Replacing Brake Actuator Assembly

[azrith]

Hi All,

I have a 2013 Nissan Leaf that's had what appears to be a somewhat common braking issue. The issue started a few years ago when the Leaf was parked. I turned the leaf on and put it in reverse and while my foot was still on the brake it start moving forward. A bunch of the indicator lights were on. After research online, I changed out the 12V aux battery and it seemed fine for a few years. Now the last few months I've experienced a similar issue where the brakes seem to go out and the pedal goes to the floor and luckily the car stops. When it first did it a few months ago I figured it was the 12V battery again. Checked the voltage and it was all good. Then it did it to me again mid drive when I went to stop at a light. Luckily I was able to stop by pressing it hard to the floor and then I carefully drove home and the brakes seemed fine from there even though a bunch of the indicator lights were on. After that I figured I better take it in to Nissan. The Diagnosis is that there's an intermittent short in the Brake Actuator Assembly and Nissan wants $3,826 to replace it and the part would be 4-6 weeks out.
I found the part ebay and it's described as the electronic brake. It's much cheaper but I'm wondering how hard it would it be to change it out myself. I think I can physically get it installed but in looking online, it appears changing it out may require some programming.

Does anyone have suggestions or possibly a link to a video in changing the part out? I can't find anything.

Thanks for the help.

 

[jjeff]

Sorry I can't help you with your problem but I thought I'd give you my experience. I had a similar "brakes giving out" incident as you but mine happened when it was sub-zero and the car had been sitting for several days. Like you, I first thought it was the 12v battery but like you, I eliminated that. In my case, I took my '13S into a somewhat heated garage for overnight and my problem went away. It hasn't resurfaced but then it hasn't been that cold lately and when it was cold I tried to move the car at least every couple of days even if just forward and back.
From researching on MNL I found a recall? bulletin for my year car and apparently what it did was automatically "exercise" the brake actuator a couple? times/day to mostly help it from freezing/frosting up but might also help in your case? I took my car in to fix the HV battery strap that was on recall and took the opportunity to ask if they could also do the Actuator exercise update thing(think its just a software thing) but they said my vehicle while the correct year, wasn't in the correct VIN range to be affected. I told them I wanted it anyway as the description of what this fixed sounded just like what I experienced but they said they could not do the update as again my car wasn't supposed to be affected! Now I was hoping to get it done free, under recalls like my battery plate strap fix I had it in for so I don't know what they would have done if I'd said I'd be willing to pay for the update but I'd guess they might have just said it supposedly didn't affect my car so they couldn't do it.
Again not sure if this "software update" might help you but it would sure be easier/cheaper than what you are talking about