Leaf S Heater DOA

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Got my new 2013 S on nov. 1st and also realize now although the heater controls in the cabin seem to work, all it does is blow cold air. This sucks. Sounds like a trip back to the dealer is not going to get me much. Thank goodness for heated seats and steering wheel.
 
Medevac3 said:
Got my new 2013 S on nov. 1st and also realize now although the heater controls in the cabin seem to work, all it does is blow cold air. This sucks. Sounds like a trip back to the dealer is not going to get me much.
Don't be so pessimistic. Yes, it may be a hassle to get it fixed. Yes it will reduce your range. But they will fix it under warranty, and it will warm the car quite nicely while driving after they do.

Ray
 
In our Swedish electric car forum we have had 2 people with the same problem as you guys. That is quite much since there is not even 10 Leaf owners in that forum.... It seems to be a common problem for sure!
 
We just took our new 2013 Leaf S into the dealer for this same problem. They said there are 50-60 cars ahead of us in line for this repair, that it's a known issue, and are providing us with a sentra as a loaner car until they have our part available around Christmas. We're not very happy at this point, but not sure what our options are.
 
I received a 2013 SV on 11/20. On warmer days the heat pump seemed to work alright. On 12/3 when temps got down into the single digits ( Fahrenheit ) the resistive heater did nothing and the heat pump did not seem to come on. Having no heat I took it to the dealer and they confirmed they think it is the PTC heater. They quoted me a minimum of a week and a half to get the part and get this fixed. They gave me a loaner car, but it sucks gas and does not have the nice snow tires I put on my leaf. Living on an unpaved hilly snowy road is not ideal for this loaner vehicle and I may have to walk up my dirt road in sub zero temps.

I am not so happy with this situation so far. I have yet to make my first lease payment, but it looks like I will be without my car for almost half of the month.

However when I did pick up the loaner vehicle from the dealership, the dealership owner talked to me about forming a local leaf club. I pointed out that I was not the best one to talk about the leaf, as mine broke in the first 1.5 weeks, and will take a minimum of 1.5 weeks to fix.

What have others done in this situation? From researching online, I thought the PTC issues were fixed for the 2013 models, but it sounds like this is still an issue.
 
Though I have an S model, I have had my heater "fixed" from no heat, but it is still pretty weak. This morning it was 15 degrees and I started warming it up 45 minutes before I left and it still had ice on the windshield and a back door was frozen shut. The interior though set at 85 degrees was sorta lukewarm.
I would ask for a loaner car that functions well in your conditions (perhaps 4WD), and ask for reimbursement on gas guzzled. If the dealer won't authorize it, you might try the Leaf consumer affairs folks. I had that set up but my car was only gone for a week and a half and I was out of town for most of that so I didn't bother with the $6 spent on gas.
 
Got my Leaf S w/QC in Oct. Heater worked fine for 2mos. It is now Dec and the heater just went out.
It's cold outside in Southern California (40 degrees F), but I really feel bad for those that live in really cold climates, pretty much everywhere else.

Took it to the dealer yesterday, they confirmed that heater was blowing cold air.
Strange that the GOM still goes down 5-8 miles when when blowing cold air.
Said part was backordered.

At least there's seat and steering wheel heaters!

Waiting patiently for now.

jay
 
The heater on my 2013 leaf S was dead as soon as I drove it off the lot. It never warmed up. I took it back to the dealership and four weeks later it was replaced. The comped me for gas and my first leaf payment.
I see the same drastic reduction in mileage with the heater on. And when the heater is on, it still isn't much in keeping you warm when it is in the teens and single digits (F). It's a good thing the thank you gift from the dealer was a blanket :lol:

Does anyone have a good experience of the heater actually working in cold climates? When I put my hand up to the vent I can feel a little warmth but there is no way to actually get the car to room temperature.
 
MJGreen said:
Got my Leaf S w/QC in Oct. Heater worked fine for 2mos. It is now Dec and the heater just went out.
It's cold outside in Southern California (40 degrees F), but I really feel bad for those that live in really cold climates, pretty much everywhere else.

Took it to the dealer yesterday, they confirmed that heater was blowing cold air.
Strange that the GOM still goes down 5-8 miles when when blowing cold air.
Said part was backordered.

At least there's seat and steering wheel heaters!

Waiting patiently for now.

jay
The "GOM", (Guess-O-Meter), which could also be called "AUM" (Almost Useless Meter) immediately reflects the fact that you have "turned on" the heater, even though it wasn't working. :roll: :roll:
 
So.. It has now been a month since our Leaf has been in shop for the lack of heater. We have had the car for four months. This just seems like an unacceptable amount of time for a repair on a brand new vehicle. I love my Leaf but am quite upset with Nissan for the handling of this issue. It just doesn't make any sense to me that there are new cars coming off the line with parts that three month old cars need. I've thus far been an evangelist for the Leaf but will probably be changing my tune soon on the car and Nissan in general.
 
JGwizdala56 said:
So.. It has now been a month since our Leaf has been in shop for the lack of heater. We have had the car for four months. This just seems like an unacceptable amount of time for a repair on a brand new vehicle. I love my Leaf but am quite upset with Nissan for the handling of this issue. It just doesn't make any sense to me that there are new cars coming off the line with parts that three month old cars need. I've thus far been an evangelist for the Leaf but will probably be changing my tune soon on the car and Nissan in general.
A month?! That is absolutely unacceptable. Have you talked to the customer service folks @ Nissan corporate?
 
The latest update on the broken PTC heater in my 2013 SV leaf is that I am still waiting. I dropped it off with the dealer on the morning of 12/4. As of 12/10 I was told that parts would be in on 12/23 or 12/24. After much back and forth on the phone, in person, and after opening a case with nissan consumer affairs, here is what I was able to find out.

1) Nissan has issued a service file for this problem, and it sounds like this has been redesigned. There will be a new heating element, blower assembly, heating duct, and clips which will replace what I currently have.

2) these new parts will be delivered from the manufacturer to a nissan warehouse somewhere in TX. From there it will take 5-7 days to ship the parts to the dealer in Colorado, then another 1-2 days to put these parts into the car. They are looking into speeding up the shipping from TX to CO, supposedly nissan consumer affairs can get this shipped at a higher priority.

Because of these new parts, they can not get the parts from other leafs on the lot to fix my car. I am still upset that after 1.5 weeks of getting this car, it is expected to be in the shop for almost a month. From asking why I should be making lease payments on a car that I don't have, the dealership has assured me that nissan consumer affairs will reimburse me for gas on the loaner SUV, as well as make the first months lease payment. If nissan corporate does not reimburse me, the dealer owner assured me the dealership would cover this.

I am not happy with how nissan is handling this. I like that the dealership is doing all that they can, but nissan corporate and nissan consumer affairs needs to handle this much better then they have been in my opinion.
 
so this means that there is a design flaw? I don't like that thought at all as my heater works great now, and knowing with my luck the heater will fail completely a day after my warranty expires! maybe I need to use it more often to encourage it to break if it's prone to that.
 
Fireskis said:
... And when the heater is on, it still isn't much in keeping you warm when it is in the teens and single digits (F). It's a good thing the thank you gift from the dealer was a blanket :lol:

Does anyone have a good experience of the heater actually working in cold climates? When I put my hand up to the vent I can feel a little warmth but there is no way to actually get the car to room temperature.
I'm surprised, the PTC heater works really well in my LEAF when I bother to use it. It does take some time to heat up the bottle of liquid before heat starts blowing into the car. And if you drive in Eco the heater is limited to 1500 watts or so (except for defrosting) and that isn't nearly enough to keep the car warm at 15ºF OAT. If you aren't already doing so, use the "Drive" setting when you want heat.

And preheat when you can, of course. Then the heater bottle is already warmed up.
 
Same thing happened to us. We are leasing a 2013 Leaf S, and two weeks in, the heater died. Now they said two weeks to repair. We love the car so far, but this part is a bummer. Especially since we now have to drive around a gas guzzling loaner.
 
We got ours back after 1.5 weeks and it works fine now, though the heat isn't as warm as with a gas engine. Just in time, becasue we've had temps in the teens in the mornings lately. Now I understand one reason they have seat and steering wheel warmers in the lowest S model.

I was also very disappointed in the customer service phone line when we sought help, and will fill out my survey accordingly. One of the things they did was dismiss this forum, saying that you can't believe what people post here. How demeaning, especially since our dealer told us it is an identified problem, once we experienced it.
 
Machonacho said:
The latest update on the broken PTC heater in my 2013 SV leaf is that I am still waiting. I dropped it off with the dealer on the morning of 12/4. As of 12/10 I was told that parts would be in on 12/23 or 12/24. After much back and forth on the phone, in person, and after opening a case with nissan consumer affairs, here is what I was able to find out.

1) Nissan has issued a service file for this problem, and it sounds like this has been redesigned. There will be a new heating element, blower assembly, heating duct, and clips which will replace what I currently have.

Thanks for posting this, Machonacho. My heater has been working randomly, and was told 3 times that the system was working as designed. Today they saw the center vent blowing at 45 degrees (heat was set to 90) and told me Leaf's return to them all the time for this issue. I was told IF it was the heater box (as they referred to it) it could take 2-3 weeks to fix.
 
Just to follow up, I contacted Nissan consumer affairs at (877) 664-2738 and opened a case. They were able get the parts shipped quicker than what the dealer was told.
The timeline for me was
11/20 - start leasing 2013 SV
12/3 - PTR heater did not work, this was the first cold night, I am unsure if the PTR heater ever worked
12/4 - Left at dealership
12/4 - Dealer said PTR heater broken, would be 1.5 weeks to get parts and fix
12/10 - Dealer said parts are on back order, would be delivered 12/23 or 12/24
12/10 - opened a complaint with Nissan consumer affairs
12/13 - Dealer now says parts will be delivered on 12/16 ( much quicker than the initial estimate of 12/23! )
12/16 - parts are at the dealership, new estimate is that it will be ready by 12/19. According to the dealer, this assembly has been redesigned. There is a new blower housing, duct work, clips, and other stuff I am not aware of. They are saying this is around 13 hours of work to take the dashboard apart, get parts swapped and back together. They said this is the first time they have done this procedure.

The dealership has been very helpful and I strongly recommend them, Nissan corporate not so much. The dealer has provided me with a loaner car. I have been told that I will be reimbursed for all gas, I am still talking with Nissan about other reimbursement.

For the first week, I did have some heat, but I suspect that was just the heat pump. Once temps got into the single digits on 12/3, my guess is that the heatpump did not come on, and the PTR heater was broken. I do think it is odd that the 2013 models have been out for so long and this design is still changing. Hopefully this will address the issue, I am not sure if Nissan will only be changing this assembly for owners that have problems, or if they will retrofit all PTR assemblies.

I will post a final update once I get the car back. If others are having this problem, I would recommend opening a case with nissan consumer affairs at 877 664 2738, once you get a case number, your local dealer can reference that and help you out as well.

Hope this helps others
Enjoy
 
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