has your Leaf's PTC heater failed? reply here

[headgasket]

2013SL. earlier this year there was a burnt smell like when a fuse blows. Then in the fall when I turned on the defrost, no heat. Super pissed. Then I noticed that if I select HEAT only I was getting consumption and some heat from the pump, so at least I had something. Still the PTC heater is almost a sefety feature in an electric car... Now the heat pump look intermittent; sometimes it wont start (cannot hear the compressor, no electricity draw). Up to now the leaf had been a super pleasant urban vehicle, peppy, fun to drive. But less than 1 year out of warranty, this is quite a bummer, I dont think this is acceptable. I think nissan needs to address this even if out of warranty if they dont want to lose me to you know who...

[gcsnb]

It seems that my 2018 Leaf fails to heat below -20C. once it warms up to -15C or so it kicks back in.
it happened once last winter only a couple months after getting the car, and 3 times this winter
Definitely not a Fuse problem, my guess is a sensor or software not choosing the correct heatpump/resistance method.
My problem is im 300KM from the nearest nissan dealer to look at this while it happens.
I have an appointment in June for the rear view camera recall but how can I prove the heater was a problem to review then?
Temperature was -23 this morning, battery 74%, and climate control shows less than .2 Kw with the seat/steering wheel heaters on.
Indicates no draw on the resistance heater.

[Younio]

My Heater also failed with the same 2 fault codes. I tried to find a replacement one but they are like 800 EUR + installation costs.

So I searched a bit and found a guy that installed a couple of 12V, 200W PTC heaters and run them from the 12V system. The only problem with that is you have to control the stuff manually and if you manage to forget those on, they will deplete your battery blazing fast, or even worse, catch on fire (although unlikely). So I bought the OVMS module, added the missing metrics for set point temperature, heating and vent status and wrote a heating assist plugin. In turn, this allows the heater to be controlled automatically by reading the OEM Climate control metrics from CAN bus with the help from OVMS module. And last, but not the least I did not like those heaters dangling around above the dash so I took away the broken high voltage PTC heater and put in two 12V 200W PTC elements in it's place (better have, I was originally concerned about the load for the DC-DC converter being too high, but after around a year of using it it does not seem to be a problem). I tried to sum all this up in the video, so here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqqgfjfIgLk

All in all you can build yourself a 10 times cheaper heater for less than 40 EUR. And if you want the comfort of automatic control add 100 EUR for the OVMS (which adds a lot of cool features by itself).
If you have any questions please leave a comment below the video as I don't visit this forum so often.

EDIT: Updated Heating Element count as 2 elements were not powerful enough for defrost during -10 Celsius or bellow. Also you no longer have to compile OVSM as my code has been integrated in to the main releases.

Finally if you are interested in having the same setup, here are the main things you will need:

• 3x 12V, 200W PTC Heaters: https://www.amazon.com/Thermostatic-Hea ... B07KJD7LQN
• 0.5 m of 6 AWG cable
• 7 meters of 10 AWG cable
• 40 or 60 amp 12V relay

If you want to enable automatic heater control as well, you will have to:

• OVMS module: https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/100 ... -bluetooth
• LEAF <-> OVMS cable: https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/100 ... e-for-ovms
• Connect the positive relay wire to OVMS Ext 12V output
• Download and install the heat-assist plugin from: https://github.com/mjkapkan/OVMS-Plugin ... eat-assist

NOTE: For heating status to work, the Climate control system must be turned ON before switching off the car.

[Daklein]

Awesome job younio! That's a great idea to control with OVMS! I had the same concerns with adding control of 12v heaters.

I would pull the hv PTC connector at the battery under the car. Remove the main terminals and the wire from it, fill the plug with good epoxy, and plug it back into the battery. Leave the hv interlock loop wires in the plug.

[Bigbobfan]

I am in the UK and have the PTC heater failure Quote at £2,800. / $3,500 !!

It's summer and I asked for them to disconnected it but the garage said they are advised NOT to do so MY NISSAN UK.

I WANT A CAR I CAN DRIVE BUT WILL FOREGO A HEATER WHILE WE EXPLORE THE OPTIONS

GARETH GHAMER1@ME.COM

[Oilpan4]

The final solution to the PTC heater is install a diesel fired coolant heater.
It's cheaper than a Nissan replacement and it doesn't kill your range.

[jlv]

To me it seems completely wrong to add a fossil-fuel powered heater to my fossil-fuel-free BEV.

[coleafrado]

To me it seems completely wrong to add a fossil-fuel powered heater to my fossil-fuel-free BEV.

Most of these heaters will run on almost any kind of oil - a year's worth of household food waste oil, for example, would likely run a car's heater for several winter months. If your vehicle is starved for range and heat could be the difference between keeping it and taking a taxi (or, gasp, buying an ICE) it might make sense.

[GordStewart]

My 2018 leaf PTC heater doesn't draw any current below -20 C. I'm 350km from the nearest leaf dealer. I recently had it in for a firmware update and had them look at the heater. Their response was come back while it's happening. There's no way I can travel that far without heat. I don't think I'm going to be able to resolve this before the warranty expires

[LeftieBiker]

If you get the complaint documented (in writing) by the dealership or by another dealership, then it remains covered under warranty if they stall you.