mxp
Well-known member
amtoro said:
How long can you leave it un-driven with 50% charge and unplugged? I suppose it should be ok for many months right? That's a pretty big battery.
Leaf dead after two week vacation
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Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:
How long can you leave it un-driven with 50% charge and unplugged? I suppose it should be ok for many months right? That's a pretty big battery.
amtoro
Well-known member
The manual recommends charging it at least every 3 months; as we figured out before in this post, the DC-DC converter will charge the 12V battery every 5 days for 5 minutes.
If you have left it completely off, the only drain will be self-discharging and telematics (which stop transmitting after 2 weeks without driving).
The reason to leave it unplugged is because every time the on-board charger comes on to top-off the Li-ion battery, the charging timer for the 12V battery gets reset for another 5 days, therefore, it never receives any charge.
I'm still not certain how much the solar panel helps.
If you have left it completely off, the only drain will be self-discharging and telematics (which stop transmitting after 2 weeks without driving).
The reason to leave it unplugged is because every time the on-board charger comes on to top-off the Li-ion battery, the charging timer for the 12V battery gets reset for another 5 days, therefore, it never receives any charge.
I'm still not certain how much the solar panel helps.
highcountryrider
Well-known member
amtoro said:
Thanks for that; I was wondering why leaving it plugged in causes the 12V battery to go flat. Now I
know.
Just returned from a 12 day vacation to find my LEAF dead as well. I left it at home - charged to 80%, plugged in. There is no way it should have drained the 12volt under these conditions.
I think my next step is to disconnect the 12 volt and charge it with a standard auto battery charger. Seem like the right idea?
I think my next step is to disconnect the 12 volt and charge it with a standard auto battery charger. Seem like the right idea?
TomT
Well-known member
No, just leave it unplugged when you are going to be gone for an extended period. I did when I was gone for almost 4 weeks and had nearly the same charge when I returned as when I left.
If you are trying to restart it after the 12 volt battery being exhausted, yes, just charge it up with a standard 12 volt battery charger and you should be good to go.
If you are trying to restart it after the 12 volt battery being exhausted, yes, just charge it up with a standard 12 volt battery charger and you should be good to go.
mario said:
I did not have any problems last summer when I left Leaf plugged in for 7 weeks last summer while in Hawaii. When I returned I simply pushed start button and drove off. No issues. I wonder if you all are having a problem or I am.
lonndoggie
Well-known member
Same here, except it was three weeks, and the charge timer had it doing 80% on weekdays, 100% on weekends. Which had me worried, because I meant to unplug it. It was fine when I came back. As they say, YMMV.downeykp said:
mxp
Well-known member
mario said:
During a recent Bay Area visit by the Nissan chief battery engineer, I asked him specifically how to prepare the Leaf for long term storage. He said it was perfectly OK to charge the Leaf to 80% and leave it unplugged.
I charged the 12volt battery (disconnected) with a standard auto charger for a couple hours. It showed empty when I started and ¾ full when I stopped. When I reconnected the LEAF it came back to life. The lithium battery was still near fully (80%) charged which I expected.
Something is draining the 12v battery when idle. Could be the telematics. I heard from another friend that the keyless system uses power – I did not have the key in the car during the 12 days and it was unlocked. I think the car should recharge from the wall on a periodic basis.
The car was fully off. Doors closed. I checked it and my other car on the way out of town.
I saw on the forums somebody saying to disconnect the car from the charger when the car is going to be idle. I haven’t seen anything from Nissan confirming that this is better. It feels non-intuitive.
Something is draining the 12v battery when idle. Could be the telematics. I heard from another friend that the keyless system uses power – I did not have the key in the car during the 12 days and it was unlocked. I think the car should recharge from the wall on a periodic basis.
The car was fully off. Doors closed. I checked it and my other car on the way out of town.
I saw on the forums somebody saying to disconnect the car from the charger when the car is going to be idle. I haven’t seen anything from Nissan confirming that this is better. It feels non-intuitive.
TomT
Well-known member
The Leaf, like most all modern vehicles, actually has dozens of parasitic draws on the 12 volt battery when it is off. That is why the converter has to come on every 5 days to charge the battery when the vehicle is left off for an extended period.
mario said:
surfingslovak
Well-known member
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- Jun 13, 2011
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Mario, please open the Users Manual on page EV-3 in section EV Overview. Nissan says the following, which in my opinion implies that the Leaf will be left unplugged when parked. It's also possible that something was lost in translation.mario said:
There was a similar discussion on the Volt forum. There are some parallels between the vehicles, but the main difference is that the Volt has a temperature management system, and you might want to keep it plugged in (while not charging) for maximum benefit. Consensus seems to be forming around disconnecting the 12V battery or putting it on a trickle charger. While an 80% charge, which is likely only about 75% absolute SOC, is fine and recommended by Nissan, some people think that keeping a lower state of charge could be beneficial. This opinion was echoed on the Volt forum as well.
I purchased my Leaf on Dec 18. The following week I caught a bad cold and the car sat with almost no use. Saturday I was feeling better and I met a friend for lunch at a restaurant about 5 miles away. I was early and when I stopped without shutting down I had a red triangle and a battery warning light. I quickly shut down and restarted in acc so that my Yaesu could display the battery voltage. It was 12.1V which is a nearly depleted battery. I shut down again and the car started just fine about an hour later. It seems that I was very lucky and another day would have been too late.
Before someone accuses my FT8800, The radio is switched by a Bosch relay that is triggered from the acc buss.
Before someone accuses my FT8800, The radio is switched by a Bosch relay that is triggered from the acc buss.
GlennD said:
Hey OM:
Do you run fused 12.8 from the battery to an intermediate point then to the relay? I was going to the a PowerPole fused distro box since I have a separate APRS (FC-301/D VHF Argent Data Systems 5w transceiver) in addition to my FT-8800. I need to avoid the relay since I want the APRS on 24/7; i sends position reporting every 60 minutes unless vehicle is in motion.
73 de N4CVX
Dave
I want my radio to be dead until I drive away. The main power wire is switched through a relay by the acc buss. This causes the radio to go on when I get into the car and shut off when I leave. If the FT8800 had APRS, this hookup would not work.
I have a FTM-350 that will do APRS but I have not used it in this mode. I purchased it by printing out the "full size" brochure but when I received the radio it was .5 inch too large for the available space so I am using it at home.
I think I figured out why my battery was low. The dealer charged the car with a L2 charger and then it sat. I purchased it and was sick the next week so I only put 200 miles on the car. When I got home from lunch I connected the battery to a Lambda lab supply set to 13.8V and current limited to 5A. When I checked 2 hrs later the current had tapered to 300ma. So the battery sucked up the juce and it has been a lot better. It just sat too long.
I have a FTM-350 that will do APRS but I have not used it in this mode. I purchased it by printing out the "full size" brochure but when I received the radio it was .5 inch too large for the available space so I am using it at home.
I think I figured out why my battery was low. The dealer charged the car with a L2 charger and then it sat. I purchased it and was sick the next week so I only put 200 miles on the car. When I got home from lunch I connected the battery to a Lambda lab supply set to 13.8V and current limited to 5A. When I checked 2 hrs later the current had tapered to 300ma. So the battery sucked up the juce and it has been a lot better. It just sat too long.
I had used power pole connectors on my last install but I cut them off and just used the stock connector butt spliced to some red -black #12 cable. Power poles are currently big in the ham world but years ago E F Johnson used them and they were a source of intermittent power. Since I do not interchange radios there is really no reason to use the amateur standard.
DarkStar
Well-known member
If I was running APRS, I would probably use a separate 12 volt SLA battery connected through a battery isolator circuit. That way the transceiver could still be powered when the car is off, but wouldn't drain the main battery.CWO4Mann said:
Herm
Well-known member
GlennD said:
Power Poles are not a good idea for connections that are not disturbed often.. the contacts have a self cleaning action when they are moved, the silver plating can tarnish and increase the resistance after a while otherwise.. perhaps use a chemical to prevent the tarnishing but be careful the plastic housing is not affected. I would use another connector.
I have seen copper PP contacts without the silver plating.. used in xerox machines for high voltages.
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