New Leaf lasts 2 days before crashing

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704hov1095

Active member
Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
25
Electronic crash, that is. Delivered 6/18 and drove just fine for 2 days, including recharging both with my AV L2 and trickle charging at work with L1 unit. Returned home from work 2 nites ago with approx. 12 residual miles, plugged it back into the L2 and went to bed. As I got up yesterday, the dash charging lights were off and the car would not do anything other than turn on the accessories. Called the EV hotline and the first guy was a total amateur (I could hear him turning pages of a manual) and we mutually gave up. I called a little later from work (took my fully reliable Honda Civic Hybrid, which thankfully I did not trade in) and spoke to a much more knowledgeable guy named Paul Smith. He waited until I got home (staying beyond his structured hours at his desk in Ohio), and walked me through several steps, none of which worked. He contacted my dealer, and the salesman who sold me the vehicle actually drove out to my house after he left work (about a 8-mile drive), confirmed the car was dead in place, and today the car will be towed to the dealer.

I'll let you know what happened. Needless to say, I am not a very happy new owner and am already wondering if these cars are ready for the real world...
 
The popular (and tested) wisdom on this forum seems to be, when faced with such a situation, disconnect the cable connected to the negative terminal of the 12 volt battery, wait a bit, reconnect and see if that solves the problem. Seems like it would be worth a try prior to towing.
 
704hov1095 said:
Needless to say, I am not a very happy new owner and am already wondering if these cars are ready for the real world...
We have only had a couple of reports of significant problems with the Leaf. The outcome is that the problem gets fixed, and we never hear about it again. While it is annoying for you, don't be concerned that this means your Leaf will be unreliable.
 
What I would like to see is a message from CarWings that the vehicle did not start charging as expected. The 'near' charging station fault is nice but after plugging in and accidentally leaving the car powered on could pull the battery down and inhibit the charge cycle from starting. I'm purely speculating and maybe low battery / charging with EV energized has already been answered or discussed before.
 
704hov1095 said:
Electronic crash, that is.
I'll let you know what happened. Needless to say, I am not a very happy new owner and am already wondering if these cars are ready for the real world...

I just have to giggle a bit at your situation... No ill intent, ;) just made me remember my second day of ownership watching my LEAF leave me stranded as it left on a flatbed tow truck back to the dealer. This was one of the early stage AC issues. A day at the Dealer Spa and it was back to me without another problems, 2700 miles and going...(Knock)

Chill its all good :ugeek:
 
mwalsh said:
Flame suit on.....but that sort of sounds to me like you left the car turned on. No timer charging would be my first indicator and the completely dead battery pack my second.

You may be right. But we'll see if the only verdict at the dealer is that the battery is fully drained. You think it would be able to charge when fully dead, no?
 
mwalsh said:
Flame suit on.....but that sort of sounds to me like you left the car turned on. No timer charging would be my first indicator and the completely dead battery pack my second.
I saw nothing in his post to suggest the battery was dead. The dash charging lights would normally be off the next morning after an overnight charge was done.
 
704hov1095 said:
mwalsh said:
Flame suit on.....but that sort of sounds to me like you left the car turned on. No timer charging would be my first indicator and the completely dead battery pack my second.

You may be right. But we'll see if the only verdict at the dealer is that the battery is fully drained. You think it would be able to charge when fully dead, no?

I kept an interesting spreadsheet tally on a chalkboard next to my LEAF and Blink Charger.... Every time something would not go as expected, I would make a mark and work to solve the problem. Most times it was a simple procedural issue or something out of sequence :eek: . I would chalk that one up on the operator error side of the chalkboard. Needless to say after 2700 miles and a chalkboard full on the "Operator Error" side I stopped. My self esteem had hit rock bottom. I would leave for work every day and see 99 chalk marks on the "Operator Error" side. :oops: Now onto that first draft of "LEAF for Dummies", aka; "How I was beaten by a LEAF"
As of today I am able to routinely charge, start, drive to work, and return home. Repeat...... It's a slow process for some of us.. YMMV just sayin... :ugeek:
 
mwalsh said:
Flame suit on.....but that sort of sounds to me like you left the car turned on. No timer charging would be my first indicator and the completely dead battery pack my second.

Ahem, the car is back from a day at the dealer. While there is no absolute proof, examination found 3 error codes that led to a "fail safe state" indicating with strong probability that DUMMY here, aka 704hov1095, to whom thousands trust their loved ones for complex medical diagnosis, exited the car while it was still on. DUMMY proceeded to insert L2 nozzle and to not take care in noticing the charging lamp was not lit. DUMMY's battery would not charge as car had entered the above state. Dealer was very nice about everything--free tow, no charge for the service, car returned washed again (3 times in 5 days, thank you), and DUMMY is released on his own recognizance again.

Some lessons learned here: (1) IMHO there is insufficient warning (supposedly I should have heard some chimes) when the car is left on and the door is opened; (2) on the AV EVSE, the lamp for active charging is partially lit from the glow just above it from the lamp indicating the vehicle is connected, possibly leading someone to think a good charge is underway (though DUMMY should have noticed no dash lights lit up); (3) there ought to be some sort of reserve power in the event of (near)accidental discharge of the main battery; (4) the help line folks in Ohio are still at the beginning of their own learning curves; (5) Weseloh Nissan here in Orange County is bending over backward to earn customer respect and loyalty.

My experience was mostly "no harm, no foul", and probably served some good in giving the local Nissan dealer some service experience with the Leaf.

The dealer service manager suggested I use Nissan's Facebook page (yet to see it) to post some suggestions that will contribute to a better Leaf II.

Otto (DUMMY for now)
 
704hov1095 said:
DUMMY here, aka 704hov1095, to whom thousands trust their loved ones for complex medical diagnosis, exited the car while it was still on.

Hey, don't feel too bad. Dummy over here has exited his LEAF without turning it off several times, most recently today, after almost 3 months of driving it. Luckily for me, each time, it was noticed before it sat there too long.

By the way, what kind of medical diagnosis do you do, Lab, Radiology or other? I'm a retired Lab guy.
 
left the car on?
the dealer drove out to the house to help?
and you are complaining that the car isnt ready for prime time?
sounds like the pot calling out the kettle....
 
Well I think you are too hard on yourself and not yet aware of the 'subtle' messages from this car. I know I hear beeps and tones that I have not identified after 5 weeks with the car but when I turn off 'stuff' and close the door it gets quite. And slowly I learn what those bleeps mean.

The system needs more fail safe capabilities and in this case the system knows the charging cable is plugged in and the main system power is on. The telematics "should" be capable of recognizing this fault condition and after an hour send you an email or text message that charging cannot begin. Or better yet, why doesn't the system auto power down after an hour of being idle?
 
704hov1095 said:
While there is no absolute proof, examination found 3 error codes that led to a "fail safe state" indicating with strong probability that DUMMY here ... exited the car while it was still on.

Today is my first day with the LEAF and I have been sitting here reading the manual--like others, LOVE the car--better than I remember the test drive. Thus, an excuse to go out and make sure I turned "Junior" OFF as at the moment, it is publicly street parked until the AM. No need to learn the hard way.

Thank you for sharing your foible.
 
My charge routine goes like this:

1. Hit park, engage parking brake, turn off car.
2. Pop charge port, get out of car.
3. Open charge port, pull J1772 nozzle from Blink holster.
4. Fumble around in the dark plugging in.
5. Wait for Blink to make loud thunk and the car to beep and make a few noises of it's own. Blink will indicate that the car has started charging for a few seconds then stop.
6. Confirm that blue dash lights are blinking randomly (Charge timer is set).

Hasn't failed me yet. If you are near the car when the timer does get the car to start charging, you'll hear it beep and the Blink thunk. The Blink's display will light up and the appropriate dash light will start blinking depending on SOC.

My car definitely beeps at me if the car is on and I open the driver's door.

If you're not using a charge timer (or canceled it after turning the car off), the car will start charging immediately when plugging in.
 
drees said:
My charge routine goes like this:
1. Hit park, engage parking brake, turn off car.
4. Fumble around in the dark plugging in.

Mine is similar except for 1 and 4. I put my foot on the brake, then push 'P', remove my foot, then push the Power button. I don't have to fumble around in the dark because my garage door opener LED light stays on for about 4 minutes (non-adjustable).
 
704hov1095 said:
Ahem, the car is back from a day at the dealer. While there is no absolute proof, examination found 3 error codes that led to a "fail safe state" indicating with strong probability that DUMMY here, aka 704hov1095, to whom thousands trust their loved ones for complex medical diagnosis, exited the car while it was still on.

This can happen to anybody!

I cannot imagine what the Nissan engineers were thinking designing a car that actually allows for this to happen! Of course the car should "shut down" long and well before there batteries were drained. They must have understood that this kind of car is new to people and forgetting to "turn off" a silent car could easily happen.

This is surely one such thing that could make my wife really hate the Leaf (if we ever get one). She's a person that would typically forget to switch of a Leaf ("I don't understand anything of all these lights and stuff").
 
704hov1095 said:
Ahem, the car is back from a day at the dealer. While there is no absolute proof, examination found 3 error codes that led to a "fail safe state" indicating with strong probability that DUMMY here, aka 704hov1095, to whom thousands trust their loved ones for complex medical diagnosis, exited the car while it was still on.

Hate to say "I told you so". Actually, no, I LOVE to say "I told you so"! :D
 
Others here will learn from your experience. It just reinforces the need for extra care when parking/setting up the charging. I thought I was being overly cautious in watching the lights on the AV EVSE to make sure everything was hooked up properly and then looking for the blinking blue lights on the Leaf dashboard.

I agree that this is a design flaw. You shouldn't be able to run the battery down when you make this small mistake.
 
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