multimeter in the car now, so just need to wait for the I-key error to show up (hopefully never) and get a reading then.

Edit: Can’t understand how there’s any sort of software algorithm in the Leaf that allows the 12V to run low. You’d imagine it’d be the easiest thing to keep “alive”.

ELM327

Soarer wrote: »

Funny you should say that.
Just went out there after having the car parked up from 18:00 yesterday, and she’s reading 12.55V. So she’s fairly good at the minute.

I have a multimeter in the car now, so just need to wait for the I-key error to show up (hopefully never) and get a reading then.

Edit: Can’t understand how there’s any sort of software algorithm in the Leaf that allows the 12V to run low. You’d imagine it’d be the easiest thing to keep “alive”.

It only tops up the 12v at the end of an AC charge after load balancing, or while driving intermittent checks are done and topped up from the traction battery but not when VLBW is displayed AFAIR.


Other EVs like Ioniq top up the 12v on an ongoing basis even if the car is switched off and not plugged in.

Soarer

ELM327 wrote: »

It only tops up the 12v at the end of an AC charge after load balancing, or while driving intermittent checks are done and topped up from the traction battery but not when VLBW is displayed AFAIR.


Other EVs like Ioniq top up the 12v on an ongoing basis even if the car is switched off and not plugged in.

That makes so much more sense.

Wonder was that just in the Gen 1 Leafs. Do the newer ones, up to and including the L40, suffer from the same thing I wonder?

samih

Soarer wrote: »

That makes so much more sense.

Wonder was that just in the Gen 1 Leafs. Do the newer ones, up to and including the L40, suffer from the same thing I wonder?

The early LEAFs got stick for the issue even when they were quite new. Since then another 300000 LEAFs have hit the road and as the issue still only seem to plague the early cars I suspect that the Gen 1.5 and newer had that sorted out. When the battery is topped up the middle LED is blinking and that can happen at any time. Never witnessed it with my own eyes though.

ELM327

As far as I know the leaf only tops up when the car is switched on, (driving or not)


Ioniq does it regardless (ie even if you park for a week you will not come back to a flat 12v unless your traction battery is also flat)

samih

ELM327 wrote: »

As far as I know the leaf only tops up when the car is switched on, (driving or not)

The evidence says otherwise. If somebody has the Gen 1.5 manual handy it may list the topup conditions there.

I know that the Gen 1 LEAF can flatten the 12 volt battery if left connected for a long time, as apparently it will never charge the battery after the initial topup has completed. This sounds like a bug to me.

It was also mentioned at the leaftalk forum back in the day that the telematics unit of the early cars can sometimes crash and go to infinite loop when the car is parked and that may also be one of the reasons why the early cars suffer more from the flat battery symptom.

ELM327

samih wrote: »

The evidence says otherwise. If somebody has the Gen 1.5 manual handy it may list the topup conditions there.

I know that the Gen 1 LEAF can flatten the 12 volt battery if left connected for a long time, as apparently it will never charge the battery after the initial topup has completed. This sounds like a bug to me.

It was also mentioned at the leaftalk forum back in the day that the telematics unit of the early cars can sometimes crash and go to infinite loop when the car is parked and that may also be one of the reasons why the early cars suffer more from the flat battery symptom.

So are you saying the leaf doesn't top up the 12v except at the end of load balancing on an AC charge?
Sure that's nonsense. I've ran 12 hour trips in my 24kWh leaf and using only DC there's no load balancing. The 12v would have emptied in that time with all the accessory use.

samih

ELM327 wrote: »

So are you saying the leaf doesn't top up the 12v except at the end of load balancing on an AC charge?
Sure that's nonsense. I've ran 12 hour trips in my 24kWh leaf and using only DC there's no load balancing. The 12v would have emptied in that time with all the accessory use.

The Gen 1 2011-12 had a bug that if you left the car connected for say a month, the 12 V battery would be flat after you returned.

ELM327

samih wrote: »

The Gen 1 2011-12 had a bug that if you left the car connected for say a month, the 12 V battery would be flat after you returned.

Ahhhh. Yes sorry I wasn't sure which part you were saying the evidence suggested otherwise.
I think the intended functionality was that it would top itself up but in actuality this never worked, as you say, for the first gen if connected for a long time.

Soarer

Well my new battery charger is arriving tomorrow, so hopefully an overnight charge every so often will cure things.

Of course, Nissan updating the software would've been a great help!

ELM327

It helps that you can monitor the 12v with leafspy and plug in a trickle charger if you need to.

samih

The "evidence" is the lack of reports of battery going flat on the >=350000 Gen1.5-2 LEAFs. But seems to be a problem with the first 20000 or so Gen 1 cars. Nissan has done "something" to fix the charging algorithms. I don't know what it is Nissan did but it seems to be working.

I noticed myself on the '15 LEAF that the leafspy reported battery voltage of less than 12 volts a few times when the car was plugged in at home and powered on (but not in the drive mode obviously as the cable was plugged in). As my battery was less than three years old when I changed the car and it was driven regularly I don't know if that could potentially be a problem.

Anybody here with 132 or newer car ever had a flat 12V battery? It's a small sample size but doesn't seem to be a common problem on the Sunderland LEAFs.

samih

Soarer wrote: »

Well my new battery charger is arriving tomorrow, so hopefully an overnight charge every so often will cure things.

Of course, Nissan updating the software would've been a great help!

Would be great if there was a socket in the engine bay where you could have such a charger plugged in all the time and it would then automatically topup the 12V batt when the car is plugged in. In the cold countries where ICE cars have engine block heaters such chargers are often installed in them.

OT: I have a Numax "Connect and Forget" charger in the camper van as Mr Benz tells in the manual that the starter battery should be disconnected if the van is not driven for more than 14 days. For me it's quicker to plug in the van when at home than to remove total of 7 screws and the necessary floor panels to disconnect the battery that is under the cab floor. Good design there, lol.

jasonb

Quick question...

Am I right in thinking that the Climate/Radio controls (e.g. Temp, Volume, Fan etc.) in the Centre Dash of a 151 L24 SV should have a ‘soft back light’ when you have the main lights on, so you can locate the buttons when driving at night? This back light is separate to the brighter light that comes on when you press the buttons.

I’m asking ‘cos when I was driving tonight I noticed there were no backlights on those buttons, and it looked unusual to me, so I’m thinking the backlights have stopped working, but I want to make sure I hadn’t imagined having them in the first place! For what it’s worth, the headlight tilt control isn’t moving the headlights either.

A little bit of history, I recently got my Leaf serviced in the local Nissan garage. I mentioned to them that the driver seat heat switch was working, but didn’t have the backlight (and the passenger seat heat switch did have it, so I knew the driver one should have it too). They looked into it and said they reckoned the switch was dodgy, but when I drove off the USB socket wasn’t working anymore. Brought it back and they fixed the USB socket, but that night I noticed the passenger seat and back seat heat switch backlights now weren’t working either!

Was planning to bring it back to get those three heat switches sorted and now I’ve noticed the other buttons’ lack of back lights, and the Headlight controls as well.

So, basically, was I imagining that those buttons had backlights or not?

Thanks!

highdef

Have had ongoing issues with the 152 Leaf sometimes not charging at night (on timer). Had the original ESB fitted charge point at home. Got the car checked out by Nissan and they said that whatever the problem was, it was not the car that was at fault. Got the charge point replaced a few weeks ago at a cost of €500 :mad:

All good until a few days ago. Heading to bed a few nights ago, I looked out the front door window (was snowing out so the view was pretty) and noticed that the car was not charging. It should have been at that stage as the battery was down to 4% when I got home earlier that evening. The charge point had a slowly flashing blue light which is expected behaviour and means that it is operating as normal and is not currently in charge mode. I had to switch off the timer to invoke charging. By commute time in the morning, the car had only got to 95% charge as there was not enough time for it to fully charge.

If I hadn't looked out the window, I would've had a dead car in the morning. As the new charge point is brand new and professionally installed, I think it's highly unlikely that I have another faulty home charge point. I suspect that the car is at fault. Anyone else have similar issues with a faulty Leaf? Can anyone advise what I should do next?

Soarer

jasonb wrote: »

Quick question...

Am I right in thinking that the Climate/Radio controls (e.g. Temp, Volume, Fan etc.) in the Centre Dash of a 151 L24 SV should have a ‘soft back light’ when you have the main lights on, so you can locate the buttons when driving at night? This back light is separate to the brighter light that comes on when you press the buttons.

I’m asking ‘cos when I was driving tonight I noticed there were no backlights on those buttons, and it looked unusual to me, so I’m thinking the backlights have stopped working, but I want to make sure I hadn’t imagined having them in the first place! For what it’s worth, the headlight tilt control isn’t moving the headlights either.

A little bit of history, I recently got my Leaf serviced in the local Nissan garage. I mentioned to them that the driver seat heat switch was working, but didn’t have the backlight (and the passenger seat heat switch did have it, so I knew the driver one should have it too). They looked into it and said they reckoned the switch was dodgy, but when I drove off the USB socket wasn’t working anymore. Brought it back and they fixed the USB socket, but that night I noticed the passenger seat and back seat heat switch backlights now weren’t working either!

Was planning to bring it back to get those three heat switches sorted and now I’ve noticed the other buttons’ lack of back lights, and the Headlight controls as well.

So, basically, was I imagining that those buttons had backlights or not?

Thanks!

Check if your number plate lights are working.

Like you, a couple of weeks ago I noticed my centre console lights weren't working. At the same time, the number plates and drivers' side rear parking lights were also out. Turned out to be a blown 10A fuse in location 7 (I think) of the awkward fuse box (under the bonnet, passenger side, everything upside down).
simple fix in the end. Just awkward as flog.

Soarer

highdef wrote: »

Have had ongoing issues with the 152 Leaf sometimes not charging at night (on timer). Had the original ESB fitted charge point at home. Got the car checked out by Nissan and they said that whatever the problem was, it was not the car that was at fault. Got the charge point replaced a few weeks ago at a cost of €500 :mad:

All good until a few days ago. Heading to bed a few nights ago, I looked out the front door window (was snowing out so the view was pretty) and noticed that the car was not charging. It should have been at that stage as the battery was down to 4% when I got home earlier that evening. The charge point had a slowly flashing blue light which is expected behaviour and means that it is operating as normal and is not currently in charge mode. I had to switch off the timer to invoke charging. By commute time in the morning, the car had only got to 95% charge as there was not enough time for it to fully charge.

If I hadn't looked out the window, I would've had a dead car in the morning. As the new charge point is brand new and professionally installed, I think it's highly unlikely that I have another faulty home charge point. I suspect that the car is at fault. Anyone else have similar issues with a faulty Leaf? Can anyone advise what I should do next?

Turn off the timer for a while and see if it works.

samih

jasonb wrote: »

Quick question...

Am I right in thinking that the Climate/Radio controls (e.g. Temp, Volume, Fan etc.) in the Centre Dash of a 151 L24 SV should have a ‘soft back light’ when you have the main lights on, so you can locate the buttons when driving at night? This back light is separate to the brighter light that comes on when you press the buttons.

So, basically, was I imagining that those buttons had backlights or not?

Thanks!

This was my 152:

highdef

Soarer wrote: »

Turn off the timer for a while and see if it works.

Have never had issues with the timer off. Having said that the timer is only ever switched off when parking on-street and when it had failed to initialised charging when it should do.

Will give it a go for a couple of weeks anyway, just to rule it out. It'll only cost a few euro extra in electricity.

jasonb

samih wrote: »

This was my 152:

Perfect, that's what I thought, just didn't know if I'd imagined it! Thanks...