Entire Leaf Unresponsive

[Edelman]

Well this is interesting.

After an uneventful Saturday I came out to find the Leaf completely unresponsive this morning. It's been charging over night and when I get in the start button lights but nothing happens. The car is also unresponsive to the key fob.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[GerryAZ]

You could try a "hard reboot" by disconnecting the negative 12-volt battery terminal for a few minutes. Leave the doors open so the draw from the dome lights will help discharge the stored charge in any capacitors keeping control module memory alive while the battery is disconnected.

Gerry

 

[kubel]

12V battery dead?

 

[mwalsh]

Dead fob battery? Have your tried your spare? Or the procedure for a dead fob battery situation (I don't remember just what it is...something to do with holding the fob against the power button...it's in the manual)?

 

[Edelman]

Wow. You guys are great. Answers in minutes. Thank you.

It wasn't the fob. I tried the other one. So I put a trickle charger on the 12 volt battery. That perked the car up a bit with "no key detected" coming up (even thought I had it right there.

That gave me hope so I pulled our other car in and jumped the 12 volt battery and everything lit up and at least for now the car is charging.

Can anyone tell me what they think happened? We returned last night with at least 20 miles on the battery and plugged in the charger. I can't say for sure I heard the relay click and charging begin but even if the car wasn't charging over night it had some battery left at midnight and zero this morning (I checked the battery level as soon as the car sprang to life using the jump).

Why would the main battery have lost all that power? Where would it have gone and why would it have taken the 12 volt battery with it?

Or do you think it is the 12 Volt battery that failed? If so why would that have discharged the main battery overnight?

 

[TonyWilliams]

If the 12 volt was low on power, 55 minutes after turning the car off, it would have begun charging the 12 volt from the DC-DC converter.

If the battery is shorted, that would take a WHOLE lot of power, that only comes from the traction battery.

I'd get a new 12 volt. Unfortunately, I think the whole 12 volt system has a number of flaws that cause this issue.

 

[ebill3]

Is there any chance at all that you failed to turn the car off last night? If the car is in 'ready' mode and the J1772 is connected, the car will not charge. If climate control was on, that would explain both batteries being dead.

Yes, slim chance of that, but........................

Bill

 

[Edelman]

It's possible. I don't think so but you never know. If one is distracted it certainly could be easy to forget to whack the button even if you remember to turn the lights off.

Whatever happened the battery is certainly getting a deep discharge cycle. It's been charging just about an hour and the app on my iphone is showing 2 miles range and 6 hours to charge on a 240 volt charger.

Any suggestions for testing the 12 volt battery besides swinging by Sears or somebody and having them use their test rig? I'm assuming a simple voltage test isn't going to be good enough.

 

[garygid]

Has anybody discovered a way to display the 12v Battery's
voltage on the LEAF?

In the 2010 Prius, one can enter AUX mode (press Start once
with foot not on the brake), hold down the INFO button, and
switch the headlights On-Off four times, getting hidden
diagnostic screens that will display the 12v Battery Voltage.

Sadly, I get 9.2 volts on mine, so I have ordered an Optima
YellowTop direct replacement battery for my under-utilized
Prius. However, that will change, since we sold the 2005
Toyota Camry this past weekend, and now my wife will
be learning to drive the Prius. Yes, she hates change, and
cried after her "faithful friend" was suddenly gone!

Boris went over to give her a lick to cheer her up!

 

[DarkStar]

Sadly, I get 9.2 volts on mine

:shock: Yep, that's dead.

 

[Bicster]

Edelman, where are you located? How old is your car?

I get 26 months out of my 12V batteries in this climate. Even if it's a $250 AGM, 26 months to dead... I would think the Leaf's 12V battery might last a bit longer because the under hood temps should be a lot lower, but it's a pathetic looking little thing.