2018 air conditioning

As I anticipated, I did not get the car on friday. On Tuesday got a text saying the car was ready for pickup. Picked up the car Tuesday evening with the whole.family for a trip and the A/C compressor shut down within 15min. Leaf s at the shop again now spent more than 25 days at the dealership! What an ordeal!

Lemon law?

Chiming in only because it was HOT yesterday and I rarely run A/C for extended periods but as always, every time I turned on the A/C, I felt cool air within 2-3 seconds turning quite cold even with thermostat set to 80º.

So, I seem to have an opposite problem in that my settings don't seem to affect the temperature of the A/C. I am to the point where I have to toggle it off occasionally to "warm up" LEAF Spy seems to support Nissan in that power usage is low only 400-500 watts a few mins after startup.

DaveinOlyWA said:

Chiming in only because it was HOT yesterday and I rarely run A/C for extended periods but as always, every time I turned on the A/C, I felt cool air within 2-3 seconds turning quite cold even with thermostat set to 80º.

So, I seem to have an opposite problem in that my settings don't seem to affect the temperature of the A/C. I am to the point where I have to toggle it off occasionally to "warm up" LEAF Spy seems to support Nissan in that power usage is low only 400-500 watts a few mins after startup.

Click to expand...

My 2018 behaves the same way with regard to A/C. I actually have to close some of the vents because it gets too cold, not matter what the fan speed is. Unless it's above 90, I usually just roll the windows down and turn the fan on instead of running the A/C.

Tortoisehead77 said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

Chiming in only because it was HOT yesterday and I rarely run A/C for extended periods but as always, every time I turned on the A/C, I felt cool air within 2-3 seconds turning quite cold even with thermostat set to 80º.

So, I seem to have an opposite problem in that my settings don't seem to affect the temperature of the A/C. I am to the point where I have to toggle it off occasionally to "warm up" LEAF Spy seems to support Nissan in that power usage is low only 400-500 watts a few mins after startup.

Click to expand...

My 2018 behaves the same way with regard to A/C. I actually have to close some of the vents because it gets too cold, not matter what the fan speed is. Unless it's above 90, I usually just roll the windows down and turn the fan on instead of running the A/C.

Click to expand...

Well, I am an open window kinda guy as well but it doesn't work well on the freeway. I just toggle the A/C button off for a few minutes. I tried changing thermostat to ummm 85º?? or whatever the max is and that didn't seem to change a thing.

I also (in my 2019 +) just toggle the AC button when its above 90 out as it tends to get too cool in the cabin if the air is left on, even at a higher thermostat setting. My wife likes it colder and doesn't want to deal with the toggling.

DougWantsALeaf said:

I also (in my 2019 +) just toggle the AC button when its above 90 out as it tends to get too cool in the cabin if the air is left on, even at a higher thermostat setting. My wife likes it colder and doesn't want to deal with the toggling.

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Aim all the vents towards her!

I did notice that when it blows cold the thermostat doesn t seem to help blowing less cold. I just assumed it was tied to the problem I have where the compressor quits altogether for like 3mn and then turn back on a couple of min at 600w or so according to nissan gauge and cycle that way with ambiant of 100+. With mine at a ambient of 80 and the AC cold I could bring the AC thermostat to 90 and it would atill blow very cold which tells me I had a problem with the control thermostat as it would not even switch to heat at that point?

azdimy said:

I did notice that when it blows cold the thermostat doesn t seem to help blowing less cold. I just assumed it was tied to the problem I have where the compressor quits altogether for like 3mn and then turn back on a couple of min at 600w or so according to nissan gauge and cycle that way with ambiant of 100+. With mine at a ambient of 80 and the AC cold I could bring the AC thermostat to 90 and it would atill blow very cold which tells me I had a problem with the control thermostat as it would not even switch to heat at that point?

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Please let us know if they solve this A/C blowing warm air intermittently issue, as it still is happening on my 2011 SL.

azdimy said:

I did notice that when it blows cold the thermostat doesn t seem to help blowing less cold. I just assumed it was tied to the problem I have where the compressor quits altogether for like 3mn and then turn back on a couple of min at 600w or so according to nissan gauge and cycle that way with ambiant of 100+. With mine at a ambient of 80 and the AC cold I could bring the AC thermostat to 90 and it would atill blow very cold which tells me I had a problem with the control thermostat as it would not even switch to heat at that point?

Click to expand...

Well mine has dedicated heat and A/C button so its not surprising the thermostat would not call for heat if the heat button is off. What is surprising is the thermostat not calling for less cooling. It is apparent, the A/C in manual mode does not have this ability.

In automatic mode, it only seems to adjust fan speed.

They finally replaced the compressor and the A/C is now A ok!
The dealership troubleshooting skills has been so poor it took over 2 months to get the car A/C repaired but I am enjoying my '18 Leaf again finally!
In the end they replaced the evaporator case, repaired a wire harness that they may have damaged when they replaced the evap, replaced the o ring expansion valve that they damaged while performing repair and finally replaced the compressor.
After each replacement which took about a week to perform, they would tell me the car was fixed and was ready for pickup! Last and final visit they kept the car an extra 3 days after repair to test the repair was actually effective!
The car A/C had its refrigerant recharged 4 times over the course of these visits!

I’ve had my 2018 for over 1 year and this summer the AC has started having similar issues as below. It only happens at the end of the day. The AC will start blowing hot. If I turn off the AC a few times, it typically starts working again. It initial was only happening once a week and now it is happening daily... Any idea if Nissan has identified the issue.

UPDATE: I went to the Nissan Dealer yesterday and they pretty much told me they could not diagnose the issue and basically, I need to bring it into the dealership when the problem is occurring for them to help me. I live in Phoenix AZ where it has been 110+. So, I need to wait until the next time the problem occurs and drive in 110+ degree with no working AC until I find a Dealership... This is unbelievable. I’ve been driving Nissans for more than 20 years and this might be my last. Has anyone been able to get Nissan to recognize the issue? I pointed my dealership to this forum and basically, they indicated this was not something they could even look.

Check out this topic

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=23883

Posting this because it just happened 2 days ago and first time ever. I stopped to QC car and as always, turned car on so LEAF Spy would not lose focus. Took off across street for quick errand and returned a bit later. I jumped in car and turned AC on, fan level 3. To my surprise, I did not feel cool air immediately. Normally there is a considerable temperature change within 1-2 seconds. I checked to make sure AC light was on, etc. Everything seemed ok but no cold air.

BUT....LEAF Spy also verified AC was NOT on. So I cycled AC on and off a few times to no avail. So then with AC on, I turned thermostat to its lowest setting and then immediately back to my normal set point, and AC came on.

I have used AC while charging at least 20 times this Summer alone without any issues. This is the first time for this. I guess I will add this to my "LEAF with a mind of its own" list.

I'm not sure whether I'm having the same problem but the aircon on my 2018 Leaf has failed completely. The problem that I have is that, under the European warranty (I'm in the UK), the aircon isn't covered by the Nissan warranty. The local Nissan dealer won't even look at it unless we undertake to pay £129 ($160) to cover the cost of re-gassing the system if they don't find any other fault, and for a car that is one year old and only travelled 3,000 miles, that's outrageous. Our Mitsubishi Outlander Hybrid is the same age, has done over three times the mileage, and the aircon works just fine.

I'd check the R134a refrigerant level myself if I could get a suitable charging hose for the Leaf but the US/European 1/2" connecter for the low-pressure Schrader valve that's fitted to my charging hose won't fit the Leaf - does anyone know what the correct tech specification is for a hose to fit the Leaf?

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Edit: I found out that the refrigerant in this car isn't R134a but the newer R1234af, and the port is changed to prevent charging with the older gas.

PS - I complained to Nissan EU thinking that the local dealer got it wrong but Nissan EU confirmed that the $160 charge is correct even on a one-year-old car... so beware anyone thinking of buying the Leaf. This one will be our last.