Rear lights on while charging?

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pablotzvir

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
10
Hello all!

Just got a CPO 2013 S leaf and am getting ready to drive it.

Quick question as I'm concerned. I'm home and just plugged it for the first time on a trickle charger. It seems odd but it appears the daytime running lights turn on when it's plugged in to the trickle charger (front orange lights and back red lights and license plate light). Is this normal as I couldn't find a video or posting if this is normal?

I imported from the USA to Canada and had to get the daytime running lights installed and am wondering if the technician did something funny while installing or if it's normal for the exterior lights, as mentioned, are on...

If it's not normal, I assume my 12 volt battery wouldn't die as the lithium battery would charge it to prevent it from dying?

Thank you all for your help!

Very excited.
 
If the lights are only one while charging it shouldn't be a major problem. If they are still on with the car plugged in but with charging over, then you have a problem.
 
Well it's definitely not normal.

Trying to imagine what the installer could have done... tapped into the wrong relay?
 
I installed DRLs myself, as detailed here:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23225&hilit=DRLs&start=10#p483505

You'll find, in the forum post I referenced, someone who had the same issue as you (lights coming on during charging). The root cause was tapping into the wrong wire, which is very likely what your installer did.

My total cost was about $40, most of which was for the LED lightbars.

I bought ones similar to this, but mine have 5 LEDs instead of 3:

http://www.lightdepot.ca/12v-led-drl-led-daytime-running-light-white-p-374.html

I would take it back and tell them to wire it properly, but if you get no joy with that then it's not hard to do yourself.
 
Thank you all for your replies!

The drls all turn off when charging is complete (and still plugged in), so that was reassuring.

Curious though, when this does happen where the lights are on while charging, I assume the 12v battery wouldn't die as it would continually be charged from the lithium ion battery I would think?

Thank you for helping alleviate my concerns all! Very excited about driving more as after the 23 plus hours of hauling, I've only driven for about 5 minutes due to family commitments.

P.
 
So a bit of an update.

I have a technician going to take a look at it out of the Cdn tire who will be doing the riv inspection. I personally don't want to mess anything up. Had a tech near a Cdn tire at the border do it originally.

I literally may be the only leaf owner in this part of the country as I think the nearest owners are near Winnipeg.
 
Curious though, when this does happen where the lights are on while charging, I assume the 12v battery wouldn't die as it would continually be charged from the lithium ion battery I would think?

The lights won't kill the 12 volt battery, but they will consume a significant portion of the charge that is supposed to go to it. This may result in chronic undercharging of the accessory battery, depending on your driving habits.
 
It looks like the initial problem of the daytime running lights turning on has led to a second problem.

I plugged in last night with my li-on battery low. All seemed good but I wake up this morning and the li-on battery lights weren't blinking at all.

I go in the car to power on and it says key not detected... I had my key.

So, I figured the 12v was likely low and threw a charger on that one.

In the interim, the li-on battery isn't charging... It seems the 12v need to have some power for the li-on to charge? Does that make sense or should one be able to charge the li-on regardless if the 12v is removed to charge separately?
 
I have a 2014 SL. You guys have DRL??? mine does not. Was that just an option or is there a way to turn it on?
 
@pyromancy5 have a look at the link I posted earlier in this thread. It takes a little over an hour to add DRLs as a DIY project. Canadian model cars have DRLs as that's required by law, but the stock implementation is different (my understanding is that Nissan uses the high beams in a series circuit to half the voltage).
 
So something else has come up. When I turn my car off, a fan sound will run. It's about 65 here so I assume it's too warm for the battery warmer to be running?
 
pablotzvir said:
It looks like the initial problem of the daytime running lights turning on has led to a second problem.

I plugged in last night with my li-on battery low. All seemed good but I wake up this morning and the li-on battery lights weren't blinking at all.

I go in the car to power on and it says key not detected... I had my key.

So, I figured the 12v was likely low and threw a charger on that one.

In the interim, the li-on battery isn't charging... It seems the 12v need to have some power for the li-on to charge? Does that make sense or should one be able to charge the li-on regardless if the 12v is removed to charge separately?

The Li-ion battery will not charge if the 12-volt battery is too low to operate the computers and the main DC power contactor. You really need to undo whatever was done to your car by the technician trying to make the parking lights function as DRLs. It is clear from the symptoms you have that several circuits are tied together which should not be and strange things happen whenever one of those circuits is turned on.
 
As I feared, the DRLs are consuming power that would normally charge the 12 volt battery. Until you get it resolved, use an external charger on that battery every few days.
 
Definitely not an option in USA Leafs. It comes standard in Canada though. Different wiring set-up, unfortunately.
 
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