Nissan Leaf 2013 does not start even though 12v battery in good condition

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silvermask123

New member
Joined
Jun 7, 2018
Messages
4
I put the leaf (2013 model, 51k miles) to charge overnight. In the morning it won't start.

* Dashboard turns on, AC, radio, etc. works fine, display shows 56 miles range. However, the leaf just won't start. It shows red and yellow warning sign, and car warning sign on the dashboard.
* I also cannot also charge the car anymore.
* I checked the 12V battery and it shows 12.23V with multi-meter, so at least it seems 12V battery is not an issue?
* I disconnected 12V battery (by removing negative wire) for 30 minutes and reconnected to reset. No luck.
* When the display turns on, it shows that it has 56 miles range - so looks like in the middle of charge, something went wrong as if it would have charged all the way, it would be over 70.

Any idea what could be wrong and how I can troubleshoot more before I get it towed to the dealer :(

Thanks in advance.
 
* I checked the 12V battery and it shows 12.23V with multi-meter, so at least it seems 12V battery is not an issue?

12.23 volts is low, possibly low enough to indicate a problem. Charge the 12 volt battery, clear the codes again, and try again.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

Are battery tenders good to use on Leaf?

What should the voltage output show ideally, so I can at least remove that as suspect once I charge the 12V battery?

Also, just making sure - disconnecting the 12V battery does clear out codes right?
 
Battery tenders of all kinds work fine, as long as they are designed for 12 volt batteries. A normal 12 volt Leaf battery should read at least 12.5 volts, and preferably higher. A freshly charged 12 volt battery should read around 13 volts. And disconnecting the battery for 5 minutes will clear codes, but persistent ones will show right up again.
 
Awesome. Thank you! 12V battery is on battery tender now. Will report back the outcome in case others run into similar issue.
 
silvermask123 said:
Thanks for the quick reply.

Are battery tenders good to use on Leaf?

What should the voltage output show ideally, so I can at least remove that as suspect once I charge the 12V battery?

Also, just making sure - disconnecting the 12V battery does clear out codes right?

Measuring the battery under no-load doesn't always give useful information. The car doesn't need more than the 12.3 volts you measured; it should have started fine -- IF the battery could actually deliver that voltage. But, voltage could be falling dramatically as soon as the car tries to draw current from the battery. I had such a situation, where the battery measured 12.5V but as soon as a load was attached dropped to under 10V. You might try measuring the voltage, and then turn on the car's high-beam headlights and measure again to see if there's a large voltage drop under that load. If it drops more than 1V with the high beams on, the battery is suspect. If it drops 2V or more, the battery is toast. Don't turn the car on during this test, otherwise the car's DC-DC converter will invalidate the result.

Some auto-parts stores will perform a more rigorous load-test for you for free. Autozone, for example, iirc.
 
Given a situation in which the 12 volt battery has been left alone for a long time (no external charging or large drains with the car off) then the rest voltage has proven a pretty good indicator of usefulness - IF you assume that anything below 12.4 volts is problematic.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Given a situation in which the 12 volt battery has been left alone for a long time (no external charging or large drains with the car off) then the rest voltage has proven a pretty good indicator of usefulness - IF you assume that anything below 12.4 volts is problematic.

Often when people are working through these problems, they are intermittently getting starts, or have tried charging the battery, etc... A load test is easy and revealing. I've since gotten a dedicated load tester; they're inexpensive and now I use it during periodic maintenance to keep tabs on the batteries in both our vehicles. It's a 100-Amp unit so it's a more decisive test than just using the headlamps.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Given a situation in which the 12 volt battery has been left alone for a long time (no external charging or large drains with the car off) then the rest voltage has proven a pretty good indicator of usefulness - IF you assume that anything below 12.4 volts is problematic.

Not true. I recently replaced a battery on an ICE that measured 12.6V no load and provided less than 10 CCA (cold cranking Amps) on the tester. The car's computer would fail to boot.
 
Lots of useful information. Thanks everyone.

So far, I tried battery tender. Got the battery to 13.5+V on rest. After 15 minute disconnect/reconnect, I tried restarting the car with no luck. After failed attempt to start the car, the battery drops to around 12.5V.

Will try the headlamp test to see what happens.

And also thinking about getting LeafSpy.
 
WetEV said:
LeftieBiker said:
Given a situation in which the 12 volt battery has been left alone for a long time (no external charging or large drains with the car off) then the rest voltage has proven a pretty good indicator of usefulness - IF you assume that anything below 12.4 volts is problematic.

Not true. I recently replaced a battery on an ICE that measured 12.6V no load and provided less than 10 CCA (cold cranking Amps) on the tester. The car's computer would fail to boot.

I'm talking about Leaf batteries. They are the same starting batteries used in ICEs but have a different use profile. You show me a 12 volt battery that reads 12.6 volts and won't reliably start a Leaf and I'll change my tune.
 
silvermask123 said:
Lots of useful information. Thanks everyone.

So far, I tried battery tender. Got the battery to 13.5+V on rest. After 15 minute disconnect/reconnect, I tried restarting the car with no luck. After failed attempt to start the car, the battery drops to around 12.5V.

Will try the headlamp test to see what happens.

And also thinking about getting LeafSpy.

It sounds to me like you have a different problem. Are the battery terminals and cables clean and tightly connected? What exactly happens when you try to start the car? What codes are showing now?
 
You can easily extract the 12V battery, take it to a store and have it tested, and then put in a new 12V battery if needed. If the battery is NG, it needs to be replaced anyways and you never know, it might just fix the real problem.
 
alozzy said:
You can easily extract the 12V battery, take it to a store and have it tested, and then put in a new 12V battery if needed. If the battery is NG, it needs to be replaced anyways and you never know, it might just fix the real problem.
One might have hoped for some of the car's diagnostics to cover the 12V battery, but as it's so extremely unlikely to be involved in any actual functioning of the car, I completely understand Nissan's decision to (apparently) exclude it from diagnostics coverage.
 
Levenkay said:
alozzy said:
You can easily extract the 12V battery, take it to a store and have it tested, and then put in a new 12V battery if needed. If the battery is NG, it needs to be replaced anyways and you never know, it might just fix the real problem.
One might have hoped for some of the car's diagnostics to cover the 12V battery, but as it's so extremely unlikely to be involved in any actual functioning of the car, I completely understand Nissan's decision to (apparently) exclude it from diagnostics coverage.
A poor choice by Nissan, as we have seen a number of instances where a weak battery resulted in abnormal behaviors, including the braking system. Happened to me as well.
 
Disconnecting the 12-volt battery by itself may not be enough to clear/reset trouble codes. My experience is that disconnecting the 12-volt battery may or may not clear error codes and allow the car to function. With errors caused by CAN Bus communication problems, it is often necessary to disconnect the 12-volt battery for 30 seconds to a minute and then use LEAF Spy Pro to clear DTCs after reconnecting the battery (and turning car on to activate OBDII port).
 
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