2011 Leaf Charging Plate failure

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JohnnyB

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Jan 23, 2019
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My 2011 Leaf has 62,000 miles. Nissan replaced the battery (Nissan Van Nuys, CA) in October, about 3,000 miles ago, under a coupon program. Now the Leaf won't charge; when it's plugged in, I hear the beeps and the first light flashes about twice, then goes off. Nissan Van Nuys's tech says it's the charging plate behind the rear seats -- and will cost $2,300 to replace, because it's not covered by the warranty on the replacement battery. It's not "part" of the battery, but I believe the plate should not fail at 60,000 and require a repair costing half the car's value.

Anybody else dealt with this issue?
 
First time I’ve heard of a “charging plate”. The onboard charger though is located behind the back seats on 2011 & 2012 Leafs.

Does the car fail to charge on Level 1, Level 2 & Quick Charge (if it has that)? Does it fail on different EVSEs?

A couple of things can prevent you from charging. They include broken wires and connections in the Jplug or the receiver. Another problem is a failed diode in the onboard charger.

There are a number of threads that cover these possibilities. Do a search for failed diode, car won’t charge or similar phrases. There is also one thread about this that was started by darrellev, if I remember correctly.

Though the onboard charger is not part of the traction battery warranty, it is covered by the EV powertrain warranty. Look up how many miles/years that covers to see if you qualify.
 
^^^
Yep. OBC is behind the seat under the hump in the back for '11 and '12 Leafs: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=3010. I also have never heard it called a "charging plate".

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=24696 was an example of a diode fixed thread. If it can charge via CHAdeMO and via the stock L1 EVSE (which supposedly doesn't do a diode check) and Aerovironment EVSEs (they're round and can have a Nissan brand on the front, also supposedly don't do a diode check), then it's probably a blown diode.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=24560

EV system/powertrain warranty is only 5 years/60K miles.
 
As a good rule of thumb, don't give money - especially large amounts of it - to a dealership that incorrectly identifies the part they claim to have to replace. Get a second opinion. Hopefully it is just the failed diode.
 
Unfortunately, we've not known of dealers fixing the failed diode or splicing one in between. They seem to want to replace a multi-kilobuck on-board charger instead.

Phil has brought this up before: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=13136&p=299259&hilit=kilobuck#p299259.

Back to the OBC warranty, https://imgur.com/a/u10QXcw is from page 7 of the '11 warranty booklet.
 
Unfortunately, we've not known of dealers fixing the failed diode or splicing one in between. They seem to want to replace a multi-kilobuck on-board charger instead.

Right, but if they correctly identify the issue as a charger failure instead of some nonexistent part, then it's not hard to self-test it for the diode failure, which isn't expensive if you either do it yourself or find an independent shop to do it.
 
Fortunately signal diodes usually fail shorted. That means that you can break the pilot line and insert a diode. It is very low current at 1KHZ so most any diode would work. Physically a diode like the iN4000 series or the shotskey equivalent or even the 56000 series is more robust but the common 1N4070 will work just fine.
 
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