Lack of heat at 0 Degrees

[dbfoerster]

I have a 2016 leaf with 300 miles on it and today on my way to work it was ZERO degrees outside. It would not heat at all. Is this normal???

 

[LeftieBiker]

No, it isn't. Which model Leaf?

 

[Stanton]

If it's an "S" trim, sounds like another infant failure of the infamous heater element.

 

[dbfoerster]

It's an S. It worked the first several days I had it, but yesterday and today it did not.

 

[aarond12]

Check your fuses. Your resistive heater should easily work at 0°F, or even 0°C.

The owner's manual doesn't specify which fuses (there are fuse boxes in the engine bay and in the passenger compartment), but even a loose fuse could cause problems. Anyone have a reference of which fuses to check?

 

[Stanton]

It's an S. It worked the first several days I had it, but yesterday and today it did not.

That's the definition of "infant failure".
Make a trip to the dealer...and then wait for parts. At least a loner car will have heat.

 

[dbfoerster]

This is weird because when I drove home there was plenty of heat, but again this morning it was blowing maybe luke warm. Definitely not what I would call heat.

 

[RegGuheert]

This is weird because when I drove home there was plenty of heat, but again this morning it was blowing maybe luke warm. Definitely not what I would call heat.

It's a bit hard to provide a useful answer without knowing where you live or which model LEAF you are driving. If you are driving an SV or SL with a heat pump, then possibly the heat pump is working, but not the resistive heater. The heat pump is capable of heating the cabin at 20F, but not so much at 0F. So when you drive into work in the morning, you have very little heat available, but in the evening it is above 20F and you get sufficient heat from the heat pump.

Another possibility is that you are driving in ECO mode which limits the resistive heater to less than 2 kW, which will not heat the cabin sufficiently at 0F. The workaround is to turn the temperature setting up to 90F. This will cause the heater to run at full power, even in ECO mode.

Since you are only having the issue in the morning, another possible solution is to preheat the cabin while plugged in at home using either a timer or NissanConnect EV to turn on the heat at least 30 minutes prior to departure.

 

[dbfoerster]

Thanks for the advise RegGuheert . I will try these methods and see if there are any changes.

 

[DuncanCunningham]

Yep, that's what we do.

My wife has the 2015 S model. She switches on the car, makes sure that ECO is off and lets the heater get going. Once she feels happy that the heater has warmed up the ducting and heat is being felt in the cabin she switches on ECO and it keeps up with the heat she wants.

That was a trick someone else shared on here that I told her about and it works perfectly. So much so that when i drive her car she tells me "Switch off ECO and pump up that heat" before I even get my seat belt on. It's a cooler winter here in Utah than we've had for couple of years.