2013 Nissan Leaf ran out of charge while driving.

Hello, hopefully this is the right spot for this. Today I was driving my Leaf and ran into an unfortunate predicament of being just a little too far away from a charging station. We're talking like the car died in the Whole Foods parking loot maybe 30 yards from the charging stations. OK np, I'll just get some people to help me push the car to the chargers. Except I made the very bad mistake of turning the car off and this is where the story becomes a problem I can't seem to solve. The entire car has become unresponsive in terms of powering up. My guess is the 12v died too but I don't understand why that would happen. The 12v has done nothing to this point to give me any sort of issues and for it to lose it's charge so quickly after the car did the same is sort of baffling to me. So now the car is parked in the EV charging spot in front of my apartment. I've tried to just plus in the L2 charger but it doesn't do anything, just costs me money every time it fails to charge the car. The windows are half down (had dogs in the car when it died didn't want to roll them up at the time). What is my move here? How do I get the car to accept a charge again?

Do you have access to one of those battery jumper packs that you can plug into a 12V power outlet in the car & reverse charge the 12V battery & allow the car to boot up?

^^^
I was going to suggest a 12 volt jump back but not via the power outlet. Attach positive to the positive terminal of the 12 volt and negative to the exposed portion of the black cable that's attached to the right side of the PDM stack (the stack w/the Nissan logo on top of it).

That might be good enough to get the car's 12 volt powered so that it accepts a charge.

I seem to recall reading that, as a last ditch effort to get you to a charging station, the car will drain the 12 volt battery, "backwards" through the converter and inverter, before it stops. That is to say, I'm sure I read it, but don't know if it's true, because that is really a tiny amount of extra range extracted. Mere yards, I imagine...

HerdingElectrons said:

Do you have access to one of those battery jumper packs that you can plug into a 12V power outlet in the car & reverse charge the 12V battery & allow the car to boot up?

Click to expand...

I do not but I assume I can call AAA and have them bring a battery jumper?

LeafinSF said:

HerdingElectrons said:

Do you have access to one of those battery jumper packs that you can plug into a 12V power outlet in the car & reverse charge the 12V battery & allow the car to boot up?

Click to expand...

I do not but I assume I can call AAA and have them bring a battery jumper?

Click to expand...

Yes. As noted you can't use the 12 volt socket, but have to jump the battery directly. Make sure they do it the safe way, with the last connection made to a ground on the car, not a battery terminal.

LeftieBiker said:

LeafinSF said:

HerdingElectrons said:

Do you have access to one of those battery jumper packs that you can plug into a 12V power outlet in the car & reverse charge the 12V battery & allow the car to boot up?

Click to expand...

I do not but I assume I can call AAA and have them bring a battery jumper?

Click to expand...

Yes. As noted you can't use the 12 volt socket, but have to jump the battery directly. Make sure they do it the safe way, with the last connection made to a ground on the car, not a battery terminal.

Click to expand...

Will do, thanks for the help

In the future, if you ever plan to run that low, you should get Leaf Spy and a known compatible (with Leaf Spy) OBD2 dongle that's appropriate for your phone OS.

Its smarter GOM will help guide/encourage you to drive in a way so that you don't run out of juice. And, you will have visibility as to battery status after the % SOC display turns to ---%.

cwerdna said:

In the future, if you ever plan to run that low, you should get Leaf Spy and a known compatible (with Leaf Spy) OBD2 dongle that's appropriate for your phone OS.

Its smarter GOM will help guide/encourage you to drive in a way so that you don't run out of juice. And, you will have visibility as to battery status after the % SOC display turns to ---%.

Click to expand...

I've had the car for years now this has never happened before. The charger by my GFs house wasn't working last night or I would have grabbed some juice there. I slightly miscalculated how far I could go heh, was so close!

LeftieBiker said:

I seem to recall reading that, as a last ditch effort to get you to a charging station, the car will drain the 12 volt battery, "backwards" through the converter and inverter, before it stops. That is to say, I'm sure I read it, but don't know if it's true, because that is really a tiny amount of extra range extracted. Mere yards, I imagine...

Click to expand...

This is not correct. The 12-volt battery cannot supply energy to the traction motor because the DC-DC converter will not function "backwards" to send energy toward the higher voltage system. The 12-volt battery will be drained if you don't turn the car completely off after the main contactor opens because the computer systems, HVAC fan, lights, etc. draw enough power to discharge it in less than an hour.

LeftieBiker said:

Make sure they do it the safe way, with the last connection made to a ground on the car, not a battery terminal.

Click to expand...

Why can't you connect the red from the jump pack to the red terminal on the battery, and the black from the jump pack to the black terminal on the battery? Why connect it to the black wire on the PDM stack or a ground on the car?

Lothsahn said:

LeftieBiker said:

Make sure they do it the safe way, with the last connection made to a ground on the car, not a battery terminal.

Click to expand...

Why can't you connect the red from the jump pack to the red terminal on the battery, and the black from the jump pack to the black terminal on the battery? Why connect it to the black wire on the PDM stack or a ground on the car?

Click to expand...

There is usually a spark when making the last connection so it is slightly safer to be farther from the battery in case the battery has been releasing hydrogen gas.

From my '13 manual it also says:

Do not attempt to perform a jump start
on the 12-volt battery at the same time
that the Li-ion battery is being
charged. Doing so may damage the
vehicle or charging equipment and
could cause an injury.

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and

Always connect positive (+) to positive
(+) and negative (-) to body ground (for
example, as illustrated), not to the 12-
volt battery.

Click to expand...

Lothsahn said:

Why can't you connect the red from the jump pack to the red terminal on the battery, and the black from the jump pack to the black terminal on the battery? Why connect it to the black wire on the PDM stack or a ground on the car?

Click to expand...

Also search for posts by Ingineer with the words current sensor, if this link doesn't work: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/search.php?keywords=current+sensor+negative&terms=all&author=ingineer&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search.

Lothsahn said:

LeftieBiker said:

Make sure they do it the safe way, with the last connection made to a ground on the car, not a battery terminal.

Click to expand...

Why can't you connect the red from the jump pack to the red terminal on the battery, and the black from the jump pack to the black terminal on the battery? Why connect it to the black wire on the PDM stack or a ground on the car?

Click to expand...

In addition to what Gerry said, that's long been the recommendation, even showing up in owners manuals of cars. Some cars even have a specific place to attach the black cable to minimize this risk.