Water Pump 1 failure on 2012

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av8or

Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Messages
23
Hello,
My 2012 LEAF with 52000 miles on it was parked for 10 days. Upon starting it back up today, the yellow warning lit. The car runs/drives normal, but the one of the water pumps is a little louder than usual. I checked the DTCs on it, and it reports:

P31E9 00C0 EV/HEV Water Pump 1 EVC-314

Has anyone replaced a water pump on the LEAF before? Or is this a job I should just leave to the dealer? I have replaced water pumps, alternators and other parts on regular cars. I need to download the LEAF service manual to get the proper procedures.

Thank you!
 
I just popped the hood and checked to see which pump is making noise.

When car first starts up, water pump comes on at normal speed after a few seconds. There are no warning lights on dash at this point. Then about 15 to 20 seconds later, the yellow warning light comes on, and the water pump RPMs increase.

The pump making the noise is on driver side under the battery - I believe that one is OK.

The other pump, a small one on passenger side, is making no motor noise. It does make a gurgling sound, and some bubbles are appearing in the reservoir above it. I pulled the power plug for the pump and noise didn't change at all, so it is not running at that point.

Both reservoirs are full, and I am not seeing any leak issue.
 
Thanks! I checked out that post and saw he took it to dealer for replacement. I found that pump 1 is on passenger side, and pump 2 is on driver side. Pump 1 is very easily accessible, so I ordered the part yesterday and hope to be installing it this weekend. It looks like a very feasible job to be done in the garage, it isn't buried at all.

Before ordering, I checked to be sure the harness is getting +12V, so pump is getting power. Pump must just be worn out.
 
Today I received the waterpump I ordered on E-Bay and installed it. It was a fairly painless install - pump 1 is on passenger fender and is easy to access. I removed as much fluid as I could from the overflow container right above the pump, unscrewed the overflow tank to allow it to move and give me more room, then unscrewed the pump bracket. I was able to pick the pump assembly up so it was the highest point in the system. This allowed for the 2 hoses to be disconnected with very little fluid lost. The hardest part was getting the hose clamps loose enough to swap the hoses to the new pump. Holding them open with vise grip pliers solved it, and made the job pretty quick. It is a similar process to changing out a washing machine pump.

Plugged it all up and tested, can hear the new one humming along and working now, so that is good news. No more error codes!
 
This is bad news that we are hearing about failures similar to an ICE car. But it is good news you were able to figure out what the problem was and that the fix may be easy enough that normal people with some tools can do the job. Thanks for sharing your experience.
 
av8or said:
Today I received the waterpump I ordered on E-Bay and installed it. It was a fairly painless install - pump 1 is on passenger fender and is easy to access. I removed as much fluid as I could from the overflow container right above the pump, unscrewed the overflow tank to allow it to move and give me more room, then unscrewed the pump bracket. I was able to pick the pump assembly up so it was the highest point in the system. This allowed for the 2 hoses to be disconnected with very little fluid lost. The hardest part was getting the hose clamps loose enough to swap the hoses to the new pump. Holding them open with vise grip pliers solved it, and made the job pretty quick. It is a similar process to changing out a washing machine pump.

Plugged it all up and tested, can hear the new one humming along and working now, so that is good news. No more error codes!

What was the part number for that pump you bought? I'm needing to replace the same pump on the passenger side, and I've been researching to figure out what is the number for that. I believe it's 215813NA0A?
 
21581-3NA0A is the part I ordered from E-Bay. Price is crazy for it. I noticed that some VW Jettas have 12v waterpumps too, but they cost about $40. The markup on these simple pumps is insane.
 
av8or said:
21581-3NA0A is the part I ordered from E-Bay. Price is crazy for it. I noticed that some VW Jettas have 12v waterpumps too, but they cost about $40. The markup on these simple pumps is insane.
$480 ?
 
MalcolmReynolds said:
This is bad news that we are hearing about failures similar to an ICE car. But it is good news you were able to figure out what the problem was and that the fix may be easy enough that normal people with some tools can do the job. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Can't expect a pump to last forever, but it does make me wonder about when to change the coolant if I buy my 2015 lease. Manual states 125,000 miles or 15 years. Opinions?
 
I am not surprised that the pump went out... An electrical pump that is spinning all the time while the car is on is a lot of use. I would not say that there is a problem with the car. So now we are starting to find normal wear items on the Leaf!

I can also imagine the electric steering and power brake assist at some time in the future...
 
I agree the little electric pump is a maintenance type item, as it will wear out. However, the price for them is nuts. I suspect it is because there are so few of these cars, but it really is just a 12v pump.
 
The challenge with using another 12V pump with similar specs is that you're out of pocket if it doesn't work out.

If it was me, I'd take the risk if I could get a 12V pump for less than $100.
 
av8or said:
21581-3NA0A is the part I ordered from E-Bay. Price is crazy for it. I noticed that some VW Jettas have 12v waterpumps too, but they cost about $40. The markup on these simple pumps is insane.

From what I can see, those are referred to as "auxiliary water pumps", so the specs and duty requirements may be a different ballgame compared to a full-time electric coolant pump. I find multiple versions of the latter; all over $200.
 
av8or said:
21581-3NA0A is the part I ordered from E-Bay. Price is crazy for it. I noticed that some VW Jettas have 12v waterpumps too, but they cost about $40. The markup on these simple pumps is insane.


Thanks for sharing the part number. I have the same error and issue with the water pump on my 2011. I think I'll try a scrap yard for the pump first before shelling out the big bucks at a dealer or another source for new pumps.
 
Thank you for the information on this forum. I successfully changed the pump on my 2011 Leaf and saved $1K allegedly. (I've never brought my car to deal to get estimate.) Especially, given how little value old Leaf is nowadays. This is big saving. I am not a mechanically inclined person. This work took me nearly 3 hours to finish.

My best contribution I can make to this forum is that I bought a compatible pump at much lower price ($126 from Ebay). It works perfectly fine. The part number of the pump I got is 21580-3JV0A. It is designed for 2014 Nissan Pathfinder Infinity QX60 Auxiliary according to the ebay seller description. The pump is the same. The bracket is different. The bracket is secured to the pump with a removable rubber sock around the pump. I removed the bracket and used the pump only.

New pump with bracket

43905118310_9011acafd0_b.jpg


New pump side-by-side comparison with old pump

44808786315_ef85d4e884_b.jpg


Old pump Old pump slipped out of the rubber bracket very easily. I didn't even need to remove the pump bracket from the car.

44997849344_8a4ecb0e2e_b.jpg


New pump without bracket


44808787365_8c65189995_b.jpg



Coolant pumped out from reservoir


44808786615_6c2a035252_b.jpg



The toughest part is to disconnect pipe. I ended up just using force. The reservoir container seems to be strong enough. I had to remove both pipes to get enough space to work with.

Reservoir container without pipe.

44808787145_d52bd9a851_b.jpg


Metal brackets to clamp around pipe that are both easy and tough to work with.


44997849054_f8ac342782_b.jpg



I tied threads around the pipe clamp when reinstalling so that it wouldn't drop into the abyss of the chassis. It appears to be difficult to fish the dropped clamp out. I liked this hack ;) even though I've never lost a single one through out the installation. Better be safe than sorry.

44808786975_769b39fcde_b.jpg



I hope this pump will last as long as my car.

Good luck with your ad
 
Awesome write-up! This is the sort of post that keeps me coming back to these forums. Hope I never have to replace my water pump, but I feel confident now that I can DIY it.
 
etunnel said:
Thank you for the information on this forum. I successfully changed the pump on my 2011 Leaf and saved $1K allegedly. (I've never brought my car to deal to get estimate.) Especially, given how little value old Leaf is nowadays. This is big saving. I am not a mechanically inclined person. This work took me nearly 3 hours to finish.

My best contribution I can make to this forum is that I bought a compatible pump at much lower price ($126 from Ebay). It works perfectly fine. The part number of the pump I got is 21580-3JV0A. It is designed for 2014 Nissan Pathfinder Infinity QX60 Auxiliary according to the ebay seller description. The pump is the same. The bracket is different. The bracket is secured to the pump with a removable rubber sock around the pump. I removed the bracket and used the pump only.
Great info!

I wonder of the pump was intended for hybrid versions of the above two. It looks like there once was a hybrid version of the QX60 and there was a hybrid version of the '14 Pathfinder.
 
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