2013 Leaf - Dead 12-Volt Battery every 2 Weeks

[RegGuheert]

After 24 hours, our LEAF's 12V battery is now at 12.49V.

Then 24 hours later, it was at 12.59V.

Yesterday, after 24 hours, our LEAF's 12V battery was at 12.78V! This is a higher voltage than I have EVER measured for this battery, so it apparently was somewhat sulfated last year when I made the previous measurements.

The battery has gotten progressively better after the over-two-week desulfation charge on the Battery Minder Model 1500. I will continue to use that thing on all our vehicles to prevent wasting a lot of otherwise-good batteries to sulfation.

 

[TomT]

FWIW, it has now been replaced by the 1510. I have no idea what the difference is...

http://www.batteryminders.com/batteryminder-model-1510-12volt-1-5-amp-maintenance-charger-desulfator-including-a-10-year-warranty/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will continue to use that thing on all our vehicles to prevent wasting a lot of otherwise-good batteries to sulfation.

 

[RegGuheert]

FWIW, it has now been replaced by the 1510. I have no idea what the difference is...

http://www.batteryminders.com/batteryminder-model-1510-12volt-1-5-amp-maintenance-charger-desulfator-including-a-10-year-warranty/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks! The main thing I see is a 10-year warranty instead of five. I'm guessing they've had good field performance and/or made a few tweaks to the design to ensure long-term reliability. It's an impressive, if not impressive-looking, little device!

 

[GlennD]

I have been having problems with my 12V battery also. It was initially replaced since it would not hold a charge. Since then I have had two dead battery incidents.

A while back after spending about 45 minutes in the local Sears I got the red 12V battery symbol and the yellow traction battery. DD showed the battery voltage at around 11.5V. Fortunately I was able to turn off the air conditioning and raise the voltage enough to start the car.

This morning I was unable to start the car. The dash display went nuts!. I hauled out my volt meter and the battery said 8.4V.

I have a Lambda lab power supply near it. Due to the light leads I have the current set to 10A. After two hours the battery voltage was 11.6V. Something was drawing current. I disconnected the battery to reset the car. After that it charged normally.

My theory is that occasionally something does not shut down properly and continues to draw current. This causes the 12V battery to discharge. When it gets low enough it commits suicide since a lead acid battery must never be fully discharged. Resetting the car seems to have fixed the problem for now.

I do not know how this is going to be fixed since it is intermittent and disconnecting the battery fixes it. Unfortunately this also clears the codes.

 

[valenciadude]

Me too!

I have had my car for 12 months and just got my 3rd battery installed. At 6 months and now at 12 months, my battery was toast. It wouldn't hold a charge and wouldn't start the car in the mornings. The first time, the dealer said it was probably a bad battery. This time he says it's too much of a coincidence, but that there is nothing else wrong with the car. No phantom load, charging is working to spec, etc. Dealer said to expect it to happen again 6 months from now. The good thing is that when I destroy another battery, then they get to bring Nissan into it.

2013 S with charge package, driven almost daily, ~20 miles per weekday.

 

[RegGuheert]

I have been having problems with my 12V battery also.

Me too!

I suspect the 2013 LEAFs may have another problem in addition to the 12V charging inadequacies found in the 2011s and 2012s.

I will also note that you both bought your cars at about the same time. Perhaps there was a problem with a batch of components (perhaps a relay) that is affecting both of your cars.

 

[GlennD]

I have been having problems with my 12V battery also.

Me too!

I suspect the 2013 LEAFs may have another problem in addition to the 12V charging inadequacies found in the 2011s and 2012s.

I will also note that you both bought your cars at about the same time. Perhaps there was a problem with a batch of components (perhaps a relay) that is affecting both of your cars.

Well in my case something was drawing power with no indication until I removed the 12V from the battery to reset it.

I no longer trust the car and I carry a jump start battery unit.

 

[daaxix]

I leased my Leaf on 4/30/14, and it has about 3250 miles on it.

I just took my ICE car on a road trip (and we are planning on selling it) for 4 nights.

When we got back, the Leaf was dead. I believe it is the 12v battery issue.

I didn't leave it plugged in, just sat in my carport.

I love the car so far, but this makes me :x

 

[LeftieBiker]

I've hardwired a battery maintainer lead into my car, terminating with the plug in the charge port compartment so I can plug it in without having to open the hood. I've gotten used to just topping it off once a week or so. The Battery Tender Jr and the Diehard 2 amp maintainer/charger use the same lead, BTW.

 

[BrockWI]

So just after the 4th of July we were gone for 4 days, got back and the 12v battery was dead. I had charged it less than a week before we left, the car was off and not connected to an EVSE, the main pack was sitting about 65%. I put it on a 4 amp charger for just over 5 hours to get it to full, so that's about 20 ah's. I have been topping it off weekly with a battery tender, 1.25 amp charger and it usually takes about 3-5 hours. I did this last Thursday night. On Saturday when I started it up on my way home I got the red battery low symbol for about a few seconds. When I got home I put it on the regular 1.25 ah charger and it took just over 14 hours top get to full or about 17ah.

So what the heck is going on? It seems inconsistent as to what is draining the 12v battery. I don't ever use it in acc mode or even on mode, just drive. Its not the battery itself since it seems to hold about 20ah. Its either some odd drain or the car isn't charging the battery properly.

I have now put a 12v 7ah battery with the same terminals as the lead off the 12v battery so if I need to I can "jump" the leaf.

I am also seriously considering getting a larger battery to put in the existing one's place. I think a stock size "35N" would fit in there. I know this doesn't fix the problem, but it would give me more capacity between charges.

Thoughts?

 

[LeftieBiker]

It would appear you have a phantom drain on the battery, so a higher capacity battery would just be an (expensive) band-aid for the problem, not a solution. You need to find that drain.

 

[derkraut]

It would appear you have a phantom drain on the battery, so a higher capacity battery would just be an (expensive) band-aid for the problem, not a solution. You need to find that drain.

+1---I've never had a problem with the 12V battery in my 2011 in over 3 years of driving. I've often left it parked, sometimes for over 3 weeks at time. IMHO, you either have a drain on the 12V battery, or you have a defective battery.

 

[BrockWI]

So tonight I messed with it a bit. After resting for about 2 hours (battery still connected to the car) the battery was at 12.83, which looks pretty good. When I turned the car on it quickly popped up to 14.44v and stayed there while drove around a bit. I turned the lights on and off, fan on and off, it was pretty stable and sat there right around 14.4v. This makes no sense, because that is charging the battery like it should. My only guess is it stops charging at some point and then uses more power from the battery than it puts back in when it does start charging again. I will have to see what the voltage is in the morning, maybe there is some phantom load sucking the battery down while it sits. I did notice the voltage fall a tiny bit once connected to the EVSE, suggesting there is a load on, but again once it starts actively charging in the am before I leave it should be topped off again.

 

[GlennD]

So tonight I messed with it a bit. After resting for about 2 hours (battery still connected to the car) the battery was at 12.83, which looks pretty good. When I turned the car on it quickly popped up to 14.44v and stayed there while drove around a bit. I turned the lights on and off, fan on and off, it was pretty stable and sat there right around 14.4v. This makes no sense, because that is charging the battery like it should. My only guess is it stops charging at some point and then uses more power from the battery than it puts back in when it does start charging again. I will have to see what the voltage is in the morning, maybe there is some phantom load sucking the battery down while it sits. I did notice the voltage fall a tiny bit once connected to the EVSE, suggesting there is a load on, but again once it starts actively charging in the am before I leave it should be topped off again.

If your car voltage is high enough to turn on then as soon as the DC-DC converter kicks in then you will see 41.1V or so. The problem I face is that once in a while the car does not fully shutdown and it continues to draw current with no external indication. This leads to a very low battery.

The first time it was under an hour and shedding all the loads allowed the voltage to rise high enough to pull in the contactor. The second time I had to disconnect the battery and then charge it.

 

[BrockWI]

The problem I face is that once in a while the car does not fully shutdown and it continues to draw current with no external indication. This leads to a very low battery.

This sounds like what is happening, when the car is working, its fine but every once in a while the 12v battery is really run down and I can't seem to trace it. Have you figured out any way to know when or why it might do this? I suppose I could put a voltmeter on the 12v and leave it on all the time and watch it when I shut the car off and if it drops a bunch turn the car on and back off again?

I will for sure keep the small 12v 7ah sla battery in the trunk for now.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I did notice the voltage fall a tiny bit once connected to the EVSE, suggesting there is a load on, but again once it starts actively charging in the am before I leave it should be topped off again.

One thing that has become apparent is that charging doesn't fully restore the accessory battery voltage. Even my L-1 charging, often over many hours, doesn't do it.

 

[RegGuheert]

So tonight I messed with it a bit. After resting for about 2 hours (battery still connected to the car) the battery was at 12.83, which looks pretty good.

That is a very good result. Your battery is still strong and it was fully charged prior to this measurement.

When I turned the car on it quickly popped up to 14.44v and stayed there while drove around a bit. I turned the lights on and off, fan on and off, it was pretty stable and sat there right around 14.4v. This makes no sense, because that is charging the battery like it should. My only guess is it stops charging at some point and then uses more power from the battery than it puts back in when it does start charging again.

It has been reported that it does what you say in ON mode, but when the car is in READY mode, it never discharges the battery. At least I've never seen a discharge voltage on the battery in READY mode. It starts out by charging at 14.4V, as you observed. After a short while, it drops the voltage down to 13.1V, which neither charges nor discharges the battery. The discharging of the LEAF battery only occurs in other modes of operation. Mainly OFF.

 

[alcalira]

This has been a problem with the 2013s. They did get a batch of bad batteries. With our car, the replacement battery went dead, and the dealer ran some sort of log which showed that we had inadvertently done a "double-press" of the start button so instead of turning the car off it was in accessory mode.

We haven't had a problem since then.

I would not leave the key fob in the car. I think that can cause a battery drain. If none of that works, the dealer should try another replacement battery.

 

[daaxix]

I leased my Leaf on 4/30/14, and it has about 3250 miles on it.

I just took my ICE car on a road trip (and we are planning on selling it) for 4 nights.

When we got back, the Leaf was dead. I believe it is the 12v battery issue.

I didn't leave it plugged in, just sat in my carport.

I love the car so far, but this makes me :x

Update: I charged the battery up and it seems to have fixed the problem. I had just jumped my ICE car with the Leaf before our road trip, twice, so perhaps that was the culprit (hadn't driven the ICE for months so the battery on it was dead).

If it occurs again I'll be taking it to the dealer...

 

[dgpcolorado]

Update: I charged the battery up and it seems to have fixed the problem. I had just jumped my ICE car with the Leaf before our road trip, twice, so perhaps that was the culprit (hadn't driven the ICE for months so the battery on it was dead).

If it occurs again I'll be taking it to the dealer...

If the LEAF 12 V battery wasn't charged back up after using it to jump the ICE car, that could well be the problem. For the future, always have the LEAF in Ready-to-drive mode (green car icon on dash) when using it to jump another car. That way the main traction battery is being used to support the 12 V battery. And be sure to attach the negative jump cable to a fitting away from the battery terminal because there is a sensor attached to the negative terminal.

I use a battery tender on my ICE car battery every week or two to keep it from getting discharged from lack of use.