has your Leaf's PTC heater failed? reply here

[60wag]

Another PTC heater failure here. It actually went out last year but now I need to drive the car in colder weather with icing conditions so I took the thing to the dealer for repair.

2013 Leaf, 35k miles, in Colorado
No check engine light just no heat below 30 degrees. The heat pump made warm air above 40 degrees but no current draw from the PTC heater.

Dealer cost was 3000$, they managed a 10% discount to get it down to 2700$. Called Nissan customer service to start a claim. They said sorry, nothing we can do.

At least I have heat, for now. But I will never buy another Nissan.

[bearer]

After 200MM (Megameters, or 125.000 miles for the metrically impaired) my brothers 2014 Leaf with clod climate package join the PTC club by invitation of the DTCs and reduced heating capability.

B2773 0008 HVAC PTC Heater Circuit 1 HAC-75
B2774 0008 HVAC PTC Heater Circuit 2 HAC-75

Nissan quoted about $2100 to replace the PTC heater but I'm having a hard time deciding if I should believe that solves the problem. The car comfortable holds 20°C against 6°C outside for now, and the power climate control power consumption can be seen rising slowly to about 2-3kW and suddenly falling back down to settle around 0.5-1kW.

Are there other heaters in the system that can account for the power consumption and temperature?

Does the 2014 PTC have the same design fault as described on the 2013 PTC or is getting a used part a viable alternative?

[LeftieBiker]

The car likely has a heat pump as well as the PTC.

[TEAVee]

My LEAF's heater is no longer operational. The annoying part is I took it to Nissan as it was going out of warrantee and they said it was in spec. Unfortunately I never turned on the heater to check that it worked. I didn't drive the car for two winters. When I did, it was obvious that did not work. I took it to the dealer for diagnosis and they said the DC/DC converter needed to be replaced and the PTC heater as well for the cost of $5500. I had hoped that they would help pay for part of it under "good will" but they did not.

I am now the proud owner of a Model 3. Can you guess why I did not choose to buy another LEAF?

I drive the LEAF during the summers and use the Tesla for out of town road trips and during the winter when it is too cold.

Does anyone know where I can get the LEAF repaired?

[LeftieBiker]

You haven't said where you live.

[Tbailey4]

2013 s in Juneau Alaska. 54900 miles with a failed heater

[whereswally606]

I bought my leaf a few years back and it was cheap at the time as it had a broken heater. I didn't realise how bad that was going to be at the time but nissan local to me in the UK quoted £5500 which was more than I paid for the car. This was, I found out later to replace two whole units which weren't the actual issue. Instead I found Indra in Malvern, at the time the used to service all the leaf taxis and were far better and cheaper for repairing leafs than Nissan. In the end I paid them £1200 and ended up with a working heater. These days they have moved away from car repair and into V2G systems with ovo a UK energy company.

Fast forward to today and this morning my heating again has failed but as has the ability to put the car in drive. I have the errors on my leaf spy

B2772 0018 HVAC PTC Heater Circuit 1 HAC-75
B2772 0018 HVAC PTC Heater Circuit 2 HAC-75
B2772 0018 HVAC PTC Heater Circuit 3 HAC-75
B2772 0018 HVAC PTC Heater Circuit 4 HAC-75

as well as
C118C 0109 ABS EV/HEV System BRC-126

C1A6E 0109 BRAKE EV/HEV System BR-146
C1A70 0109 BRAKE Brake Control System BR-160

P3176 00C0 Inverter Condenser EVC-238
P311C 00C0 High Voltage System EVC-204

This car also has a muxsan 17.6kwh range extender but I don't see any issues with that part of the system and I have a spare mitm board which I swapped in to check if it could be causing issues.

I also have another working 2013 leaf which again has a ptc heater that has never had issues and I swapped my optima yellow top from my Muxsan leaf to this and vice versa to see if it could be funnies caused by low 12v battery issues.

anyway I also have some eberspacher hydronics diesel heaters that I was planning on installing to augment the system and gain back range lost from the lossy ptc heating, however now I think it will probably be a straight replacement if indeed the second ptc heater and fuse has failed. I suspect maybe it has take the pre-charge resistor with it and I don't appear to be able to charge the car either.

We were planning on selling the newer 2013 leaf and in light of the heaters being quite obviously a poor design and the job to replace the fuses so ridiculously arduous we may do that sooner than later. This car has yesterday flown through its MOT test and in its previous ownership by a local council done very little miles or rapid charges.

Anyway when I work out what the issues really are now, I will think about whether some of the 12v solutions here are worth pursuing instead of the obviously flawed oem solution

[LeftieBiker]

Anyway when I work out what the issues really are now, I will think about whether some of the 12v solutions here are worth pursuing instead of the obviously flawed oem solution

If all you need is a tolerable cabin temp, then the inverter-personal heater route should work - especially if you need heat in the driver's area only. If you need a similar level of heat to OEM, then probably not.

[whereswally606]

@LeftieBiker Well I have put in heated seats in the front but I have 2 and 4 year old boys so I need the cabin temp to be close to oem. The eberspachers I have are 3kw rated and I have two so maybe in parallel they could do better than the original. I think for now I will only put one in or do the 12v ptc heater, my worry with that solutions is putting too much extra duty on the DCDC converter causing that to have a harder life and potentially be the next victim to the heat problem.

[LeftieBiker]

You can avoid the car's 12 volt system and use a storage battery in the back. Or use the storage battery and have the car recharge it, so it acts as a buffer.