Leaf is dead after vacation...

[neunsechszwo]

It will, but not with the EVSE connected.
There are threads all over the place on here about this.

But I'll summarize.
Charge the leaf, but not over 80%
Unplug it.
Go on vacation
Come back.
Drive Leaf.

There you go!

Resurrecting this old thread ...

Unfortunately the above isn't correct. I left my '13 for 19 days - charged to 80%, unconnected to EVSE. Leaf was completely dead when I returned - and had to jump start the car, leave it on for 40 minutes (manual says 20 minutes) before the 12v battery got charged enough to let me re-start Leaf.

Looks like we have to disconnect the battery or(and ?) put it on a tender.

Try having dealer take a look. Got a software update and now all is well. Before, sometimes one night would be enough to drain the 12V.

 

[Leafboy]

There are threads all over the place on here about this.

But I'll summarize.
Charge the leaf, but not over 80%
Unplug it.
Go on vacation
Come back.
Drive Leaf.

What if the LEAF is parked outside and it will be -4F or lower for the week you'll be gone?

I would put a Battery Tender on it and pray!

 

[planet4ever]

I left my '13 for 19 days - charged to 80%, unconnected to EVSE. Leaf was completely dead when I returned - and had to jump start the car, leave it on for 40 minutes (manual says 20 minutes) before the 12v battery got charged enough to let me re-start Leaf.

Unfortunately a number of 2013 LEAFs have been delivered with bad 12v batteries. Yours seems to be one of those. Have the 12v battery checked and hopefully replaced by a Nissan dealer.

Ray

 

[dgpcolorado]

What if the LEAF is parked outside and it will be -4F or lower for the week you'll be gone?

That's a good question. If the temperature didn't get below -4ºF (-20ºC) for an extensive part of the time on vacation, it might be ok to leave it unplugged. The battery heater is only 300 W and runs intermittently. As long as the SOC doesn't get below 30% it should continue to work normally. 300 W once in awhile is going to take some time to drop the traction battery down from 80% to 30%. But if the 12 V battery were to die during that time, then that would be very bad... I would consider a battery tender essential for this approach.

Assuming that one doesn't have a friend or neighbor who could plug-in the car periodically, another strategy would be to leave the car at about 50% and plugged-in with the charge timer set to come on once a day for ten to fifteen minutes or so. If you planned it right it shouldn't get to 80% before you return. The short charge sessions would top off the 12 V battery each day and being plugged-in would allow the battery heater to work as needed, no matter how cold it got.

The problem would be if the car got to 80% (or 100% if you had that limit set). Then the charge cycle would halt immediately and the 12 V battery wouldn't get topped off and would eventually die because of the vampire load due to being plugged-in.

Yes, long term parking in extreme cold presents difficulties...

Just thinking "out loud", so-to-speak. I've never had to face this problem because I park in a garage that doesn't get much below freezing.

 

[evnow]

I left my '13 for 19 days - charged to 80%, unconnected to EVSE. Leaf was completely dead when I returned - and had to jump start the car, leave it on for 40 minutes (manual says 20 minutes) before the 12v battery got charged enough to let me re-start Leaf.

Unfortunately a number of 2013 LEAFs have been delivered with bad 12v batteries. Yours seems to be one of those. Have the 12v battery checked and hopefully replaced by a Nissan dealer.

Ray

I guess that is a possibility. But, a dealer checkup will have to wait - first I've to get over the jet lag and catch up on all the stuff ;(

 

[keydiver]

The 12 volt battery was dead on my 2012 when we came home after ~2 weeks. I did everything I thought was right: charged to 50-60% before we left, and left it unplugged. The only thing I can possibly blame it on is the ELM327 I left in the OBDII port. Fortunately, a quick charge brought it back to life quickly, and I haven't seen any indication of permanent damage to the battery. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[planet4ever]

The only thing I can possibly blame it on is the ELM327 I left in the OBDII port.

Several people have mentioned that. It begins to seem likely that the ELM is doing something to keep the LEAF from going into its normal dormant state.

Ray

 

[gonefishin]

I first ran into this problem in 2012, 6 months after this thread, and posted this thread on it.

http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=9118

I've managed to avoid it untIil now but I just had it happen again after a trip away for 10 days. I'm surprised it's still an issue, but I guess I wasn't very clear about my proof & conclusions. I was hoping that by now either Blink would have found & fixed the bug or the car would have been updated but apparently not. So, let me try to be more clear.

The problem occurs when you leave the car for more than 5 days and will result in a dead battery by approx 8 days. The car is supposed to self-charge the 12v battery every 5 days. The bug is that if it is plugged into an early Blink charger it will start a never ending connection to the charger. My proof is that my house has a dedicated power monitor on my charger and while it normally just wakes up for an hour every midnight, after 5 days it was continually on using 30 watts of household power / hour. I don't know how many watts the car was using but assuming the car was also burning 30 watts / hr x 34 hours = 90 AHr, which is about the capacity of a 12v car battery.

You can avoid the problem by not leaving the car plugged in, or by setting it to charge just a small amount every few days.

 

[TimLee]

^^^ Has nothing to do with Blink EVSE.
Leaving a LEAF hooked up to any EVSE for a lengthy period can end up with a dead 12V battery.

Why is anyone still doing that?
Unplug the EVSE.

And if you are using OBDII adapter, make sure it is unplugged, as some of the Bluetooth ones pull five times the normal LEAF 12V drain current.

And the most reliable long term protection of the 12V for long term LEAF non use is to put a trickle charger on it :!:

 

[Nubo]

The 12 volt battery was dead on my 2012 when we came home after ~2 weeks. I did everything I thought was right: charged to 50-60% before we left, and left it unplugged. The only thing I can possibly blame it on is the ELM327 I left in the OBDII port.

Bingo. When I got mine, I checked it the next morning and it was surprisingly warm. That means it was dissipating significant power; I reckon considerably more than the 0.75W they claimed. But even 0.75W draw comes to over 250 Watt-hours over 2 weeks. That's a big chunk of what the oem 12V battery has on tap.

I have only occasional need for it so I don't leave it plugged in. For those that do I'd definitely recommend getting one with an on-off switch.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Parking my LEAF tonight and will crank it back up (hopefully) on the morning of the 3rd. We shall see how it goes

 

[mxp]

< cut >

And if you are using OBDII adapter, make sure it is unplugged, as some of the Bluetooth ones pull five times the normal LEAF 12V drain current.

< cut >

Yes. I am learning it the hard way.

We have 2 Leafs. Both parked side by side, outdoors, unplugged. Came back from 5 weeks out. One of our Leafs had a dead 12V battery.

The Leaf with the bluetooth OBDII adapted plugged in had the dead 12V battery. I had to use the manual steel car key in the keyfob to get into the car and open the hood. Charged the 12V battery overnight to bring it back to life again. Luckily, the 12V battery was still fine.

Note to self: Next time, unplug the OBDII, and anything else plugged into the 12V port. And, make sure everything else is manually turned to off - Radio, climate control switch, auto headlights switch etc. No proof that climate control switches etc will cause issues but that's what I intend to do anyways.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

parked it 7/21/15 about 6 pm. 116 GIDs. Started it 7 pm 8/2/15. 109 GIDs. was not plugged in. just sitting there. 12 volt battery survived.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

< cut >

And if you are using OBDII adapter, make sure it is unplugged, as some of the Bluetooth ones pull five times the normal LEAF 12V drain current.

< cut >

Yes. I am learning it the hard way.

We have 2 Leafs. Both parked side by side, outdoors, unplugged. Came back from 5 weeks out. One of our Leafs had a dead 12V battery.

The Leaf with the bluetooth OBDII adapted plugged in had the dead 12V battery. I had to use the manual steel car key in the keyfob to get into the car and open the hood. Charged the 12V battery overnight to bring it back to life again. Luckily, the 12V battery was still fine.

Note to self: Next time, unplug the OBDII, and anything else plugged into the 12V port. And, make sure everything else is manually turned to off - Radio, climate control switch, auto headlights switch etc. No proof that climate control switches etc will cause issues but that's what I intend to do anyways.

wonder if it made a difference? next time try it for 2 weeks and see what happens. I had mine plugged in and no issues on my return. another thing you need to make sure of is that you exit BT when exiting the app. Now, not as easy as one might think which is why I use a dedicated phone for my LEAF Spy and I recommend that everyone else do so too. With BT on as you exit the car, I think the device is remaining on to listen which is causing the issues