2018-2019 Leaf 2.0 "Service EV System. Unable to restart after power off"

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

timbolovett

New member
Joined
Aug 31, 2018
Messages
1
Hi All! First post here... I did search but couldn't find anyone with the same issue.

My UK 2018 Leaf 2.0 Launch Edition is less than 6 months old, with under 6,000miles on the clock. Last week it failed to select Drive or Reverse with the error "Service EV System. Unable to restart after power off".

After getting her back to the dealer, we finally picked it back up two days ago. They admitted they hadn't seen the issue before and that it showed a "Rapid charger failure" diagnostic code. They couldn't confirm 100% that it was fixed but were "confident".

This morning, same thing happened. As anyone else had this? If so, and joy in proper diagnostics from a Dealer and a fix?

 
I have not seen that on my 2018 Leaf. However, it sounds like it may be an issue with the vehicle immobilizer system. Below is what I see in the manual on this system:

=================================
NISSAN VEHICLE IMMOBILIZER SYSTEM

The NISSAN Vehicle Immobilizer System will not allow the power switch to be placed in the READY to drive position without the
use of the registered key.

If the power switch fails to place the vehicle into the READY to drive position using the registered key, it may be due to interference
caused by another registered key, an automated toll road device or automated payment device on the key ring. Restart the
EV system using the following procedure:

1. Leave the power switch in the ON position for approximately 5 seconds.
2. Place the power switch in the OFF position and wait approximately 10 seconds.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 again.
4. Place the power switch in the READY to drive position while holding the device (which may have caused the interference) separate from the registered key.

If this procedure allows the power switch to be placed in the READY to drive mode, NISSAN recommends placing the registered key on a separate key ring to avoid interference from other devices.
=================================
 
My 2018 leaf (1200 miles) had the exact same failure symptoms 2 days ago. The dealer does not understand the problem. The failure happened after a Colorado snow storm. I had to shovel out the car. The technician may have detected a battery cell failure. Did you learn any more? I will report back with anything I learn
 
I had the same error message in mid-September with just over 500 miles on 2018 Nissan Leaf. i had to get the car towed to the dealer and drive a loaner for three weeks while the problem was fixed. Fortunately, the entire repair was under warranty and cost me nothing except for the inconvenience. As it was explained to me, the dealership had to remove the lithium-ion battery and take apart, test to find the problem and replace a couple of faulty modules. The repair took longer than expected, I was told, because initially some of the wrong parts arrived. The receipt shows installation of dam-rubber battery case, seal-battery, breather-battery case (quantity 2), betaseal 57302N and betaseal 43533 (2 of each), and battery sub assy - main. If not under warranty, the cost to me would have been $1354 for parts and $1165 for labor. I don't really understand the technical aspects of this, but the car seems to be working fine now.
 
I find this thread very interesting...and glad it got a few responses.
I don't know how many 2.0 Leafs have been sold, but it's safe to say it's a lot less than the 1.0 version...and I can't remember this many reports of "bad cells" in the first year or so of Leaf 1.0. Plus it doesn't seem isolated to any one region (or country).
 
My neighbor bought a new 2018 about 3 months ago - against my recommendation - and it is now at the dealer with the same symptom and diagnosis: two bad cells.
 
Seems to be more common than expected, as this happened to me this morning as well.

I did a search on the same error msg and found this post https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=26155
prior to your post.

I just hope it doesn't take weeks to fix. If so, they better give me a damn good loaner for the inconvenience, especially if I have to start paying for gas again.
 
My turn but this time in Japanese. (Because I'm in Japan.)

This popped up while I was driving home at around 10pm on Saturday. After parking and powering down the car, on restart the error message remained and will not engage D or R. Everything else seems to power up fine; climate control, lamps, infotainment system, etc.

The dealer towed it back on Sunday and while I was picking up the rental, the service manager came out. He said it's the first time he's seen this and can't find what's wrong with his initial assessment. He says he's going to have to sync up with specialists. The next day while looking at the app, I could see the car has been moved to a "Nissan Technics" facility, about 30km south of the dealer. I'm expecting a call today or tomorrow (Thursday) with diagnostics.

It's interesting. I let them push me into the "premium" maintenance package when purchasing the car, knowing there really isn't much to maintain, other then new software updates. I've been at the dealer for one thing after another and every visit had new software. The last visit was about two weeks ago for a "recall inspection". I don't know the specifics of what needed follow up inspection. They did go ahead do the "premium" maintenance as well which involves checking both the 12v and the big batteries. 12v was fine and the SOH for the big battery was still 100%, a bit surprised even after six months of usage.

Anyways the dealer was apologetic as they should be. No wiggle room since I did get the premium maintenance; previous visits I've expressed my disappointment at the poor governance Nissan is showing and wondered if it reflects on the engineering aspect as well; and purchased the car without the silly long negotiations.

All in all, the dealer is handling this well, arranging for the towing and a rental car. So this time they loaned a 2017 Leaf. I pointed out it has a smaller range and I was counting on the range for driving holiday in two weeks. They offered to change to 2018 Leaf if whatever repairs will extend into the holiday. I'm actually going to ask for either a 2019 Leaf e+ (60kwh version) or Serena e-power (Minivan with series hybrid (ICE to Battery to electric motor)).

The difference between the 2017 Leaf and 2018 Leaf surprised me. While it drives almost the same (no e-pedal / weaker regen), the little things have a lot of impact. The 2018 has better seats; electronic parking brake; better infotainment (apple car play and others); better dashboard; and better center console. The doors, A pillars, and rear hatch area seems the same!
 
There was a higher than typical cell failure rate for the early 2016 30kwh packs, so there is precedent.

As for the midsection of the car seeming pretty much the same as the Gen I Leaf, that's because it IS mostly the same shell. They reused much of the first Leaf to save costs. I remember when photos of a camouflaged Leaf "test mule" came out: I argued that there was no need to build an all-new car, as there was plenty of room in the center, and whatever was needed to be new in the front and rear could just be added to that, and no one hated the Gen I midsection. It turned out that I and others who deduced the same thing were correct. The "test mules" were the actual prototypes.
 
Nissan finally called after having the car for five days and said a bad cell triggered the error message. Strange since three weeks prior to the break down, during recall inspection plus maintenance, the diagnostics showed the batteries SOH (assuming it means State Of Health) at 100%.

They said it would take no more then three weeks for whatever repairs, bringing the car back to us before Japan's Golden Week and my plan for a 1,100km (684mi) road trip. I was sort of hoping that repairs would over run into the holiday so I can get Nissan to swap the 2017 Leaf with something more suited for these road trips. It's back to figuring out logistics for charging along the way.
 
I'm not sure what the dealership is calling the "SOH" but it's rare for even a new Leaf to read 100% SOH on LeafSpy. I suspect that it's something more akin to their worthless "Battery Health Report" with its fine granularity of one to five asterisks...
 
Just had that happen to me.
2018 SV with 8k miles, built in March, bought in June
Got "Service EV system unable to restart" message. So I did the usual checks of 12V battery and all that but got nowhere.
Leaf Spy pulled two DTCs:
P31E7 000B Restart inhibition EVC-310
P0AA6 1A08 Hybrid battery sys isolation fault EVC-157

Had it towed in, dealer just called to tell me it's a bad cell in the pack and it'll be at least a week of fixing.
Driving gas loaner meanwhile :(
 
If you folks haven't yet, please add these reports to the '2018 Leaf defects' topic. Now I'm getting worried about mine, although I don't know that I ever drive fast up a hill with less than 50% SOC...
 
This is either the tip of the iceberg of just within the expected defects that slip past quality control.

Anecdata but my failure is with 7,000km at Tokyo speeds. Mostly putting around under 60kph on rolling hills. Have taken road trips at highway “speeds”; gone up long uphill grades at speed; and managed to take it down to 6% charge left. I am a bit of a lead foot but still manage to not touch the brake pedal using ePedal.

Has been at the dealer almost at three months intervals for non-repair inspections. I know they’ve pulled usage data as they comment how the car is driven. Hmmm... curious. They did tell my wife that short trips are bad for the battery but didn’t explain in what ways.
 
The first 30kwh packs had a fairly high cell failure rate. I don't know if the cell manufacturing process is just glitchy at first with new cells, or if packing them in so tightly is causing problems.
 
Taking a peek through the Nissan EV, I could see my car is now charging at the specialist repair facility. I take it this as a signal that whatever repair has been completed.

* It's now day 11. (Car is charging)
* Nissan consumer facing seems to take a day off Tuesday, day 10, and the car was responding but idle.
* On day 9, car was offline during the day and but by the evening back online.

So I'm guessing that it took a day to make whatever repairs.
 
Got mine back. Took 22 days, of these three or four of actual work and rest waiting for parts. Here is the writeup (also had them replace chattering wiper blades). 11 hours of labor for battery cell. Oh and apparently each module is a cool $500+
LeafBat.png
 
Back
Top