2016 Nissan leaf solid tone turning off won't restart

[nerys]

I know the high voltage pack is going bad in my car there are five or six cells that are undervolting so even though I only have 40,000 mi on the car I can't go more than about 40 mi maybe 35 Nissan refuses to warranty it but that's another issue I'm mentioning it in case it's related

For now I only use the car for driving locally in my town I can't even drive 10 mi away because the small hill on the way back will strain the cells enough to cause them the undervolt and the BMS will cut off the pack

Anyway last night I turned the car off and it did something weird instead of the normal 1234 beep tone when you have the door open I got a solid tone that would not turn off eventually it turned off on its own I don't remember how long several minutes at least

The car also would not turn back on when I press the brake and hit the power button the dash lights up however it still shows the press brake and push button to turn the car on and I don't get the double arrow car is ready to move indicator and I can't shift it

If I try to turn it on again it gives me the tone indicating I've pressed the button but it still does not turn on all the indicator lights are lit battery break tire the yellow exclamation the car with the exclamation traction control seat belt and PS would it normally does if the high voltage pack does not engage

Last night I noticed I could hear what sound like a pump or something like that trying to engage it was suggested when I did a search on Google to check the coolant I went out to the motorbay and I open the coolant I could hear a suction as it equalized and pressure and there is fluid inside blue fluid

I did order some coolant since it's slightly on the low side I think it's hard to see I got to go in there with a flashlight to look at the fill line but it's definitely not out

When I went to try to start the car again it started fine and I've been using the car all day although I have not turned it off it is now 10:00 at night I turn the car off and it did it again solid tone when I turned it off and the car will not turn back on and go into drive mode

Things that I can check? Suggestions? For now I can only use the car if it turns on and I have to make sure I do not turn it off because there's no assured path to make sure I could turn the car back on again.

When the car is on there is no check engine light which would indicate there's no code I still have to dig out my OBD2 reader and check anyway to see if there's a silent code or a pending code I don't know if the leaf does that or not.

 

[nerys]

Tonight after 8 or 10 minutes when I tried to turn the car on again it turned on fine and I was able to repeat it

I'm not sure how reliable that 10 minute window is since this is only the second night it's happened if it happens again I'll try to pay attention to how long it takes to reset

Something else I noticed when I use a remote to lock the car the horn sounds funny like it's being throttled by the neck or something it's too cold tonight but tomorrow I'll try pressing the horn button and see if the horn sounds normal when I press the horn button

 

[nlspace]

All of your symptoms indicate that you have an old, weak or worn out 12V battery.

 

[cornbinder89]

I agree, charge the 12 volt and test it before trying anything else.

 

[nerys]

Damn it I literally just spent $216 to replace that freaking battery A year and a half ago :-( The next time it does that I'll check the voltage on the battery

Is 25 amps sufficient for this battery? If I put a battery in there that's capable of discharging at 25 amps at 12.8 volts is that sufficient?

I'd rather just put a drop in lithium iron phosphate battery in there and then I'll never have to worry about that battery ever again with a 20 amp hour battery which is more than enough capacity only as a discharge capacity of 25 amps I could double up and get 50 amps but I'd rather not use two since I don't need that much capacity

I could just put the lithium battery in parallel with the 12 volt battery and this way the heavy amps will be taken up by The lead acid battery but I'd rather just replace it with the iron phosphate battery and be done with it I'm guessing the highest power draw is going to be the blower how many amps does that take?

 

[nlspace]

The charging control for the 12V battery is not very good. It never does a good absorption charge necessary to de-sulfate the plates, so the capacity fades much quicker than in other cars.

See wiki for more details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUoU_battery_charging

 

[cornbinder89]

1st charge and test the battery, do not just assume it is defective. Next check "key off draw on the battery when the car is in "sleep mode" IE shut off and sitting for at least 15 minutes. It should be less than 50ma, if it is more, than it will not matter what battery you replace it with, it will have a short life.
If it is greater than 50ma, then you have some work to do to find out what is continuing to draw.

 

[nerys]

Should I trickle charge with a 5 amp trickle charger or should I use something more powerful?

 

[cornbinder89]

You could use a 5 amp charger, but might take all night or longer. The point is to fully recharge and then test the recharged battery.
Dark current draw is the next test. without testing for a key off load, you are just guessing.

 

[nlspace]

5A charger is plenty big, no need for anything larger; trickle charger is typically 1A

 

[nerys]

I want to apologize for not coming back to report it on here I kind of forgot anyway it was a bad 12 volt battery it would not take a charge I was able to put it on a charger and run the car for another week or two but eventually it just stopped taking a charge thankfully I bought the battery at Walmart so I just drove up there and had them replaced it it comes with a 3-year full replacement no pro Rada which is nice now the car is working perfectly fine

I no the 12 volt batteries is a weak point in these cars because it doesn't quite properly charge it? At least that's what some others have told me so I'm looking into ways of dealing with that

I was just going to replace the battery with a lithium iron phosphate battery and be done with it The problem is our winters are cold enough that the lithium iron phosphate battery might get damaged when it attempts to charge it and it's five below zero and other idea I had was tapping some small leads into the 240 volt lines coming into the car? Or is it higher voltage than that? I know two of the wires are 12 volt signal the other two are they 240 volt or are they being up converted to 400 volts? What is the car's actual input power I'm wondering if I could tap a trickle charger onto that so that whenever I plug the car in it's also properly charging the battery with a proper maintenance charger or just slap a big solar panel on the roof and let it take care of it.

I also got a little Bluetooth battery monitor so it'll keep an eye on the health of the battery and alert my phone if something goes out of spec hopefully before damages something so I can take care of it

Either way no more issues ever since the battery was replaced at least not that issue