Catastrophic Failure of 2012 Leaf

[LTLFTcomposite]

Yikes. This really blows.

Please post your story on Nissan Electric's Facebook page so we can like/share it.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Like means not like of course. This community should be relentless in having Nissan answer for the reliability of their products and if this is really what they consider to be the ownership experience their customers should expect.

 

[JimSouCal]

Do you really think "catastrophic" is the most appropriate adjective given the facts you've described so far?

cat·a·stroph·ic /kade'sträfik/ adjective- (2) extremely unfortunate or unsuccessful.

I do think that this failure is extremely unfortunate on my part and extremely unsuccessful on Nissan's part. If you were being asked to shell out $1,500 just to figure out what needs to be fixed you might consider it catastrophic too.

At first I was going to cajole you on the catastrophic, but now, it's escalated to qualify... What is the name of the dealership? Sorry for the hassle, but maybe you might save others from a similar fate as it'd seem to me that are not playing fair? I would call them out here for the karma...

 

[SageBrush]

If this was Toyota, they would have a REAL qualified tech out to the site figuring out the problem, free of charge to the customer.
This just sounds like an incompetent dealership.

 

[FalconFour]

Yeah, no, they'd better not be charging you. I highly suggest calling the Nissan EV hotline and detail a bit of your experience so far (including some of the info we've given - particularly that the dealer is wanting to charge for diagnosis per-hour).

EV Customer Support Team
Phone: (877) NO GAS EV (or 877-664-2738)
Monday through Saturday:
7:00 AM to 11:00 PM, Central Time
Chat Now with an EV Support Team Member

And yeah, you can also call the dealer up and remind them about the 120v EVSE in the trunk to remind them of their incompetence and lack of grounds for charging diagnosis per-hour... a 120V EVSE functions exactly the same way as the 240V one! It's only a voltage difference under the hood; the brick functions exactly the same in every other way for all diagnostic purposes. FWIW, I work in building/fixing/engineering EVSEs for a living, maybe worth a few points to those guys

Had they heard of a CONSULT unit? :lol: Hooking it up ought to point straight to the problem, to see why the car won't drive...

 

[NOGASHOLE]

So when they first got my LEAF at the dealership they told me that it threw 15-20 different codes when they first hooked it up. The diagnostic steps they are following are supposedly straight from Nissan technical support.

 

[SageBrush]

A smart tech knows which DTC to ignore and which are true hints.
These people are idiots

 

[Rebel44]

A smart tech knows which DTC to ignore and which are true hints.
These people are idiots

As someone working in systems that can throw hundreds of alarms/errors for a single issue, I agree with that statement. If they were competent they should know what errors are interconnected and how + what root cause is most likely with that combination of errors.

 

[Jedlacks]

Each service writer has his or her own crew. If the task is assigned by the service writer to a tech that has now clue, the only person that can assign it to another crew is the service manager. The service writer will not want to let that job go because he or she would lose the revenue from that task. And the service writer or the manager will not want to admit defeat with the first crew because it would mean walking away from all the accumulated profit.

Also remember that each crew has its own "self proclaimed Leaf Expert", and that complicates everything

What they want the OP to do is walk into the sales room and buy another one.

 

[NOGASHOLE]

Each service writer has his or her own crew. If the task is assigned by the service writer to a tech that has now clue, the only person that can assign it to another crew is the service manager. The service writer will not want to let that job go because he or she would lose the revenue from that task. And the service writer or the manager will not want to admit defeat with the first crew because it would mean walking away from all the accumulated profit.

I'm not sure that there is much of that going on around here. Most Nissan dealerships in this part of the world only have one certified LEAF tech and I think even that is only because Nissan requires them to have one if they want to sell LEAFs.

What they want the OP to do is walk into the sales room and buy another one.

I'm sure they would love for me to do that. They would love it even more if I bought another Nissan ICE vehicle so they wouldn't have to bother servicing these pesky EVs.

I don't think I would ever buy another new LEAF. My current issues aside, I could buy any vintage of LEAF in like-new condition with half as many miles as mine has for 5K-10K. This is why I am having such a difficult time justifying any 4 digit repair bill for this vehicle.

 

[TomT]

One of the varied reasons why Nissan is off my list... Corporate should never allow such shenanigans and should have stepped in long ago!

The next day I called roadside assistance and had the car flatbedded to the second closest Nissan dealership to my house. They did indeed charge me $150 to replace the 12 volt battery in addition to $360 for diagnostic work. There is still no change in the condition. They still have not managed to identify the problem.

They have, however, complained repeatedly that they keep having to push the non-functional LEAF from the LEAF technician's service bay up/down the hill to the level 2 charger on the other side of the building in order to follow the diagnostic steps from Nissan.

 

[NOGASHOLE]

At the point I was told that the next series of diagnostic steps would cost an additional $1,000, I contacted LEAF customer service to see if they would stand behind their product given my circumstances. The customer service agent advised me that the 2012 LEAF had a five year warranty on both the "power train" and the "electronics." I have a hard time comprehending how this issue (The car not being able to shift into Drive or Reverse) would not be either an "Power Train" or "electronics" issue.

The service guy at the dealership keeps telling me Nissan Technical support is targeting parts with a 3year/36,000 mile warranty and was insisting upon authorization from to proceed with 9-11 hour diagnostic procedure.

I did authorize the procedure based on the advice I received from the Nissan LEAF customer service agent....

 

[Phatcat73]

Anywhere else the diagnostic fee would be credited towards the repair. Is this the case here?

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

You said the car has 55,000 miles, it's also less than 60 months?

 

[NOGASHOLE]

You said the car has 55,000 miles, it's also less than 60 months?

That is correct, just barely.

The dealership has made no claims the diagnostics charges will be applied towards the repair and I don't expect that it will. I am however hoping and expecting that it will be covered under warranty and it won't matter to me.

 

[sub3marathonman]

They have, however, complained repeatedly that they keep having to push the non-functional LEAF from the LEAF technician's service bay up/down the hill to the level 2 charger on the other side of the building in order to follow the diagnostic steps from Nissan.

Now that sounds catastrophic... from their point of view. :lol:

Well, not really, they're charging $120/hour to do it.

 

[Stoaty]

They have, however, complained repeatedly that they keep having to push the non-functional LEAF from the LEAF technician's service bay up/down the hill to the level 2 charger on the other side of the building in order to follow the diagnostic steps from Nissan.

Now that sounds catastrophic... from their point of view. :lol:

Well, not really, they're charging $120/hour to do it.

That is probably the highest paid unskilled manual labor available.

 

[JimSouCal]

Sorry about this... The scenario defies my understanding of what is considered reasonable... A form of LEAF death by $20 bill paper cuts. It would seem a competent tech would have this right away... Intermittent problems are the tough ones... I don't get it... Sorry to the OP--if this doesn't sort out more fairly in the end, no one should EVER buy a Nissan every again...

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Sorry about this... The scenario defies my understanding of what is considered reasonable... A form of LEAF death by $20 bill paper cuts. It would seem a competent tech would have this right away... Intermittent problems are the tough ones... I don't get it... Sorry to the OP--if this doesn't sort out more fairly in the end, no one should EVER buy a Nissan every again...

As I mentioned a few posts back, this warrants a mass response on social media *IF* Nissan doesn't come through with a fair resolution and OP substantiates some details... unless of course he'd prefer not.
Nissan and Infiniti have a presence on Facebook they may not appreciate being constantly bombarded.

In addition to that EV support number there is also:
Nissan Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 685003
Franklin, TN 37068-5003
Phone: (800) NISSAN-1 (or 800-647-7261)

Monday through Friday:
7:00 AM to 10:00 PM CST

Saturday:
7:00 AM to 5:00 PM CST

 

[FalconFour]

Seriously? I'd be livid. There's no way I could slip a cool grand under anyone's nose for any reason whatsoever, let alone an issue that very obviously is covered by the powertrain warranty. Not just because it's completely absurd to do so (there's absolutely no grounds for them to charge for diagnosis... the car tells them right-freakin'-there what the problem is!), but because I don't have the money to throw at it!

I'd immediately ask to know what the CONSULT system is telling them - DTCs and what they translate to. Just a basic printout from the system. You've already afforded that much. Then, you can post that here, and we might be able to one-up the dealers' technicians...

And while we can't really bang on Nissan's door on your behalf (they'd just tell us to go away, probably), I think it's worth banging on a few more doors. Just commenting on Nissan Electric's FB page posts tends to get some notice.