2013 Leaf - Dead 12-Volt Battery every 2 Weeks

[cmgolden]

They finally got the telecommunications functions working again and wouldn't you know, within a week I had a dead 12V battery on two consecutive days (5.5V and 4.7V respectively). The Executive level consumer-affairs person (alleged to be the highest level person I can talk to) claimed to have information that the replacement TCU was of some newer design and thus she expected it to solve the problem. But alas, it did not. The last person at her level left the position after promising me rainbows and unicorns--got promoted and changed his phone number. Now I'm with with someone new who needs to get back up to speed (i.e. "just wait longer.") (By the way, Nissan should train its people not to ignore telephone messages for days). Dealer and DTS are stumped. I'm very tired of talking to know-nothings because the engineers are not "customer facing." I really liked the LEAF and its features when it worked.

I am afraid I'll end up liquidating it and going with Chevy or Tesla.
Anyone want a 2013 LEAF whose 12V battery stays charged so long as the TCU is disabled (for a good price)?

[powersurge]

That's why I am happy I got an S... Nothing to go wrong, and a like new 12v battery....

[cmgolden]

Another status update (a/k/a "vent"): My 2013 3G-TCU-upgraded LEAF SL has failed to start under its own power each morning for the past week+, each time, needing to be jump started (because of the TCU-induced 12V battery drain). The third "executive" level person I was passed to asked me to bring the car into the dealership (again!) to have it looked at. Of course, I resisted, since it made no sense to bring it in for the bazillionth (small exaggeration) time, given the known design issue I was told existed. I contacted the dealer, nonetheless, and after they discussed my car with the DTS, they advised me that indeed there was no point in bringing the car in yet again. There was nothing the DTS or the dealer could do until Nissan implemented a new design (or software fix or whatever) for the TCU for the pre-2016 Leafs.

So on those instructions, I obviously did not bring the car in. They did not want it. I called back my sole contact at Nissan North America, Freddie King, and he, not so eloquently, told me that because I did not bring in the car to DTS as he wanted, Nissan would do nothing further for me and he would no longer talk with me. He said he was "closing the case."I told him what the dealer/DTS had just said about the inspection and its futility. King said that's not "what he understood." I asked King what his understanding from the DTS was. He literally refused to tell me and simply repeated that since I had not brought the car in to the DTS, my case would be closed.

I asked if I could speak with anyone else, his supervisor, etc. He said I could not. Wow.

I understand that technical problems may be hard to track down (and I assume some engineer somewhere is working on a resolution), but this isn't how to treat concerned customers just trying to get stuff resolved.

So, I guess I'll pull the TCU fuse and sell this as a lemon. <disappointment in Nissan>

[PrimeRisk]

I'm part of the TCU Vampire club too.

Here is the behavior I observe:

1) The first indication that the TCU has gone into Vampire mode is getting the Yellow Triangle and there is no ability to get updates from the Leaf via the app or getting plug-in reminders.

2) I open up Leaf Spy Pro to check the codes and sure enough I'll have a somewhere from 1-8 codes, but the one that is ALWAYS there is P3131 EV.HEV System Shutoff Timeout.

3) Pulling the TCU Fuse for 30 seconds seems to do nothing to change the behavior

4) The next overnight in the garage, the battery will be flat dead (< 10VDC)

My (band-aid) solution:
Pull the negative battery cable for at least 15 minutes. Generally I pull of the cable overnight and put it on the BatteryMinder to put a full charge on it.

This seems to reset or reboot something in the car including the clearing the DTCs. The TCU will behave itself for the next 2 weeks - 3 months.

Why is this different? No idea.
Why does it start screwing up in the first place? No Idea.
Why doesn't it happen all the time? No idea.

Sorry, all I know is what seems to kick the TCU back into non-Vampire mode.

What I do know is I am a little OCD about monitoring my car with LSP and I know the battery is not just slowly draining over time until it's too weak to sustain the overnight Vampire treatment. I have left it in the garage for 2 weeks plugged into the EVSE and everything was fine. When I did replace the battery at the 3 year mark following a Vampire mode round, I drove it for a week, went on vacation for a week with it plugged into the EVSE, drove it for a week when I got back, and on the following Saturday it went into Vampire mode with the yellow triangle. It never killed the battery because I did the disconnect and everything has been peachy for the last 3 weeks.

While in Vampire mode I've tried a couple tests. I have tested in by charging the 12v in place in the car to full capacity during the day and overnight it will kill it again. If I pull (and leave out the TCU fuse) it won't. If I put the fuse back in, dead overnight again.

Just my $.02. Hope that helps some of you dealing with this on a multi-time a week basis.

P.S.
Nissan is really screwing the pooch on dealing with this. I've finally got my dealer trained to not deny there is a problem when I talk to them, but I know they are still denying the problem to others. I fear that Nissan will never fix the problem as if it was resolvable with a software patch they would have done it by now. That leaves it as a TCU replacement (again) and an expense they won't want to absorb. They'll deal with the complaints until they're all out of warranty or someone brings a class action.

[brenton]

I'm part of the TCU Vampire club too.

Here is the behavior I observe:

1) The first indication that the TCU has gone into Vampire mode is getting the Yellow Triangle and there is no ability to get updates from the Leaf via the app or getting plug-in reminders.

2) I open up Leaf Spy Pro to check the codes and sure enough I'll have a somewhere from 1-8 codes, but the one that is ALWAYS there is P3131 EV.HEV System Shutoff Timeout.

3) Pulling the TCU Fuse for 30 seconds seems to do nothing to change the behavior

4) The next overnight in the garage, the battery will be flat dead (< 10VDC)

My (band-aid) solution:
Pull the negative battery cable for at least 15 minutes. Generally I pull of the cable overnight and put it on the BatteryMinder to put a full charge on it.

This seems to reset or reboot something in the car including the clearing the DTCs. The TCU will behave itself for the next 2 weeks - 3 months.

Why is this different? No idea.
Why does it start screwing up in the first place? No Idea.
Why doesn't it happen all the time? No idea.

Sorry, all I know is what seems to kick the TCU back into non-Vampire mode.

What I do know is I am a little OCD about monitoring my car with LSP and I know the battery is not just slowly draining over time until it's too weak to sustain the overnight Vampire treatment. I have left it in the garage for 2 weeks plugged into the EVSE and everything was fine. When I did replace the battery at the 3 year mark following a Vampire mode round, I drove it for a week, went on vacation for a week with it plugged into the EVSE, drove it for a week when I got back, and on the following Saturday it went into Vampire mode with the yellow triangle. It never killed the battery because I did the disconnect and everything has been peachy for the last 3 weeks.

While in Vampire mode I've tried a couple tests. I have tested in by charging the 12v in place in the car to full capacity during the day and overnight it will kill it again. If I pull (and leave out the TCU fuse) it won't. If I put the fuse back in, dead overnight again.

Just my $.02. Hope that helps some of you dealing with this on a multi-time a week basis.

P.S.
Nissan is really screwing the pooch on dealing with this. I've finally got my dealer trained to not deny there is a problem when I talk to them, but I know they are still denying the problem to others. I fear that Nissan will never fix the problem as if it was resolvable with a software patch they would have done it by now. That leaves it as a TCU replacement (again) and an expense they won't want to absorb. They'll deal with the complaints until they're all out of warranty or someone brings a class action.

Thank you for this. This lines up exactly with my experience. Really frustrating that there is a definite problem and they won't fix it. I wonder if I go in and have my 12V battery warranty replaced every time it happens if they'll eventually give me a new TCU.

Actually, that sounds like more trouble than filing a class action lawsuit.

[cwerdna]

Haven't read your entire post but...

1) The first indication that the TCU has gone into Vampire mode is getting the Yellow Triangle and there is no ability to get updates from the Leaf via the app or getting plug-in reminders.

2) I open up Leaf Spy Pro to check the codes and sure enough I'll have a somewhere from 1-8 codes, but the one that is ALWAYS there is P3131 EV.HEV System Shutoff Timeout.

To mitigate the P3131 DTC and yellow ! car, try http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=521089#p521089. As I said, it seemed to help Stanton, as well.

I haven't hit the above in a long time now. Clear that DTC and try my workaround.

The 3G TCU not responding to queries or command still happens sometime of them, at random and a fuse pull for the audio system "fixes" it.

I don't have dead 12 volt issues, but I tend to charge up my 12 volt with a Tecmate Optimate 4 about once a week to hopefully allow my replacement 12 volt to last longer since the '13 Leaf does a terrible job of 12 volt charging.

[SageBrush]

That's why I am happy I got an S... Nothing to go wrong, and a like new 12v battery....

Me too.
The TCU sounds like a whole lot more trouble than it is worth.
I think all the EV car companies to one degree or another have 12v drain problems but Nissan seems to have more and their willingness to solve hardware/software bugs is pretty piss poor. I've resigned myself to keeping analytics and car communication to a minimum.

[SageBrush]

I don't have dead 12 volt issues, but I tend to charge up my 12 volt with a Tecmate Optimate 4 about once a week to hopefully allow my replacement 12 volt to last longer since the '13 Leaf does a terrible job of 12 volt charging.

I also have a '13 LEAF (built 10/2013) and just replaced the 12v last month for the first time. So far it seems to be staying at 12.5 v (90% of capacity) for our use. My only nod to keeping it happy is to not have remote comm and to only plug in a couple times a week when SoC is below ~ 30% to minimize the time the car is plugged in but not charging.

[tbog1]

Leaf forum. I just purchased 2014 Leaf SL with 40K and 10 battery bars. I have had it for about 30 days. 2 weeks ago I spent the $199 to upgrade the TCU so I can utilize the App. In 2 weeks my 12v battery died and yesterday I was left stranded. Thankfully these forums confirmed others with the same issue. Had to have my Leaf towed to the dealer who will see what they can do on Monday. I chatted with a Nissan rep yesterday. They started "we are aware that there have been cases where the new TCU can drain the 12volt battery" What the heck Nissan?? You are knowingly inserting a defect into our vehicles . Very disappointed and embarrassed as I had friends and our plans for the day totally ruined. I have owned Nissans for the past 25 years. Beginning to question my recent Nissan purchase. I have owned(Maxima,Pathfinder,Xterra,Altima,Rogue)

Thinking Class Action Lawsuit anyone interested in joining ?

[GerryAZ]

Leaf forum. I just purchased 2014 Leaf SL with 40K and 10 battery bars. I have had it for about 30 days. 2 weeks ago I spent the $199 to upgrade the TCU so I can utilize the App. In 2 weeks my 12v battery died and yesterday I was left stranded. Thankfully these forums confirmed others with the same issue. Had to have my Leaf towed to the dealer who will see what they can do on Monday. I chatted with a Nissan rep yesterday. They started "we are aware that there have been cases where the new TCU can drain the 12volt battery" What the heck Nissan?? You are knowingly inserting a defect into our vehicles . Very disappointed and embarrassed as I had friends and our plans for the day totally ruined. I have owned Nissans for the past 25 years. Beginning to question my recent Nissan purchase. I have owned(Maxima,Pathfinder,Xterra,Altima,Rogue)

Thinking Class Action Lawsuit anyone interested in joining ?

I am not interested in a class action--I have only had a handful of times that my upgraded TCU needed to be reset (see information about disconnecting 12-volt battery or pulling fuse). You could have just jump started the Leaf and driven it to charge the 12-volt battery. I doubt there is anything the dealer can do except clear error codes and charge the 12-volt battery. They could remove the TCU, but you will lose remote access.