2018/2019 Leaf SL - Bad battery cell - "Service EV System Unable to restart after power off"

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simply

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2018
Messages
17
Yesterday I received the following error when trying to start my 2018 LEAF SL

"Service EV System Unable to restart after power off"

I let the car sit for about five hours unplugged, came back to the car to start it and received the following error. I then unhooked the negative port form the battery for 10 mins hoping that it would clear the circuit. Still receiving the same error. Called Nissan roadside assistance and had the car towed back to the dealership. I will keep the group updated.

:evil:
 
UPDATE:

Just got off the phone with the dealership. The dealer has stated that they need to replace two possibly three cells in the battery (I was informed there are 98 cells in the battery). The Leaf tech has opened up a Techline Case with Nissan and at the moment the service center is unsure how long the battery cell replacement will take in terms of time.
 
simply said:
(I was informed there are 98 cells in the battery)
That's almost true. There are actually 192 cells in the Nissan LEAF, arranged in pairs that are in parallel, meaning there are 92 cells in series. In the 2018, these 192 cells are arranged in modules containing eight cells (four cell-pairs) each. The dealership can only measure cell voltages, which means they can only find problems at the cell-pair level. if they are seeing three bad cell pairs, that means they need to replace either one, two, or three of the 24 modules found in the LEAF battery.

BTW, to my knowledge no one have ever reported more than one cell-pair being bad, and that is extremely rare. I hope your case is not indicative of some sort of manufacturing defect in the new LEAFs.

Good luck getting your vehicle repaired properly and quickly.
 
Timeline:

Thursday, July 11, 2018 -- 2018 SL Leaf did not start and gave a yellow warning indicator
Thursday, July 12, 2018 - 2018 SL Leaf towed via Nissan Roadside Assistance to Dealership
Wednesday, July 18, 2018 -- Informed by dealership that a Nissan Tech Line has been opened for the case
Tuesday, July 24, 2018 -- Dealership receives approval from Nissan to start the disassembly process
Friday, July 27, 2018 -- 2017 Nissan Sentra S Loaner picked up
Thursday, August 2, 2018 -- Still no word from the dealership on the repair of the "bad cells" in the battery
Saturday August 18th 2018 - After a month I received the 2018 SL back from the dealership

The first delay was two battery cells from Nissan, the second delay was due to the circuit breaker being flipped every time the leaf tech tried to charge the new cells outside of the car before installing them with the rest of the cells. I do not have many more details beyond this. If there are questions I should be asking the tech so we can inform this board, I am willing to receive feedback.
 
Thanks for the details on your experience with this issue.
Same thing just happened to me this morning, after just having the car for 6 months now.
Road side assistance towed it from my house to my local stealership (from where I purchased it from).
I am hoping it does not take a month to fix, as it did for you. I will also be asking for a better loaner, should the process take weeks to correct.
 
So this issue is not unique to older LEAF. I just purchased a brand new Nissan Leaf SL Plus 2019 for the extended range. 5 days in and parked in the garage, 89 miles and have not plugged it in for charge even once; I now have the same message as others here "Service EV System Unable to restart after power off". Today is a Sunday and I have work tomorrow but it will be an adventure from what I see in this thread :x :twisted: :roll:

I'm not looking forward to driving an ICE while the green vehicle is in the shop for a month! If confirmed, the subject should include 2019 Leaf SL Plus.

Will keep everyone here updated as I progress.

========

Update 1/9/2020

Since my original post, I had to tow the Car back to my dealership. Day 1, Day 2 nothing from the dealer about what was wrong. Once I lost my patience, I escalated the issue to the General Manager of the dealership. They finally started providing cryptic responses and that they are waiting for Nissan Tech to call them back. So I asked them for a response time and they said 24 hours for Nissan Tech. After buying the car, I literally, took the car home parked it in my garage and it has 89 miles. I call BS, and continued discussion with the GM who then started looking in to getting me in to a replacement CAR. I think the Service department is clueless waiting for Nissan Technical Office to call them back with an answer.

For anyone else that may see this issue. . . Please note in my case, on Sunday, the car was going in to "N" when I tried to drive. Stuck in "N" and only option is to power the car off. Monday morning initially I was able to put in "N" but then it was stuck in "P" and Towing is not possible in "P". After playing around for some time, I saw a message on the Dash about the Accessories 12V battery being dead. Windows also did not open/Close. That was a hint for the Tow guy to do a Jump start, but by doing so, the car still would not start. However, I was able to put it in "N" while the Jumper was connected. I had to steer the car while the car was pulled on to the flatbed with my hood open and jumpers connected to stay in neutral! It was a pain in my A$$. We had to do the same when I reached the Dealership.

I suspect a recall coming soon . . . We need more people to report this issue and be persistent. This is my third Nissan Leaf the dealership GM is doing the right thing by providing me a replacement instead of the problem car. I believe Nissan will figure out the problem and provide us with a corrective measure. It's just a matter of time! Or else, Brand Loyal customers like me will no longer trust them any longer. I've owned a Murano and a Quest prior to the Leafs, so over 2 decades of Nissan :)

Best to all and hope this helps!
 
2019 SL purchased Feb 2019 7031 miles. Same thing happened to me. Luckily (i guess) it only took the dealer 2 weeks to fix. They said one bad cell.
 
Mtnbkr said:
2019 SL purchased Feb 2019 7031 miles. Same thing happened to me. Luckily (i guess) it only took the dealer 2 weeks to fix. They said one bad cell.


I think we can say, at this point, that this isn't just a glitch of early manufacturing of a new battery. Nissan has QC problems again, just as with the 30kwh batteries.
 
Could we please update the Subject to include 2019 or remove the year all together?

simply said:
Yesterday I received the following error when trying to start my 2018 LEAF SL

"Service EV System Unable to restart after power off"

I let the car sit for about five hours unplugged, came back to the car to start it and received the following error. I then unhooked the negative port form the battery for 10 mins hoping that it would clear the circuit. Still receiving the same error. Called Nissan roadside assistance and had the car towed back to the dealership. I will keep the group updated.

:evil:
 
I had the same message this morning on my 2018 Leaf. Roadside assistance finagled with it a bit in an effort to get it in the flatbed. Then, couldn’t get it into Neutral anymore. He ended up pulling it while in park—apparently he trying to slip some plastic skids under the front wheels unsuccessfully, based on the tire marks on my driveway.

Waiting on dealership to report.

This is my second Leaf. I had the 12V battery problem in my 2013. Maybe I should have learned from my last horrible experience.
 
As of 4-10-20 our 2018 SL with 18,000 miles at 22 months has done the same. No help yet from Nissan USA after a week. Not much help from two local dealerships, lack of service techs due to the C-19 virus. The third distant Nissan dealership may help. I have been one of the biggest advocates of EVs and the Leaf. But if NIssan fails me regarding this issue, well you know. I will update when I finally receive support. Even explaining to Nissan that my wife who needs this vehicle for her transportation to UCSF Children's Hospital, where she has been on the "front line", has made little difference with Nissan to date. Sure enough, build date--MARCH 2018 !!! Leaf #306876
 
They will get to you, but unfortunately they are just (like everyone else) under-resourced.

The good news is rental cars can be had for $8/day right now at most major airports if it's urgent.
 
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