12 volt Battery dying while charging leaf

The Leaf S, does not have a Solar Panel on it, I believe it is just the SV or does the SL have a panel as well? Not that it does much, but better than nothing, although our Leaf is garaged so it wouldn't help much anyway.

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Only older Leaf SLs have the solar panel. It does seem to help if the car is parked in full sun for many hours a day.

tobleafornot said:

Been having this problem too after years of no problems. New battery did not help at all. This is absolutely stupid that you have to charge two batteries. Definitely something faulty with the whole thing. Time for a recall Nissan.

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Nissan COULD have prevented the issues by using a lithium battery for the 12V system. But, seriously: where do you think an automaker could get its hands on that kind of technology??? <Pffft!> Please....

LeftieBiker said:

The Leaf S, does not have a Solar Panel on it, I believe it is just the SV or does the SL have a panel as well? Not that it does much, but better than nothing, although our Leaf is garaged so it wouldn't help much anyway.

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Only older Leaf SLs have the solar panel. It does seem to help if the car is parked in full sun for many hours a day.

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I've only parked my car in the sun on weekends, my driveway, during the week it's in a parking structure during the days. I've never had an issue with my 12 volt battery, as far as I can tell, it runs the radio, lights etc yes ?? I do have the SL, so I have the solar panel on my roof.

Well, our Leaf just signed its death warrant. Dead again. My 12 volt battery has been running down way too frequently. Yesterday I gave it a good charge from my external charger, and this morning it was dead again. A quick charge didn't help. I unhooked the battery and waited a minute and then hooked it back up. It started fine. Three hours later it is still fine. But tonight? Who knows? Tomorrow? It's all a guess. I am beyond frustrated at this defect. My wife will not drive the car to work because she doesn't know if it will start, and I can't blame her. I have been having problems like ths for three years with a four year old car.

All of this sounds like a parasitic draw on the 12v battery when the car is off. First, I would take a voltage reading of the battery when the car is off. Then turn on the ignition and headlights. The voltage should go up from 12.xx to about 14.xx If the voltage does not go up, then the "alternator/ generator" part of the car is not working.

If the voltage goes up, then you need to have a mechanic hook up an ammeter to the battery when the car is off to see if there is a parasitic voltage draw. Cannot be too difficult because this happens with cars all the time. and it has nothing to do with the car being an EV..

Unfortunately we have gone through this as well since the car was new. It is quite random and hard to trace and very annoying. It is so frustrating to have no issues, start up and drive somewhere, shut the car off, 3 hours later come out to a dead 12v battery, knowing we have a traction pack with lots of power in it right there, but no way to access it.

We have resorted to carrying a 12v 9ah small sealed lead acid battery with alligator clips, it works like a charm, but a pain, even my wife knows what to do when the 12v is dead, so much so she doesn't even call me, sometime later she will just say "Oh I had to jump the Leaf again today". Also about a month ago I disconnected the shunt or sensor on the 12v battery itself, this causes the car to keep the 12v battery at 13.9v in my case, which charges the 12v battery more than it would otherwise. So far (knocking on wood) we have not had to jump it once and when I do a top off weekly charge it goes in to float in a matter of minutes where in the past sometimes it would be many hours.

I have tried checking phantom loads and only once have I caught a 2 amp load on when the car was "off". I checked everything and saw nothing on, I power cycled the car and then it was gone. I am convinced it isn't a small consistent phantom drain, but rather something larger that stays on and runs the aux battery flat. I so wish when I had caught it I started pulling fuses to see what it was.

We need a momentary emergency "push to jump" button from the traction battery

Am I right to assume this mostly affects 2013 era cars? I don't have any hard facts but it seems that most of the problem cars are from around that era.

They seem to have either resolved or reduced the problem in 2014.

Levenkay said:

Nissan COULD have prevented the issues by using a lithium battery for the 12V system. But, seriously: where do you think an automaker could get its hands on that kind of technology??? <Pffft!> Please....

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There's a good reason for that: Lithium 12v batteries are way too expensive to put in every car.
I spent ~$500 on mine, but the upside is: I haven't had a dead 12v battery in almost 5 years (and Texas is very hard on 12v batteries).

powersurge said:

All of this sounds like a parasitic draw on the 12v battery when the car is off. First, I would take a voltage reading of the battery when the car is off. Then turn on the ignition and headlights. The voltage should go up from 12.xx to about 14.xx If the voltage does not go up, then the "alternator/ generator" part of the car is not working.

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Leaf has no "alternator/ generator". There is the DC to DC converter that takes its place.

Also, if you actuate the wipers, one should see the voltage on the 12 volt bus jump and stay elevated for awhile before it falls back to ~12.88 volts or very low 13-ish volts (if memory serves).

DanDietrich said:

Well, our Leaf just signed its death warrant. Dead again. My 12 volt battery has been running down way too frequently. Yesterday I gave it a good charge from my external charger, and this morning it was dead again. A quick charge didn't help. I unhooked the battery and waited a minute and then hooked it back up. It started fine. Three hours later it is still fine. But tonight? Who knows? Tomorrow? It's all a guess. I am beyond frustrated at this defect. My wife will not drive the car to work because she doesn't know if it will start, and I can't blame her. I have been having problems like ths for three years with a four year old car.

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My guess is that your battery is now sulfated to the point where it will no longer hold much charge. This is the result of the LEAF's charging system not keeping the battery fully charged over the years.

My suggestion is that you replace the battery.

DanDietrich said:

Well, our Leaf just signed its death warrant. Dead again. My 12 volt battery has been running down way too frequently. Yesterday I gave it a good charge from my external charger, and this morning it was dead again. A quick charge didn't help. I unhooked the battery and waited a minute and then hooked it back up. It started fine. Three hours later it is still fine. But tonight? Who knows? Tomorrow? It's all a guess. I am beyond frustrated at this defect. My wife will not drive the car to work because she doesn't know if it will start, and I can't blame her. I have been having problems like ths for three years with a four year old car.

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Besides the 12 volt possibly being toast, I noticed you have a '14 SV.

Did you pay to get the TCU upgaded to 3G? If so, that might be the cause of a drain. NTB18-045 is supposed to resolve that. If not and you're still on the non-functional 2G TCU, then that's probably not the issue.

If you/your wife is concerned about a no-start condition due to a dead 12 volt, bring along a charged 12 volt jump pack. I've been doing that for years. The 12 volt on my used '13 Leaf (built 5/2013) bit the dust around Oct 2015. Dealer replaced it for free under the 3 year/36K warranty. I bought the car used in July 2015.

Thanks all,
I posted more out of frustration. I have done all of the above. I'll give a different dealer one last shot to fix it, but then it has to go. I do keep a jump start battery with me, a precaution I have never needed before in over 30 years of owning cars and trucks. For me, when it dies I can drive my reliable 34 year old Ford truck. Frankly, there are too many folks here accepting this as normal, or an evil necessity. This condition is a stupid oversight that Nissan should have taken care of years ago. I just cannot see ever buying another one of their cars, especially after having a dealer tell me multiple times that there is nothing wrong, or that all of the information I have passed on from these boards as to potential causes is wrong because that's not what Nissan is telling them when they email the company. One time they rebuilt half of my traction battery, which had no problems, because they were told to by the factory rep. It took them three weeks.
Of course, when I take it in I am sure it will be running perfectly.

Here is my follow up:
A different dealer had my car for 4 days. They were very friendly, and performed three software updates, all under warranty, to fix the various issues. That included the TSB for the telemetrics gizmo. I arrived to pick it up. They had charged it, unplugged it to wash it, and plugged it back in. It would not start, giving me the dash lights and T/M fault, see dealer light again. They were stunned that it happened. I was not. They still have the car.

I am not happy it happened to you, but I am really happy it happened at the dealer, I have never had that "luck" if you call it that. It would be amazing if they can figure it out. So far with 3 weeks now since I have removed the sensor on the 12v battery I haven't had an issue (knocking on wood), but I believe that is becasue the car stays in the higher state of charge, which charges the 12v full, so it can handle that drain when it gets stuck on. Obviously if it sits for a long time this won't help, but we use ours pretty regularly so it stays more charged. Oh I also put in the next size up 12v battery in the car
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18129&p=439206#p439206

Well, They still have the car. They charged the battery and it has been running perfectly for them. They can find nothing wrong. So I will go tomorrow or Friday to pick it up. My 84 F250 has bounced out enough of my teeth for now. I want my car back.
Now for the ethical problem. I want to sell the car privately. I will put a larger new battery in it, and I guess I will tell the buyer to check the charge every couple of weeks. I'll have to take a bit off the price, but I cannot in good conscience sell the car without disclosing this.
I think I will by a used ICE car to run for two years or so, because I am not thrilled with any of the electric cars on the road right now, and keep hearing promises of new models.
I am really bummed about this. I love having an electric car to go with my solar panels.

BrockWi,
I just checked your link. Did you get the Rogue tray and strap from a dealer or online? I think I am going to try that. Thanks, and good luck to the Brewers.

DanDietrich said:

Well, They still have the car. They charged the battery and it has been running perfectly for them. They can find nothing wrong. So I will go tomorrow or Friday to pick it up. My 84 F250 has bounced out enough of my teeth for now. I want my car back.
Now for the ethical problem. I want to sell the car privately. I will put a larger new battery in it, and I guess I will tell the buyer to check the charge every couple of weeks. I'll have to take a bit off the price, but I cannot in good conscience sell the car without disclosing this.
I think I will by a used ICE car to run for two years or so, because I am not thrilled with any of the electric cars on the road right now, and keep hearing promises of new models.
I am really bummed about this. I love having an electric car to go with my solar panels.

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Buy a Battery Tender JR and hardwire connection for it, and install the latter. Include them with the car and tell the the buyer to hook it up once every few weeks overnight, or until the light turns green.

I don't have to buy one, I've been using one for a while. What kind of discount would you expect if the seller told you you would need to do that to a 4 year old car?

DanDietrich said:

I don't have to buy one, I've been using one for a while. What kind of discount would you expect if the seller told you you would need to do that to a 4 year old car?

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I think you need to find a buyer who isn't horrified at the idea, more than offer a specific discount, because if they don't know how to do it, or won't bother, the discount won't matter much. If you find an interested buyer, I think a new AGM battery, with a larger capacity, would be enough incentive.