Bombastinator2
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2024
- Messages
- 315
Re temps:. 0c° and 32f° are the same. Both are the freezing point of water. Fahrenheit vs celcius can screw a lot of things up. 20f is -6c, 30f is -1c. So I read it as the car being below freezing for the entire duration. If it was 20c there will be no problem. 20f I think there could be though. Youre implying that the main car battery doesn’t need to be heated until it’s well below 32f. Nissan is Japanese and the Japanese use c°. 5 c° is 41f°. My car starts to lose range around 52f° so it seems reasonable.Nice long write up, but you missed a lot of key facts about both the situation and the Nissan Leaf.
1) the Nissan battery heater for the Li battery doesn't turn on until the Battery temp is near 0 deg
2) the outside temp at the airport when this happened was around 32 deg F according to the O.P
3) Leaf traction battery don't use a 3rd of the capacity running the battery heaters.
4) they don't loose there capacity in a week of sitting, Heck I have supercapcitors that will hold their charge longer than that.
5) the traction battery is disconnected when the car is off, no Vampire loads on the traction battery, other than a 4 min charge to the 12 volt every 24 hrs. and the battery heater if the battery temp drops below 0.
The service manual is a long hard read, but much better than making assumptions without looking at the facts. Last time I looked the service manual for 2015 and older could be downloaded for free from the Nico site, I would recommend even if you have a new model to get one and read it.
I know people (or hope anyway) have the best of intentions in helping. However, it doesn't help if the info you are giving is wrong. Like it or not, Nissan built the car and has the best info on it.
All cars sit for over a week at some point in their lives, whether at a dealers lot, the factory lot or when someone goes on vacation, it is expected "use" and not the cause of the traction battery going flat.
Hopefully we will hear back on what the dealer finds. I have a suspicion, but what I think should set a DTC. So far none has been reported. I can rule out things by what has been reported by the owner and what he was able to do with the car before it was towed to the dealer.
This isn't a game where you get a prize for being the 1st one with the right answer, it is someone with a problem that asked for help, guessing is not how you solve something like this. Resolving of the problem starts with a logic tree, with known info and ruling stuff in or out by what can be observed. That which can not be observed directly must be done with DTC and scanners that can look into what is happening or not happening.
Repairing modern equipment has got so much harder in recent years, I have been in the trade (recently retired) for over 50 years, the last 20 or so the pace of difficult to nail down problems has expanded exponentially. It is all too common (and a natural trait of humans) to try and equate back to something in the past. Unfortunately things have changed a lot since then.
I am very interested in what the dealer finds.
Re: tape heaters:. 1/3rd is what I was told. If it’s lower even a tape heater would mean the battery probably still has power, and it’s only the dead 12v that is a possible issue (small yay) a 2019 can have either a heat pump or heat tape depending on options. If the car is not plugged in AND it is below freezing I think the time limit still exists.. if I have been misinformed about how long heat tape takes to kill a main battery it could be longer than a week though. as I said all it takes is a light socket. The dealers in my area have extension cords.
Re: scolding: bite me. I know all that. I thought I was. I STILL am not sure I’m wrong. One of us is likely misinformed though.
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