PBW SSOFF relay clicks every 5 seconds

After I parked the car today, I hear a clicking sound under the hood every few seconds. Opened and found the relay marked as "PBW SSOFF" seems to be the one clicked. Any one knows what this is for? Thanks!

Of the top of my head I would say it has to do with the PARKING BRAKE WARNING SIGNAL SWITCH OFF. Or parking brake warning system switch off. It sounds like your parking brake switch is going bad and/or sticking. Or doesn't want to do system shutdown related to the parking brake or park position on the shift.

yujungchang said:

After I parked the car today, I hear a clicking sound under the hood every few seconds. Opened and found the relay marked as "PBW SSOFF" seems to be the one clicked. Any one knows what this is for and how to remove this relay? Thanks!

Click to expand...

Do you have LeafSpy running nearby? It causes a relay to click incessantly if not kept away from the car.

I did have the ELM adapter plugged in at that time, however my phone was not near by and I've been using that adapter for the past couple years. I left the adapter plugged in quite often when I forgot to remove it, but never saw this issue. The only thing I added recently was the Papago GS200 dash cam, but that went off when it detected no power from its adapter. Don't think that was the cause of the issue either. Also the car is parked inside my garage, so I did not use brake, besides the shift in "P".

Spent couple hours searching the Leaf service manual PDF files, but can't find exactly matched terminologies. I measured the terminal voltage after removing the relay, 1-2 is ~5V and 3-5 is 12V. I also swapped out the same spec relay(F/S CHG) nearby and it also clicked. So the problem was not the failed relay, but the circuit itself. Since it still clicked after several hours(with another lighter/less frequent click near the right engine compartment), I decided to turn it back on and see if it still starts. Or will it give out error codes and failed catastrophically? After turning back on and shutting down again with no errors, the mystery problem went away. Also both 1-2 and 3-5 terminals are all 12V when the car returned normal.

I had once worked on finding all the relays in that box in the service manual. PBW seems to be
Nissan's term for electric shift. I do not know how the letters corespond, though did find those
letters for part numbers in a Honda shifter(maybe coincidence). SSOFF stands for Self Shut OFF.
I found the SSOFF relay in the TM part of the manual, for me it used connector E56 on page 52
showing the wiring diagram , page 35 showing the circuit diagram. This was the power supply
relay for, and controlled by the electric shift control module.

Some more thoughts. The Electric Shift Control Module does control the parking brake
(so maybe PB does mean parking brake) I wonder if it was not satisfied that the parking
pawl was engaged, so was struggling with deciding about turning off the main power supply.

cliff said:

Some more thoughts. The Electric Shift Control Module does control the parking brake
(so maybe PB does mean parking brake) I wonder if it was not satisfied that the parking
pawl was engaged, so was struggling with deciding about turning off the main power supply.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I think it could be the SSOFF(for VCM) as well, because it was listed together with the F/S CHG relay and other MTR relays. The part number does not even listed in the service manual, wonder how does the Nissan technician cross reference the parts he need?

SSOFF Relay INFOID:0000000006977087
The SSOFF (self shutoff) relay supplies power to VCM and the coil of the A/C relay. The SSOFF relay is controlled
by VCM so that VCM can shut off VCM power (self shutoff).

The PBW SS OFF relay is the one that clicks when running an older version of Leaf Spy. I had that relay fail to drop out once in a while on the 2011. It would result in an ominous message on the dash indicating T/M Failure--See Dealer (not sure of exact wording). The message would usually clear after power to the car was cycled a few times (if not, I could tap on the relay to get it to drop out). After I determined it was that little relay failing, I tried to get the dealer to replace it under warranty. Unfortunately, it would never stick when I was at the dealer. I finally bought a new relay because I was afraid that it would stick when I parked for an extended time and run the 12-volt battery down. The Parts Department (at a different dealer) did have a little trouble looking up the part number, but they eventually found it by having the numbers off the side of the old relay.

Gerry

yujungchang said:

Thanks, I think it could be the SSOFF(for VCM) as well, because it was listed together with the F/S CHG relay and other MTR relays.

SSOFF Relay INFOID:0000000006977087
The SSOFF (self shutoff) relay supplies power to VCM and the coil of the A/C relay. The SSOFF relay is controlled
by VCM so that VCM can shut off VCM power (self shutoff).

Click to expand...

The VCM SSOFF is located in the IPDM E/R, on the other side of the car.

If anyone can find the "PBW SSOFF" relay on any of the 2012 Leaf wiring diagrams (URL below), please post!
Thanks
https://ownersmanuals2.com/make/nissan/leaf-2012-372

Marktm said:

If anyone can find the "PBW SSOFF" relay on any of the 2012 Leaf wiring diagrams (URL below), please post!
Thanks
https://ownersmanuals2.com/make/nissan/leaf-2012-372

Click to expand...

Look in the Transaxle and Transmission section on page TM-35 (also on page TM-52). It is called the Electric Shift Power Supply Relay.

Gerry

I was out for a while. Notice also in the PG section page 40 for the motor room harness layout, shows
all the relays bunched together with connector labels for the box you have been looking at. This
is what I used to track down all the relays in that box.

I had found the "PG" sections about wiring harnesses/connector numbers and also the "TM" sections, but have not yet been able to correlate directly with the relay descriptors in the box cover (PBW SSOFF and others). Going to dig deeper into the actual wiring harness connector designators and the actual wiring diagrams in "PG" - seems the only way to confirm the relays in that particular box (passenger side next to A/C compressor/motor). "PG" pgs 16,17,41 can be "linked" to find the actual functional descriptors of these relays.

Thanks for your inputs

Cliff was correct! Looking at the picture(PG-86, Motor Room Harness) below, it did said E56 and it is the relay for the Electric Shift Control Module(PG-16, Wiring Diagram - BATTERY POWER SUPPLY). However his page numbers on TM seems off with the version I have, i.e. 52 vs 50. Also one time I did noticed series of clicks when I plugged in the ELM right after turning on the car, the clicks eventually stopped after few seconds. My LeafSpy is the latest version v0.30.22 and the ELM is 2 years old, probably v1.5. Thanks!

I've also been hearing the same clicking, from the same relay on my '12 SL. I've heard it before but today it was clicking several times/second. I do have a OBDII adapter always plugged in and today anyway I had LeafSpy running(quite new new download from Amazon) and my phone near by, although I believe other times I haven't had my phone on or near....I believe I've always been charging when I hear the clicking but note thats normally when I might be around the car so it may just be coincidence.
I've read this thread before and remember reading about the electronic parking brake, it was off and I turned it on, but it didn't change the clicking. I guess next time I hear it I'll try unplugging the OBDII adapter and see if things change. Mine seemed to click many times/second for many seconds and then would stop for a bit, then start the rapid clicking again. My garage is quite quiet, otherwise I'd probably never hear it, I doubt I'd hear it in a parking lot, with wind going by and such.

Hello,

I own a 2011 and my relay is always on as I see.

This is the upper left relay, same in this tread E56.

Anyone have found a solution or a problem related to this relay ?

Now I removed the fuse #75 10A to be sure it is this relay
and yes, this is called the Electric Shift Pwer Supply Relay

This is confusing with the cover of the box, this is not the SSOFF relay.

Page TM32 in my service manual 2011

I took mesurement the electric shift control module connector pin 17 and it remain at 0.8 so relay always on. This pin is a NPN output open collector trough a diode, so 0.8 is normal but I dont understand why it not turn off when I power off the car.


Thanks

Do we have a part number for the relay? Wondering if this may be the source of my parasitic draw - 12v battery goes dead after leaving car overnight! No clicking on my side all though it would be east to check to see if this relay was still powered after the vehicle was sitting for a few hours.

@gigawatt, are you still using the original OEM 12V aux battery? if not what is the age and condition? Do you periodically charge (weekly) it to 14.4? If not then the plates are likely sulfated over and not able to absorb charge anymore.

I’m having this same problem, with some additional problems. 2011 Leaf SL, original owner, original battery (yes, 10 yo). I have been keeping the 12V alive by weekly cTek trickle charge.

Just had the 12V die, after returning from dinner, parked overnight outside (for cooling due to 110-118F temps predicted. Left main battery at 2 bars, still had not received LBW, so felt it was ok to leave at that SOC. Next morning, tried to start car and put in the garage, couldn’t unlock or open with fob, had to use physical key. Received I-key fault, go to dealer, multiple error lights, etc. Car wouldn’t properly cycle through on/acc/off, so I attached my 12V trickle charger but it wouldn’t charge because <8V. That is when I heard the reply clicking noise coming from the passenger side, near the windshield. Decided to check 12V fluids, which was about 1” low, so topped up with DI water. Disconnected battery from car and attached jumper battery for 2 hr while I bicycled to buy new key fob batteries. Hooked up cTek trickle charger and was able to get the PbA back to 13.6 V in two days. Replaced key fob batteries, Reattached PbA to car and tried to restart. No joy, same errors, on/off behavior, though now I was able to lock/unlock the car with the key fob.

My next move, after this massive heatwave is over, is to decide whether to take it to the dealership or try to continue troubleshooting. I’m not that handy, but did solve similar relay problems on my old 1990 Nissan pickup. Given the value of the 2011 Leaf, it wouldn’t surprise me if the cost to troubleshoot and repair is more than the trade in value.

How certain are folks that DIY replacement of a relay and new PbA will solve the problem? Will I still need to go to the dealership to get the codes cleared? I do have an old freebie version of LeafSpy, but haven’t used it or had it hooked up in years. Any advice, especially locals, would be greatly appreciated.

The main issue is very likely your 12 volt battery. The 13.6 volt reading is probably just 'surface charge' and it probably sags well below 12 volts under load.