Burning smell while charging.

[zigadabooga]

Picked up my leaf Monday. It still emits the smell while charging only. Except now the smell is so strong it lingers from charge complete around 3am until 7:30am when I leave in the morning. The smell goes away after cycling cabin air with windows open for a few minutes. I checked yesterday during the day and it starts about 20 minutes after charge start, it continues to get stronger until charge complete.

Devin

 

[mwalsh]

Picked up my leaf Monday. It still emits the smell while charging only. Except now the smell is so strong it lingers from charge complete around 3am until 7:30am when I leave in the morning. The smell goes away after cycling cabin air with windows open for a few minutes. I checked yesterday during the day and it starts about 20 minutes after charge start, it continues to get stronger until charge complete.

Devin

Yeah. It shouldn't be doing it every time you charge. Only when the system is under stress.

 

[Ingineer]

Picked up my leaf Monday. It still emits the smell while charging only. Except now the smell is so strong it lingers from charge complete around 3am until 7:30am when I leave in the morning. The smell goes away after cycling cabin air with windows open for a few minutes. I checked yesterday during the day and it starts about 20 minutes after charge start, it continues to get stronger until charge complete.

Devin

My best guess is the Noise filter on the OBC. It should be an easy matter to pull the plastic and metal housing off the "hump" in the back and check this. It pretty much has to be this, or a connector, as these are the only things exposed to the cabin air. I'd be happy to assist you in a diagnosis if you'd like to drop by here sometime. (Berkeley)

-Phil

 

[Pete1burn]

Sorry to bring up an old post, but it's happening to me now on my 2012 SL with 17k miles. I charge once at work at a 240 station, and then at home on 120. The smell is much worse from the 240v, so something is definitely not happy. Making me nervous. Is this a common problem?

 

[Ingineer]

Not common, but I've seen several failures in this added noise filter. Eventually it will fail and you'll be left dead.

The good news is it's easy to bypass with simple hand tools. This seems to be a "band-aid" fix put in by Nissan at the last minute on 2011-2012 cars ostensibly to meet tough EU electrical noise emissions requirements. I bypassed mine early on and have seen no issues. Takes about 10 minutes, it's under the plastic "hump" in the trunk. It's an in-line beige "block", simply unplug it and plug the original connector directly into the OBC.

-Phil

 

[Pete1burn]

So the smell is originating from this beige block? I haven't had a chance to trace it.

 

[TimLee]

... I bypassed mine early on and have seen no issues. ...

Why did you bypass?
Failure, smell, or other reason (s)?

Several people with early 2011 reported radio frequency noise interference problems.
Did they not have the filter or were they defective?

How did bypassing not create noise problems for you?

 

[kubel]

Several people with early 2011 reported radio frequency noise interference problems.

The only RF interference I hear is while charging.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZQEDe2SQWo[/youtube]

 

[Pete1burn]

But has this beige box been identified as the source of the smell?

 

[QueenBee]

... I bypassed mine early on and have seen no issues. ...

Why did you bypass?
Failure, smell, or other reason (s)?

Several people with early 2011 reported radio frequency noise interference problems.
Did they not have the filter or were they defective?

How did bypassing not create noise problems for you?

In my car there was noise in the electrical panel, in an old UPS, and in some CFLs while charging. Nissan replaced the entire OBC for me.

I've definitely heard of the burning smell while charging problem locally and it was fixed under the warranty.

 

[DaveEV]

Not common, but I've seen several failures in this added noise filter. Eventually it will fail and you'll be left dead.

The good news is it's easy to bypass with simple hand tools. This seems to be a "band-aid" fix put in by Nissan at the last minute on 2011-2012 cars ostensibly to meet tough EU electrical noise emissions requirements. I bypassed mine early on and have seen no issues. Takes about 10 minutes, it's under the plastic "hump" in the trunk. It's an in-line beige "block", simply unplug it and plug the original connector directly into the OBC.

Phil posted this a while back: A peek at the Leaf's Charger

And BrianSanDiego posted this great pic as well: Pictures of the Leaf's Charger and Capacitor

 

[JeremyW]

I thought I had this problem a few months back but it turned out my subwoofer amp was biting the dust after 7 years of service (bought it used too!). I tried to do "the trick" without removing the back seats, but I found it impossible to do. You'll have to strip the back like the previous photo. Be careful, the metal is pretty sharp back there (I got two decent cuts on my hand)!