LEAF motor problems

Hello,

A little help would be appreciated, please.

I'm aware that the motor is likely to be reliable, but what faults might I notice before purchase - and how?

Thank you,

S

Any (unlikely) problem with the motor should produce an error code, indicated on the dash. The most likely drivetrain defect would be clicking axles.

Stephen2079 said:

Hello,

A little help would be appreciated, please.

I'm aware that the motor is likely to be reliable, but what faults might I notice before purchase - and how?

Thank you,

S

Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever seen any postings of a motor failure. Even a quick google search returned nothing. You're probably better off spending some time and energy on looking for a good OBDII dongle and learning how to use LeafSpy to check the health of the main traction battery instead of worrying about the traction motor.

Thinking theoretically, any motor issues would be a result of failed bearings, so loud whining noises is probably all that you can "notice" short of the motor not spinning entirely (car doesn't move).

Thanks for the informative replies. Much appreciated.

I would, however, ask questions about battery pack degradation.

Oils4AsphaultOnly said:

I don't think I've ever seen any postings of a motor failure. Even a quick google search returned nothing.

Click to expand...

The number of traction (big) motor failures or needing replacement for any reason on Leaf are extremely rare. I'm pretty sure I've seen at least 1 here on MNL for noise (probably http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=15650 was 1 of them or the only one). If there are any more, I'm quite sure the total number on MNL is under 5.

Oils4AsphaultOnly said:

You're probably better off spending some time and energy on looking for a good OBDII dongle and learning how to use LeafSpy to check the health of the main traction battery instead of worrying about the traction motor.

Thinking theoretically, any motor issues would be a result of failed bearings, so loud whining noises is probably all that you can "notice" short of the motor not spinning entirely (car doesn't move).

Click to expand...

Agreed. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=24519&p=504419#p504419 may help.

There can be expensive failures down the road like the heater, motor (out of warranty), or a few other things I listed at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=472209#p472209.

I just test drove a 2014 Leaf with 69k miles, and it had a muffled, clunking noise coming from behind the dash/under my feet. It sounded like a bag of marbles getting shook. The yellow warning light was on as well as the yellow car with the exclamation point on it. Before reading this, I was thinking that it drove like the transmission or motor was having problems. It made variations of this sound when accelerating AND decelerating. As a future owner of a Leaf, this was concerning since what I've read so far suggests that motor failures are not common by any means.

BlazinGuns said:

I just test drove a 2014 Leaf with 69k miles, and it had a muffled, clunking noise coming from behind the dash/under my feet. It sounded like a bag of marbles getting shook. The yellow warning light was on as well as the yellow car with the exclamation point on it. Before reading this, I was thinking that it drove like the transmission or motor was having problems. It made variations of this sound when accelerating AND decelerating. As a future owner of a Leaf, this was concerning since what I've read so far suggests that motor failures are not common by any means.

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Unless you can read the error code(s) and find the source of the noise, I'd pass on the car.

BlazinGuns said:

I just test drove a 2014 Leaf with 69k miles, and it had a muffled, clunking noise coming from behind the dash/under my feet. It sounded like a bag of marbles getting shook. The yellow warning light was on as well as the yellow car with the exclamation point on it. Before reading this, I was thinking that it drove like the transmission or motor was having problems. It made variations of this sound when accelerating AND decelerating. As a future owner of a Leaf, this was concerning since what I've read so far suggests that motor failures are not common by any means.

Click to expand...

Could be that something got into the differential, or CV joints too.

But as leftie said, just pass on this particular unit. There's a better than 99.9% chance of you never dealing with a drive-train issue (batteries are part of the power-train), why even consider something that definitely has a problem?