EV Warning light on but no error codes in LeafSpy Pro

[PaPaSteve]

Greetings
We purchased a used 2011 Leaf about 4 years ago.
For the past few days the EV warning light has been illuminating within 1/4 mile of driving.
Otherwise the car drives fine.
With the car in the on position and stopped in park there is a small motor sound (coolant pump ?) and I can feel fluid moving in one of the hoses.
The fluid levels are all up.
12V battery charges to 12.4v then drops to drops to 11.9v in a few days.
Not sure if I understand LeafSpy well enough but I don't think there are any error codes for where to look at whatever is failing.
Is the ">" at the start of a code line significant ?
Any advise ?
THX
Steve

The Nissan Leaf EV warning light (Electric Vehicle) illuminates when there is a malfunction in the following:
Traction motor and inverter system
Charge port or on board charger
Li-ion battery system
Cooling system
Shift control system
Emergency shut off system is activated

 

[nlspace]

i suspect that your 12V battery is old, weak or worn out which can cause a whole mess of fault codes such as you have shown. If you haven't replaced it over the past 4 years, and haven't kept it fully charged at all times. then it's shot and you got your money's worth out of it.

 

[PaPaSteve]

i suspect that your 12V battery is old, weak or worn out which can cause a whole mess of fault codes such as you have shown. If you haven't replaced it over the past 4 years, and haven't kept it fully charged at all times. then it's shot and you got your money's worth out of it.

Thanks . . . a fresh battery is low enough cost to try.
Probably will just jump to a full charge deep cycle battery as a next test.
Part of the trouble shooting issue is the OBD2 device is too old for the current version on the LeafSpy app.
The dongle is a 10 ~ 12 year old PLX brand that is showing up on the service page, it does shows most all parameters (gauges stay at zero) but the status light on the bottom right corner doesn't turn green (stays blue in the "searching" mode).
DTC error codes will not clear.
Yesterday I email chatted with the creator of LeafSpy app, Jim Pollock, for guidance.
The ">" at the start of a line does signify an error.
It would be lovely to find a comprehensive error code list for this car.
Gary Gid posted this list in 2013 but so far I haven't been able to decipher all the acronyms.
And the https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual?fsm=Leaf/2011 doesn't seam to have a trouble codes section.
Well . . . that's the updates for now.

 

[nlspace]

Not sure that i've ever seen just a complete list of DTCs in the FSM--they put them in the various sections of the manual that are related to the issue. i.e. the DTCs related to main battery pack charging are only found in the Vehicle Charging [VC] section.

Web search is your friend--if you want to find info on a certain DTC just do a search with web browser to get started. If you don't have luck post it up here and we can find it for you.

 

[PaPaSteve]

Not sure that i've ever seen just a complete list of DTCs in the FSM--they put them in the various sections of the manual that are related to the issue. i.e. the DTCs related to main battery pack charging are only found in the Vehicle Charging [VC] section.

Web search is your friend--if you want to find info on a certain DTC just do a search with web browser to get started. If you don't have luck post it up here and we can find it for you.

DTC's in the charging section of the manual all start with a "u" or "b"
"> b 2820" identifies as the quick charger but no notes as to what could be a fault or error.
The error code I'm looking for starts with a "c"
Web searching DTC for c1007 00 17 . . . (or 19, 23, 25)
Yields this for a gas engine, a c code is defined as :

C OBD-II Diagnostic Chassis (C) Trouble Code For Engine
1 Fuel And Air Metering
0 Injector Circuit Malfunction - Cylinders
0 Cylinder 10 Contribution/balance Fault
7 Crankshaft Position Sensor B Circuit Malfunction

Nothing yet found for a Leaf.
New OBD2 scheduled for delivery on Monday.

Thanks for any and all input.

 

[cornbinder89]

You can download the complete service manual for the 2011 from the NICO site, then you'll have the factory manuals and don't have to rely on what "google" says.
BTW "zero emission" vehicles don't have to abide by OBD-2 protocol so while they have a port that is similar, not all dongles and software works with it, because it is NOT OBD-2

 

[nlspace]

Were you doing a fast charge when the fault occurred? If not then i suspect you are getting false codes from the effects of a low 12V battery.

Your fault codes are all over the place in numerous systems, not likely to be real.

Eliminate the 12V battery as a culprit, then re-scan.

 

[PaPaSteve]

Browsing the individual NICO manuals has yielded some info but not what I'm looking for yet.
Found some "c" codes defining brake stuff . . . but no codes lower then c11xx whereas the error is c1007.
So "c" codes may indicate chassis related stuff.
Right now it's random guesses what section of the manuals to look at.
Would there be, is there, a code indicating a low 12V battery ?
Since we have owned this car it has been mostly (99.9% ?) charged at home with a level 2 Siemens charger.

The dongle on order is recommended by LeafSpy and will work with the Torque app which will work for Bolt diagnostics.

 

[nlspace]

What are the symptoms that you are trying to fix?

Does the car charge okay?

Does it go to READY and drive okay?

 

[PaPaSteve]

These are the two things that alerted me to investigating further with LeafSpy.
1) For the past few days the EV warning light has been illuminating within 1/4 mile of driving.
2) Small motor sound I haven't noticed before . . . With the car in the on position and stopped in park there is a sound of a coolant pump.
Really don't cherish calling a tow service or seeing further damage simply for not paying attention.
Generally, my work habits are to understand and repair if needed, any machine warnings.

 

[nlspace]

Battery voltage at 11.9 => warning sign to me

Also what is the sound made by a coolant pump when it is trying to run with low voltage?

 

[cornbinder89]

The info is in the manuals, I think you are having trouble understanding what is in there.
That said, I agree with nlspace (something that doesn't always happen) and 1st thing I would do, is remove the 12 volt, charge and load test. While that is being done, clean the 12 volt terminals on the car.
The number of codes and the wide number of systems involved, point to erroneous codes being set by a weak 12 volt.
As most here know, I don't jump to that being the problem as a "fix-all". I don't even in this case, without charging an testing it, but your voltage readings and the wide spread codes yet the car is still driveable make it very likely that the 12 volt is at fault this time.
Your can ignore all the advice and try and understand the codes, but one of the 1st diagnostic procedure is to charge and check the 12 volt. Look at the codes that list the section and page in the manual, and it will say to check the 12 volt supply.

 

[PaPaSteve]

Very well could be a simple 12v battery fix.
Battery was charged as a first step a week before joining this forum, battery terminals are spotless as is the car.
Will be looking for a load tester.

The advise is respected and appreciated.
Thanks

 

[woeful]

2) Small motor sound I haven't noticed before . . . With the car in the on position and stopped in park there is a sound of a coolant pump.

Might that be the brake pump?

 

[PaPaSteve]

Might that be the brake pump?

Good thought.

To be honest I'm not fully versed on all the systems in the car.

Using the search option in the manuals, it was the parking brake section that got the closest to finding c1007
Search went as far as c100 but stalled when adding the 7.

Fluid can be seen moving in the reservoir when the cap is removed from the coolant reservoir on the passenger side in the motor compartment.
Hose from this reservoir appears to be connected to the high voltage system radiator.
Motor sound seems to coming from the bottom drivers side corner of the radiator.

Again, it may be a normal sound but I don't recall hearing it when sitting in the car in park when in on condition.

 

[nlspace]

With a bad 12V battery even the list of DTCs is suspect--it can have errors in the report and make up DTCs that don't exist. Throw away the list until you have done step 1 in troubleshooting.

 

[PaPaSteve]

12v battery removed from the car is rated at 500 cca (cold cranking amps)
Local auto parts store load tested it to 470 cca which by their meter is "good"
Store listing for an acceptable new replacement battery can be as low as 450 cca $100
A new 500 cca is listed at $175
Battery tray is oversized compared to the actual size of the battery so before $$$ a new battery I'll swipe the coach battery out of the RV as the next battery test.

Did a search in every manual for codes c1007 and b2820
The c1007 didn't show up anywhere
b2820 showed up in vc.pdf section as the quick charger and pointing towards several testing procedures.

This repair can sit until Monday / Tuesday waiting for the OBD2 dongle to showing up.

THX again.

 

[cornbinder89]

With it charged and tested good, I'd re install and see if any of the codes come back. It sounds like you have Leafspy to read the codes, correct? Or were borrowing someone elses Leafspy?
Removing the battery should clear the stored codes so now would be a good time to see what if any codes are shown, while the battery is known to be charged and capable.
If there is a draw somewhere, waiting until next week could just muddy the waters, as it could draw the battery back down.
When trying to diagnose something like this, I wouldn't be waiting a week between operations. The idea is to know under what conditions codes happen, and conditions change between now and a week from now.

 

[PaPaSteve]

With it charged and tested good, I'd re install and see if any of the codes come back. It sounds like you have Leafspy to read the codes, correct? Or were borrowing someone elses Leafspy?
Removing the battery should clear the stored codes so now would be a good time to see what if any codes are shown, while the battery is known to be charged and capable.
If there is a draw somewhere, waiting until next week could just muddy the waters, as it could draw the battery back down.
When trying to diagnose something like this, I wouldn't be waiting a week between operations. The idea is to know under what conditions codes happen, and conditions change between now and a week from now.

Part of the trouble shooting issue is the OBD2 device is too old for the current version of the LeafSpy app.
The dongle is a 10 ~ 12 year old PLX brand.
Dongle does show as being connected on the service page.
It does show most all parameters (except the gauges stay at zero).
The status light on the bottom right corner won't turn green (stays blue in the "searching" mode).

Plenty of other chores, things to fix and build for the next few days.

THX for your insight.

 

[cornbinder89]

So you have a mis-match and that may be giving you erroneous info as well. Ok, Good reason to wait, just make sure the battery is up when you start again.