Car dies while driving

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DarenTx

New member
Joined
Feb 25, 2018
Messages
2
While driving my 2014 Nissan Leaf SV it will suddenly just lose power. The radio, the dashboard, and everything else works but the car just won't go as though it's in park or neutral. I get some error lights on the dashboard but did not take note of what they were.

I coast to a parking spot, let it set for a few hours, and then it's fine.

The first time this happened I took it to AutoZone and they tested the 12-volt battery. They said it was bad and put in a new battery. It was fine for a few weeks and then it happened again today.

With the limited information I was able to give, any thoughts on what could be wrong?
 
Your 12 volt battery is dying repeatedly. It could be because of your habits (leaving the car plugged in but not charging, leaving an ODBII reader plugged in all the time, using accessories in "Acc" mode) or the car could have a problem with the not-great-to-start-with 12 volt charging system. OR, the auto parts place put in a near-dead battery and it never got charged because of the above.
 
is this a new PDM, or did this issue only start up recently?

because the car boots up fine, and power cuts out randomly while driving, i don't think its the 12V especially since you just replaced it.

i had very similar symptoms after a warrantied PDM replacement on our '14 SL. also, on long charging sessions the car would stop taking a charge and the OBC would not respond for a while. waiting for a few hours clears this problem. otherwise, no DTCs present at all and the car looks fully functional. but whats scary is the car would randomly lose power and exhibit the same symptoms you describe while driving. looking back it was actually a huge mistake to even drive it after the first time it happened.

in the end i don't actually know what really happened. the dealer tech said he found water in a low power signal plug of the PDM, and because we had below freezing temperatures, it would short out the contact when it got warm (after charging/driving), and then froze again when things cooled down. after they blew all the water from the plug and reconnected everything, everything worked fine. this was the best explanation that we got but i'm not 100% certain this is what happened... because between sessions i also noticed that the firmware on the new PDM was also reconfigured. (currently, the new part is no longer showing a part number or serial in LeafSpy)... and the water excuse (which they say could have invalidated the warrantied PDM replacement which would have been over $4k CDN) could have simply be a way to scare us in accepting the smaller diagnostics charge while they figured out really what was going on. the plug is fully waterproof, vertically plugged and underneath the side of the box so how water got in would have been a mystery. also, the only time it was removed was during the PDM replacement...

anyway, this was part of a pretty difficult experience that lasted over a month for us over christmas, and since then we've had a fully functioning car so we decided to let it go. i'm currently trying to figure out the no part number/serial thing is going to be an issue in the future...

of course the above was just our particular story, so the actual problem you're facing could be completely different. if you have a trustworthy dealership nearby, i'd definitely try to work it out with them.


feel free to PM me with any further details if there's any information that you're not willing to disclose publicly for various reasons...
 
I took it to the dealer. They said they ran the diagnostics and it said it needed a software update. They applied the update and gave the car back to me.

I did not have confidence that this was going to resolve the issue and it did not. It died again later that same day.

We took it back and they replace the inverter. It's been a few weeks and it's working fine now.
 
Thought I would post a response as I had a similar problem with my 2015 leaf at 119,000 miles. Car has 10 bars still, started having issues with it dying while running, usually when coming off the accelerator pedal. Happened several times coming off the highway, was pretty scary as the power would shut off and I had warning lights over the dash. I was convinced I must be having a battery problem. Once I restarted it, the leaf continued like nothing had happened. In all cases I was over 30% state of charge. I checked my 12V battery, it tested weak - and I replaced that hoping that was the issue. Also removed my OBD dongle based on looking at the forums.

I upgraded to Leafspy pro to read codes, and had a bunch of codes. Cleared them all, and waited for it to happen again. Within a day it had, and it gave me a code of the accuator pedal, along with some other codes I didn't understand.

Decided to take a chance at replacing the pedal, with an aftermarket version for $30, rather than paying a ridiculous dealer diagnostic fee. My dealer charges $200 just to look at it.

It solved the problem. No idea why the car would be designed to shut off entirely when the gas pedal went out - but it did. So it anyone out the has issues with the car shutting off when the battery is fully charged - I would give this a whirl for the $30 it cost me.
 
calicanadian said:
No idea why the car would be designed to shut off entirely when the gas pedal went out - but it did.

Never heard of a similar problem.

Cars are designed to run on a CAN bus. These buses are fairly robust, but a failing node can disable everything. Accelerator pedal is just another node on the CAN bus.

What's a gas pedal? :lol:
 
calicanadian: Thanks for your post, and the solution. Would you mind reposting after a few miles, let us know if any codes return?

I wouldn't have replaced such an important part with "an aftermarket version." I'd want an approved OEM product, dealer installed with warranty, and just eat the difference in cost.
I hope your solution works for you!
 
I have a 2015 Leaf and have had a similar problem. While traveling usually over 50mph on the freeway and usually with the a high electrical load on the vehicle especially the A/C, head lights, windshield wipers, etc, the drive motor cuts out and I get the error message "stop the vehicle" with a warning tone and warning lights. All electrical accessories in the vehicle still work. When I turn off electrical load the drive motor usually reengages and the warning lights go out.

I've taken it to the dealership several times and they usually cannot duplicate the problem. At first they replaced the 12V battery and the problem went away for about 2 weeks then came back. The dealership cannot figure out what the problem is and want me to replace the Power Delivery Module which costs about half the price of the vehicle with no guarantees it will fix the problem. I cannot believe I am the only one having this problem.
 
cappooh said:
I have a 2015 Leaf and have had a similar problem. While traveling usually over 50mph on the freeway and usually with the a high electrical load on the vehicle especially the A/C, head lights, windshield wipers, etc, the drive motor cuts out and I get the error message "stop the vehicle" with a warning tone and warning lights. All electrical accessories in the vehicle still work. When I turn off electrical load the drive motor usually reengages and the warning lights go out.

I've taken it to the dealership several times and they usually cannot duplicate the problem. At first they replaced the 12V battery and the problem went away for about 2 weeks then came back. The dealership cannot figure out what the problem is and want me to replace the Power Delivery Module which costs about half the price of the vehicle with no guarantees it will fix the problem. I cannot believe I am the only one having this problem.

Check out my thread on this issue. I took my car into Nissan twice - the first time the PDM was replaced under the 5/60 powertrain warranty (2016 Leaf SV). The next time the issue occurred, they spotted some codes, some ground wiring issues, and Nissan paid a substantial portion of the repairs via good-will (as this wasn't covered by any warrant).
 
Although I never had the severe symptoms described in this thread, I found marginal 12V negative terminal to body ground connection issues on both 2011 and 2015 (no issues so far with 2019). There is a connection in the negative battery cable that looks like a cable clip, but is actually a connection for chassis ground (on left fender well near the 12V battery). On both cars, there was paint under the terminal and in the threads in the body which created high-resistance, marginal connection so there was some voltage difference between the case of the DC-DC converter and the body. Running the HVAC blower fan on high would increase the voltage difference and could cause the intermittent problems noted in this thread.
 
I wanted to add in my experience with my 14-month old, 10,500-mile 2019 Leaf dying while driving (!).

The electric battery was at 48%. I was about two blocks from the freeway entrance and just finished a left hand turn. As I straightened the car out, I pressed the Eco button to turn it off and stepped on the accelerator pedal. The car went into neutral and displayed an error message that said "Service EV system. Apply parking brake." I rolled to a stop in a center left turn lane and tried to turn the car on again several times. It would not start and displayed another message "Service EV System. No power." The tow truck driver could not start it either. I got the car towed to the dealer 30 minutes away. The car started at the dealer roughly an hour later.

The dealer could not replicate the issue. The 12 volt battery tested as 12.59V. The dealer said that there were no error codes on the log. Finally the service manager said the car was a big computer and that it glitched. I was terrified to drive the car again for fear it would stop on the highway. After my husband drove it for 3 days with no issues, I now drive it carefully. I never change between Eco and regular modes while driving, and I drive in one of the right two lanes of the highway in case the car decides to die again.

I understand that computers freeze up. If so, a simple reboot should fix the problem, but it seems like this reboot did not work until about an hour later.

1) Errors with the Orange triangle and exclamation point were not on the computer log! Urgent errors should be captured on the car log for diagnosis and troubleshooting. This is a defect that should be fixed and pushed out to all Leafs.
2) A known issue (as evidenced by this thread and Reddit) that a car stops while driving should be highly prioritized for fixing and solutions and/or thorough troubleshooting protocols communicated to all service departments. It seems like each service team is starting from scratch when faced with this issue.

I consider this issue serious. I was lucky in that a city truck saw my car stalled in the middle of the road and he parked behind me with diamond lights until the tow truck came so that my daughter and I would not be struck by a distracted driver.
 
I understand that computers freeze up. If so, a simple reboot should fix the problem, but it seems like this reboot did not work until about an hour later.

This is likely not the problem. It seems like there are several issues that could be behind this dangerous malfunction, but computer lockup isn't one of them. If the problem occurs more than once while you are switching drive modes, then the accelerator pedal electronics may be at fault, as was the case at least once above,
 
Thank you badscooter. The dealer has replaced my PDM with Nissan paying 70% but the problem came back. After correcting the ground wiring issue has the problem reoccurred for you?
 
I have an update on my Leaf that died while driving. My husband also had it die on him when he exited the freeway in the rain. In both incidents, we felt the tires slip before the car turned off and . For my husband, the car would not turn back on until my husband disconnected and reconnected the 12 volt battery. When it happened to me, it took about an hour until the car would turn back on again because I did not disconnect the 12 volt battery. The Nissan Service department listened to our experiences and contacted their Tech Line support center. They replaced the traction motor inverter at no cost and we have not had an issue since. Now we travel with an adjustable wrench in the glove compartment just in case.
 
Just had a similar experience. Car died on a city street. Lots of warning lights and messages to pull over and press the emergency brake. 2015 S, 43k miles, 12 bars (87% SOH), central MA.
But it’s my own fault. I bought it used a year ago and I knew the battery was old, the original as far as I could tell, but LeafSpy showed it in okay territory and I never got around to it.
But I’ve been reading this forum for 10 years now and should have known better.
So got a new battery and cleaned all the connections including the frame ground, cleared all the DTCs and it’s back to normal.
No DTCs came back, so hopefully the experience didn’t screw anything up.
Probably stay off the highway for a couple weeks just in case.
Will report back back if any further issues.
It’s hot and humid here and I probably killed the old battery running the AC on full blast.
 
Or just the heat pushed the battery over the edge. 12V batteries often have a shorter life in hot climates like TX and AZ then they do in the Great White North.
 
Yes, 12V batteries often fail suddenly in the heat--I have plenty of experience with automotive and motorcycle batteries. Inter-cell connections fail open or cells fail shorted--either condition can happen without warning. That is why I usually carry a booster pack that is charged and ready to use.
 
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