DEAD LEAF

[shacksleaf]

:?: LEAF - DEAD IN THE WATER (WELL, GARAGE ACTUALLY)

twice now, one week apart, the car was placed on charge, went through the charging cycle and then would not start - showed 0 miles, 0 charge - had to be towed to dealer. First time they mumbled something about a voltage spike setting which they reset - second time it is still at the shop because no LEAF technicians were working on Saturday - I'm not a happy camper at this point and friend wife is going into panic mode! . Anyone else had a similar problem?

 

[Herm]

What brand EVSE are you using?.. hopefully not a GE unit.

 

[lkkms2]

Could you clarify what you mean by 0 miles and 0 charge. Did you leave the power on and it drained down?

P.s. how come your delivery date shows Feb 2011, but your vin # is 15000 something?

 

[shacksleaf]

Could you clarify what you mean by 0 miles and 0 charge. Did you leave the power on and it drained down?

P.s. how come your delivery date shows Feb 2011, but your vin # is 15000 something?

Delivery date was Dec 2, 2011 - Apex, NC, VIN as posted

First time - LEAF had approx 20 miles (still not in the red - just about 2 bars), I started the charge process via Iphone app at about 2 pm Friday afternoon- charge process started fine.
And indicated via email it completed at 12/12 bars - came down to garage at about 6 pm and car would not start - miles read ---- and the charge meter was completely depleted - we did have an electrical storm during the time the charge was happening - but power in the house did not go off. Service tech said that the software indicated a voltage abnormality

Second time (the next (this) Friday) LEAF had about 30 miles on it when I started charging via Iphone app - same indication at about 6 pm - no electrical storms during the charge cycle this time.

Car is at shop over the weekend because they didn't have a LEAF tech working on Sat - so I don't know yet what the analysis will show - Resetting the software is fine to get the car going again, but I would like them to delve further into what's causing the problem

Car charged normally (via timer to 80%) several times during the week, no problem.

I am in the process of installing Sunpower Solar - the solar system has not been commisioned yet so it is ready to go but not connected to the power panel. As part of the solar installation they needed to reconfigure the circuit breakers which included moving the charger breakers - anybody have any thoughts on that ?

Charger is AV Level 2 -

:?: LEAF - DEAD IN THE WATER (WELL, GARAGE ACTUALLY)

twice now, one week apart, the car was placed on charge, went through the charging cycle and then would not start - showed 0 miles, 0 charge - had to be towed to dealer. First time they mumbled something about a voltage spike setting which they reset - second time it is still at the shop because no LEAF technicians were working on Saturday - I'm not a happy camper at this point and friend wife is going into panic mode! . Anyone else had a similar problem?

What brand EVSE are you using?.. hopefully not a GE unit.

 

[shacksleaf]

What brand EVSE are you using?.. hopefully not a GE unit.

Aerovironment level 2 (AV). - see details below

 

[shacksleaf]

See embedded in post - thanks

 

[Nekota]

Could you clarify what you mean by 0 miles and 0 charge. Did you leave the power on and it drained down?

P.s. how come your delivery date shows Feb 2011, but your vin # is 15000 something?

Delivery date was Dec 2, 2011 - Apex, NC, VIN as posted

First time - LEAF had approx 20 miles (still not in the red - just about 2 bars), I started the charge process via Iphone app at about 2 pm Friday afternoon- charge process started fine.
And indicated via email it completed at 12/12 bars - came down to garage at about 6 pm and car would not start - miles read ---- and the charge meter was completely depleted - we did have an electrical storm during the time the charge was happening - but power in the house did not go off. Service tech said that the software indicated a voltage abnormality

Second time (the next (this) Friday) LEAF had about 30 miles on it when I started charging via Iphone app - same indication at about 6 pm - no electrical storms during the charge cycle this time.

Car is at shop over the weekend because they didn't have a LEAF tech working on Sat - so I don't know yet what the analysis will show - Resetting the software is fine to get the car going again, but I would like them to delve further into what's causing the problem

Car charged normally (via timer to 80%) several times during the week, no problem.

I am in the process of installing Sunpower Solar - the solar system has not been commisioned yet so it is ready to go but not connected to the power panel. As part of the solar installation they needed to reconfigure the circuit breakers which included moving the charger breakers - anybody have any thoughts on that ?

Charger is AV Level 2 -

:?: LEAF - DEAD IN THE WATER (WELL, GARAGE ACTUALLY)

twice now, one week apart, the car was placed on charge, went through the charging cycle and then would not start - showed 0 miles, 0 charge - had to be towed to dealer. First time they mumbled something about a voltage spike setting which they reset - second time it is still at the shop because no LEAF technicians were working on Saturday - I'm not a happy camper at this point and friend wife is going into panic mode! . Anyone else had a similar problem?

What brand EVSE are you using?.. hopefully not a GE unit.

As for the solar breakers and EV breakers I recall some discussion on this forum about solar inverters interacting with the LEAF charging system with a noticeable increase in the loudness of the inverter hum sound. If your inverters are enphase and you are using envoy there have been reports of communication interference with the line carrier signals.

 

[shacksleaf]

Could you clarify what you mean by 0 miles and 0 charge. Did you leave the power on and it drained down?

P.s. how come your delivery date shows Feb 2011, but your vin # is 15000 something?

Delivery date was Dec 2, 2011 - Apex, NC, VIN as posted

First time - LEAF had approx 20 miles (still not in the red - just about 2 bars), I started the charge process via Iphone app at about 2 pm Friday afternoon- charge process started fine.
And indicated via email it completed at 12/12 bars - came down to garage at about 6 pm and car would not start - miles read ---- and the charge meter was completely depleted - we did have an electrical storm during the time the charge was happening - but power in the house did not go off. Service tech said that the software indicated a voltage abnormality

Second time (the next (this) Friday) LEAF had about 30 miles on it when I started charging via Iphone app - same indication at about 6 pm - no electrical storms during the charge cycle this time.

Car is at shop over the weekend because they didn't have a LEAF tech working on Sat - so I don't know yet what the analysis will show - Resetting the software is fine to get the car going again, but I would like them to delve further into what's causing the problem

Car charged normally (via timer to 80%) several times during the week, no problem.

I am in the process of installing Sunpower Solar - the solar system has not been commisioned yet so it is ready to go but not connected to the power panel. As part of the solar installation they needed to reconfigure the circuit breakers which included moving the charger breakers - anybody have any thoughts on that ?

Charger is AV Level 2 -

:?: LEAF - DEAD IN THE WATER (WELL, GARAGE ACTUALLY)

twice now, one week apart, the car was placed on charge, went through the charging cycle and then would not start - showed 0 miles, 0 charge - had to be towed to dealer. First time they mumbled something about a voltage spike setting which they reset - second time it is still at the shop because no LEAF technicians were working on Saturday - I'm not a happy camper at this point and friend wife is going into panic mode! . Anyone else had a similar problem?

What brand EVSE are you using?.. hopefully not a GE unit.

As for the solar breakers and EV breakers I recall some discussion on this forum about solar inverters interacting with the LEAF charging system with a noticeable increase in the loudness of the inverter hum sound. If your inverters are enphase and you are using envoy there have been reports of communication interference with the line carrier signals.

Solar system is Sunpower with SPR-5000m inverter -but it is disconnected from the power panel and the solar breakers are OFF

 

[garygid]

2/12/11 Feb 12th is not 12/2/11 Dec 2nd.
Where are you located?
Did it only fail when starting with iPhone?

Please keep us posted.

 

[shacksleaf]

2/12/11 Feb 12th is not 12/2/11 Dec 2nd.
Where are you located?
Did it only fail when starting with iPhone?

Please keep us posted.

Both times that it failed I started charging using the Iphone app - but I have used the Iphone app many times when it did not fail. I normally charge it each evening at 10:30 pm via timer -

I am located in Cary, NC (near Raleigh) , dealer is Leith Nissan @ CaryAutoPark

 

[EVDRIVER]

If you have repeated charging issues don't test charging or charge via the app, test it manually first.

 

[shacksleaf]

If you have repeated charging issues don't test charging or charge via the app, test it manually first.

Can you explain this more?

 

[garygid]

Don't use the iPhone application, but start the charging manually, at the car, watching the three lights on the dash to be sure the car is actually charging.

Did you read the 0 and --- on the car, or in Carwings?
If there is a problem, do not trust Carwings.

 

[shacksleaf]

Don't use the iPhone application, but start the charging manually, at the car, watching the three lights on the dash to be sure the car is actually charging.

Did you read the 0 and --- on the car, or in Carwings?
If there is a problem, do not trust Carwings.

Thanks - will do

The 0 was in the car both times - but Carwings also shows zero

Also, in both cases, when I plugged the charger into the car the "rocking motion" of the 3 lights started indicating that it was waiting on the timer

 

[garygid]

Then, test charging without the Timers.

 

[smkettner]

Long shot but what is the possibility it was left in accessory mode or something besides off?

 

[jkyu99]

Is this what I heard?
Working great for six months.
Charged it during electrical storm. Something spiked during charging and car discharged the entire battery to zero.
Dealer reset the computes, charged, it and then you got it home.
You tested the same charger, but this time no storm. Boom, car discharged the entire battery to zero.

Sounds like a bad charger.
If I was willing to gamble, the next time I get the car back I would use my trickle charger and see if car charges okay.
... then the next night I would hook up that spiked AV fast charger and see if I couldn't discharge the entire battery to zero once again.

But I am not that much a gambler. Personally, I would ask AV to come out and run their test functions on the AV unit, letting them know it has acted up twice, once during a storm and a spike got through and then the next night, it killed the car again... It isn't all that sophisticated inside the AV unit.

I look forward to finding out more. Might make me want to unplug my car during an electrical storm.

 

[shacksleaf]

Is this what I heard?
Working great for six months.
Charged it during electrical storm. Something spiked during charging and car discharged the entire battery to zero.
Dealer reset the computes, charged, it and then you got it home.
You tested the same charger, but this time no storm. Boom, car discharged the entire battery to zero.

Sounds like a bad charger.
If I was willing to gamble, the next time I get the car back I would use my trickle charger and see if car charges okay.
... then the next night I would hook up that spiked AV fast charger and see if I couldn't discharge the entire battery to zero once again.

But I am not that much a gambler. Personally, I would ask AV to come out and run their test functions on the AV unit, letting them know it has acted up twice, once during a storm and a spike got through and then the next night, it killed the car again... It isn't all that sophisticated inside the AV unit.

I look forward to finding out more. Might make me want to unplug my car during an electrical storm.

Pretty close - It was a week between events (both on a Friday) - the car charged fine after I got it back on Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, thur and then Bam on Friday afternoon - I am leaning towards charger issue - probably not a bad idea to unplug the car during electrical storm (and we have had one just about every day here in NC - crazy weather!) I will post after discussion with service tech tomorrow (hopefully)

 

[shacksleaf]

Long shot but what is the possibility it was left in accessory mode or something besides off?

Possible I left the AC on, but even so it was only a matter of minutes between when I got the email that it had completed charging and went into the garage to find it dead - I am sure However that the car was OFF when I left it -

 

[brent]

I'm in the machine tool business. We sell and service CNC machines.

There is no question that we get more CNC / inverter failures the day after a thunderstorm.

I treat my Leaf with the same advice I tell my CNC customers. Unplug the machine / car during the thunderstorms.
Most move off in half an hour or so.