Dead 12V Battery Overnight??

[QueenBee]

I really wish they would add a number to the dash or MFD during startup before the main battery comes online to show the 12v battery voltage. It wouldn't stay long unless they buffered the number to display to the user but I think it'd be nice not to have to go to extra effort to monitor the 12v battery on a regular basis.

I'm probably going to pick up a Chinese accessory plug voltage gauge from Ebay. The reading probably won't be accurate, but it should be consistent, so after calibrating it, I should know where the accessory battery is at with the car On, at least.

That's not going to be a very good test of the SOC of the battery. Depending on what you mean by on the car will either be charging the 12v battery or will have turned on various loads. Either way you are going to get voltages that are either high or low but not a number that can accurately give you an accurate capacity/SOC. The battery needs to be completely resting to give you a voltage that actually will mean something.

 

[thew]

Could those who have had their batteries replaced identify the battery maker? Has that supplier changed, especially beginning with the Leafs made here?

Replaced my (stock) lead acid 12v battery with a LiFePO4 "drop in" 12v battery last year and have had NO problems whatsoever (which includes sitting in the airport in all kinds of temps and using a lot of accessories). Follow the link to my blog post for everything you need to know:

http://stanton.myevblog.com/2012/01/16/getting-the-lead-out/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But its 800 Bucks.. Really.. Just get a Good Yellow Top
http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/shop/yellowtop/optima-batteries-8073-167-d51r-yellowtop-starting-and-deep-cycle-battery-reversed-post" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[alcalira]

Given that it takes so little power to start a LEAF, would some sort of 12 volt gadget that plugs into the 12V power port do the trick when a jump is needed?

 

[Nubo]

Could those who have had their batteries replaced identify the battery maker? Has that supplier changed, especially beginning with the Leafs made here?

Replaced my (stock) lead acid 12v battery with a LiFePO4 "drop in" 12v battery last year and have had NO problems whatsoever (which includes sitting in the airport in all kinds of temps and using a lot of accessories). Follow the link to my blog post for everything you need to know:

http://stanton.myevblog.com/2012/01/16/getting-the-lead-out/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But its 800 Bucks.. Really.. Just get a Good Yellow Top
http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/shop/yellowtop/optima-batteries-8073-167-d51r-yellowtop-starting-and-deep-cycle-battery-reversed-post" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Those used to have a great reputation but I've read lots of bad reports regarding the Optima Yellow Top since they were bought out by Johnson Controls and production moved to Mexico in 2007. Seems like the Invisible Hand may have tinkered with the product.

I decided to go with a full-on Deep Cycle AGM battery used for off-grid solar, etc... If any 12V lead/acid is going to tolerate deep discharge regimes, this looks about as good as they come:

http://www.solar-electric.com/concorde-sunxtender-pvx-420t.html/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.solar-electric.com/lib/wind-sun/techmanual.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I fitted with the SAE terminals, and it took some minor adjustment to get it installed, but not particularly difficult. So far it seems healthy despite sitting unused for some months before I finally installed it.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=11094&p=257210" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[TomT]

The problem is that, in typical Asian car fashion, the cigarette lighter is disconnected from the system when the car is off. Thus, it is of no value when you can't turn the car on... I have never figured out why they see the need to not make the cigarette lighter hot full time! No other manufacturers have an issue with it...

Given that it takes so little power to start a LEAF, would some sort of 12 volt gadget that plugs into the 12V power port do the trick when a jump is needed?

 

[shaneepe]

This just happened to me here are my stats.

2015 SL

Timer set to fully charge by 6AM
Wife plugged it in at 9PM night before (car windows down)
I went in (leaning through window without opening door) and turned it on to see the current charge 20%
Turned it off and heard the EVSE cycle on and off (what it typically does on a timed charge)
Came back next morning to a dead leaf still with a 20% charge. That means it died sometime before 3AM.

I have 2 theories.

1. Bad battery (will go to have nissan check it)
2. Some sort of parasitic drain that occurred because I didn't open and close the driver door.

-Shane

 

[BrockWI]

Hey this is an interesting thought. I know for sure one of the times ours ran dead I did the same thing. Leaving the window down and leaning in to turn it on to see what charge it was at and turning it back off. Hitting the charge door latch button and plugging it in and hearing the "clunk...clunk" like usual and walking away, only to find it totally dead in the next time we tried to use it.

 

[Wally]

If you hook a voltmeter to the 12 volt bat. and connect the EV charger you'll see that it is getting charged as well. Seems like that would be plenty to keep the 12 volt up unless it has a bad cell or some other problem.




2012 Leaf SL
Level 2 Nissan Leaf Residential EV Charger

 

[RegGuheert]

If you hook a voltmeter to the 12 volt bat. and connect the EV charger you'll see that it is getting charged as well.

And if you keep the voltmeter connected for more than a few minutes, you will see that it stops charging after a little while and drops down to float voltage of 13.1V, which neither charges nor discharges the battery.

Seems like that would be plenty to keep the 12 volt up unless it has a bad cell or some other problem.

In many cases, it is not enough. Specifically, is the car is not driven daily, the charge which is lost due to phantom loads never gets replaced, leading to premature sulfation and battery death.

 

[minispeed]

This just happened to me here are my stats.

2015 SL

Timer set to fully charge by 6AM
Wife plugged it in at 9PM night before (car windows down)
I went in (leaning through window without opening door) and turned it on to see the current charge 20%
Turned it off and heard the EVSE cycle on and off (what it typically does on a timed charge)
Came back next morning to a dead leaf still with a 20% charge. That means it died sometime before 3AM.

I have 2 theories.

1. Bad battery (will go to have nissan check it)
2. Some sort of parasitic drain that occurred because I didn't open and close the driver door.


-Shane

When you turn the car off doesn't the dome light come on until you leave the car? So that may be the case (my leaf is parked far away now so I can't go check).

 

[TomT]

And I have the original battery and after more than four years have had no problems under the same conditions... YMMV.

Replaced my (stock) lead acid 12v battery with a LiFePO4 "drop in" 12v battery last year and have had NO problems whatsoever (which includes sitting in the airport in all kinds of temps and using a lot of accessories).

 

[BrockWI]

Just to post for the record.

I charged the 12v full last Friday night (6 days ago) like usual with the Deltran battery tender. This week we used the car like normal, charging to 80%. Yesterday it was at about 30% when we got home, plugged it in. This morning I went out, unplugged it and tried to turn it on to get the constant beeping and no key found and some other fun blinking lights. I couldn't shut it off, popped the hood, went and grabbed the 10 amp 12v charger, put it on the battery and started it charging. Got back in the still beeping car, hit the start again and it came to life, still showing 30% charge.

So whatever it was that gets stuck on it happened again last night.

Again it is odd this only seems to happen in summer, but then again in winter we usually charge to 100%, which I believe charges the 12v battery for longer.

 

[BrockWI]

So that last dead battery session was the morning of July 2nd. After I charged the aux battery full and then charged to 80% we used the car Thursday and a lot on Friday, charged and ran out to the inlaws for the weekend, got there with 10%. So we trickle charged it over night, ran around on Saturday (July 4th), some relatives drove it, trickle charged it again to 80% and unplugged overnight. Then next day when we went to leave the inlaws, nothing, no beeping, nothing. I tried my new 12v 7amp SLA battery jump start trick to wake up the battery, I forgot to take in to account the 7 amp fuse, pop, it was gone. So then I had to go find my father in law, get a 50 foot extension cord and borrow his 12v charger, and it started right up, still at 79%.

Man was that embarrassing, all those questions about the car the day before, how easy it was, no real maintenance and then they joked about how the tiny 12v battery killed the whole thing. Not good. So we got home and it is still sitting on the Deltran for 5 hours now, still solid red, not sure if the phantom load is still trying to drain the 12v battery or if it is just taking that long to get the 12v back full, although it took 12 hours on Thursday to get it back to float or about 18 AH back in there. But we drove it the 45 minutes home, which I would have thought would have pushed some power back in there, apparently not much.

 

[LeftieBiker]

This is why I hardwired my battery maintainer lead to the battery and inverter ground. I don't plug it in every time I charge, but I do it most times, and only unplug it again after the pack charge is done. I ran the maintainer lead into the charge port compartment so I don't have to open the hood to use the maintainer. This makes it easiest to use the maintainer, and eliminates the worry from leaving the car on the EVSE. Note that I use a 2 amp Diehard maintainer (it fits the Battery Tender JR lead) instead of the 0.75 amp BTJ trickle charger.

 

[BrockWI]

Yup, I have my lead also snuck under the front part and in to the charge or EVSE port. But having charged it full the day before and being at my in-laws I didn't bring the small maintainer with me, thinking it was fine... That was my mistake.

Once or even 4 times a year I can deal with, but if this starts happening more often, this won't work.

 

[Stanton]

Replaced my (stock) lead acid 12v battery with a LiFePO4 "drop in" 12v battery last year and have had NO problems whatsoever (which includes sitting in the airport in all kinds of temps and using a lot of accessories). Follow the link to my blog post for everything you need to know:

http://stanton.myevblog.com/2012/01/16/getting-the-lead-out/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But its 800 Bucks.. Really.. Just get a Good Yellow Top

Don't believe everything you read (I did NOT pay $800)! Bottom line: you get what you pay for. I haven't had a single problem in the heat of TX, and I don't have to screw around with battery tenders, checking voltage levels, etc., etc.

 

[Electryic]

Like the others Ive been using a battery maintainer. It usually takes about 3-4 hours to charge it to full but I've had two days where right after charging it to full, I put away the maintainer and the next morning the battery was dead again.

Has anyone found out what is causing or what is potentially causing this? I skimmed over the 10+ pages in the thread and I see that other people are having the same problem but didn't see any posts where someone says what they think might be causing it.

 

[BrockWI]

After having yet another dead battery situation, this time not a home, I decided to swap the 12v battery. Fortunately I have been carrying a 7 ah SLA and just plugged it in parallel with the 12v battery and everything started right up.

After looking at the small battery in the Leaf it sure looked like a larger battery would fit in that space. I did some measuring and found the space matched the Rogue. So I went ahead and bought a tray for the Rogue, part number 24428-56L00 and a battery hold down for the Rogue as well, part number 244204M800 and a 34N battery, almost twice the capacity of the stock existing battery. I just took the existing battery out, pulled the smaller tray and dropped the larger tray in and swapped out the battery hold down and tightened everything down. The negative terminal was close, but made it by angling the lead a bit, the positive side was fine as it was. I am quite sure that is the rogue tray base in the car

I know the 11&12's are laid out differently under the hood, not sure what might fit in there. But this worked well for my 13.

So now I have a larger battery in there. I know it doesn't fix the issue of something draining it, but at least it should last longer under whatever that load is.

This is from another thread, but it's been since Oct 3rd 2015 now and everything is great. I still trickle charge the battery once a week and it goes to float in a minute or two every time. I believe that as the stock battery gets old / weak, the overpowering charger in the Leaf keeps going in to float right away and never really charges the old battery. With a larger battery or really any good battery, stock size or Li or whatever, I think the Leaf's charging system will work.

I also haven't had the phantom drain since I put a new battery in, and I am beginning to think that also might be something with the low voltage on the battery that something kicks in, maybe the car sees the 12v battery low and tries to turn on the traction battery to charge and at that point it kills the 12v battery instantly? I don't know, but a new battery fixed mine right up.

 

[QueenBee]

Like the others Ive been using a battery maintainer. It usually takes about 3-4 hours to charge it to full but I've had two days where right after charging it to full, I put away the maintainer and the next morning the battery was dead again.

Has anyone found out what is causing or what is potentially causing this? I skimmed over the 10+ pages in the thread and I see that other people are having the same problem but didn't see any posts where someone says what they think might be causing it.

Sounds like you have a bad 12 volt battery. If the car is still under warranty take to it to the dealer.

 

[cwerdna]

Like the others Ive been using a battery maintainer. It usually takes about 3-4 hours to charge it to full but I've had two days where right after charging it to full, I put away the maintainer and the next morning the battery was dead again.

Has anyone found out what is causing or what is potentially causing this? I skimmed over the 10+ pages in the thread and I see that other people are having the same problem but didn't see any posts where someone says what they think might be causing it.

Sounds like you have a bad 12 volt battery. If the car is still under warranty to it to the dealer.

Yep.

I ran into this w/my used Leaf (built 5/2013, 1st in service date was late 6/2013):
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=440106#p440106
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=440192#p440192
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=440419#p440419