URGENT: How to manually open charging port on 2019 nissan leaf

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apara

Member
Joined
May 2, 2014
Messages
10
My 2019 Nissan Leaf is completely dead. I cannot open the charging port by pressing the button from inside the car on the key. There is absolutely no power to the car. Can someone post or guide me to how to manually open the Nissan Leaf 2019 charging port.

Need to drive tonight but I cannot charge the car.
 
apara said:
My 2019 Nissan Leaf is completely dead. I cannot open the charging port by pressing the button from inside the car on the key. There is absolutely no power to the car. Can someone post or guide me to how to manually open the Nissan Leaf 2019 charging port.

Need to drive tonight but I cannot charge the car.
From personal experience anyway:
Open the hood (it's a manual release cable), look down at the plastic guard where you open the hood, you notice a dozen of those little plastic tabs that hold it down. Use a flat blade to carefully pry up those tabs so you can remove them and then remove that plastic piece. That will give you direct access behind the charging door. You'll have to feel around behind it, but you should find the latch that holds it closed and you can pull it open with you fingers to release it.
 
It's in the owners manual with an Illustration...instructions below:

If the charge port lid cannot be unlocked
1. Open the hood.
2. Move the lever behind the charge port
lid in the direction of the arrow using a
flat head screwdriver or suitable tool,
and the port is unlocked.

I think your first priority would be to check the 12 volt battery and charge or replace.
 
Thank you everyone for responding. I found the latch and was able to open the port manually. Not sure what drained the auxiliary battery. To start charging the auxilary battery needs a jump. After connection to the jumper battery, everything woke up and the car is now charging again.

Oddly, the main battery still had about 30% power, but apparently it cannot help provide power to the dead aux battery.
 
The main traction battery is supposed to periodically charge the 12v aux battery but I believe it only happens once a day if the car sits unused? and my guess is if the 12v gets drained before the charging(or gets drained fairly quickly) the car might not wake up to charge the 12v battery. If the 12v is more than 4 years old or this happens again, you might want to consider replacing it, I used a more expensive AGM battery and it's still working 6 years after I put it in. I used a similar Optima 12v AGM battery in our Prius and knock on wood, I just noticed the other day it's 10 years old and has never missed a beat!
Lithium 12v batteries are also known to last a long time but living in a quite cold climate I'm not 100% sold on them, for very cold climates I'd personally suggest an AGM in the 51R size which might be hard to fine.
 
apara said:
...Oddly, the main battery still had about 30% power, but apparently it cannot help provide power to the dead aux battery.

That's true. Can't charge the 12V until the 400V battery is online. Before the main contactors for the 400V battery will close, the car first goes through some self-checks. Which requires 12V power. Bit of a catch-22.

Interestingly, the EV1 in the 1990s had an emergency function that would let you jump a dead 12V from the main pack. As Calvin and Hobbes noted,
Scientific Progress Goes "Boink"
 
Learjet said:
It's in the owners manual with an Illustration...instructions below:

If the charge port lid cannot be unlocked
1. Open the hood.
2. Move the lever behind the charge port
lid in the direction of the arrow using a
flat head screwdriver or suitable tool,
and the port is unlocked.

I think your first priority would be to check the 12 volt battery and charge or replace.

That's good info, I'll have to check it out. I never thought to look in the manual, but that sounds a lot faster than removing the cover piece. :D
 
Good info here!

Today I noticed the charge door did not pop open when commanded.
'22 Leaf

I opened the hood, took the plastic cover off that is near the charge port,
and saw a broken wire !
The wire must have been under stress for the past 2 years after the factory assembly, and finally gave way. Kinda odd.

I'm currently trying to decide if I should just put in a splice (actually 2 small wires, maybe power and ground to the relay) myself,
or just do a warranty claim when I take it to the dealership on Dec. 28 for the annual mandatory battery report card.
 
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