Level 2 charging fails, but level 1 works?

[darelldd]

very EASY.... Buy an Aerovironments charger...

If only more things in life were so simple. A couple of issues I have with this amazingly EASY fix.

1. I own four EVSEs that all comply with the J1772 charging standard. I'm not keen to buy another.
2. ... especially one that does not comply.
3. While buying an AeroVironment charger will allow me to charge my out-of-compliance car at home, this means that my woefully short-range car is limited to wander no more than 20 miles (and dropping) from home. I have never encountered an AeroVironment charger in public, so charging in public for me would likely be impossible.

Hmmm. Buy a special EVSE for one of my battery cars? Even though all other Leafs in town charge just fine on my current EVSEs? Definitely something I shouldn't need to do to fix my Leaf problem.

 

[ElectricEddy]

Nissan talks about as being the only one "certified" to work with the Leaf.

Not true https://flo.ca/partnership-nissan-canada

 

[davewill]

Except that Nissan does not consider this broken.... because it works on AeroVironment chargers.

It's a bit like buying a gasoline car and being told that it will only run on Shell gasoline.

I will give the dealer one more chance on Tuesday. And then I will begin making some noise.

Not Nissan, just your addle-pated dealer. It's always important to remember the difference. They are simply wrong and you're going to have to push until they know it. Insist they try a public charging location that you know doesn't work. If they try to say it isn't compatible, point out they are mentioned in the Nissan website as working with LEAF: https://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/charging-range/charging/no-charge-to-charge/ or that they are listed in the nav system. Complaining about your home charger just invites stupid crap like you've been getting.

BTW, have you actually tested for the diode?

 

[darelldd]

Except that Nissan does not consider this broken.... because it works on AeroVironment chargers.

It's a bit like buying a gasoline car and being told that it will only run on Shell gasoline.

I will give the dealer one more chance on Tuesday. And then I will begin making some noise.

Not Nissan, just your addle-pated dealer. It's always important to remember the difference. They are simply wrong and you're going to have to push until they know it. Insist they try a public charging location that you know doesn't work. If they try to say it isn't compatible, point out they are mentioned in the Nissan website as working with LEAF: https://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/charging-range/charging/no-charge-to-charge/ or that they are listed in the nav system. Complaining about your home charger just invites stupid crap like you've been getting.

Yeah, so the thing is - if a company supports having dealerships with the company name on it, that IS an extension of the company. For all intents and purposes, the Nissan Dealer is a representative of the company. (Is now a good place to mention why car makers should all be supporting what Tesla is trying to do? Let's just say I'm done with having the dealerships protected me from the predatory car makers, as the dealerships would have you believe). Unless I can get NISSAN corporate to fix my car, then I'm forced to deal with Nissan in the dealership disguise. Or to put it another way, when I called corporate, they told me that my only recourse is to deal with my local dealership.

We have probably 20 public EVSEs in town. None of them work with my car (surprise! They're the same EVSE that I have at home.) So it would be plenty easy to show them. But they already know. I've told them. I'm not complaining about my home EVSE to them. I'm complaining that NO other EVSE works (that I've yet found) except for the Panasonic unit that came with the car, and AV units.

BTW, have you actually tested for the diode?

Yes. Unfortunately we seem to have parallel threads going now. I found this thread after I began discussing my situation on the other thread. On the other thread, I'm helping others test their own.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=24138&p=502970#p502970

 

[darelldd]

Nissan talks about as being the only one "certified" to work with the Leaf.

Not true https://flo.ca/partnership-nissan-canada

Hmm. Well, that's a new development... and I don't live in Canada. See, the cars know their geographic location, and the CONUS units know that they are only allowed to charge from AV units.

 

[davewill]

Yeah, so the thing is - if a company supports having dealerships with the company name on it, that IS an extension of the company. For all intents and purposes, the Nissan Dealer is a representative of the company. (Is now a good place to mention why car makers should all be supporting what Tesla is trying to do? Let's just say I'm done with having the dealerships protected me from the predatory car makers, as the dealerships would have you believe). Unless I can get NISSAN corporate to fix my car, then I'm forced to deal with Nissan in the dealership disguise. Or to put it another way, when I called corporate, they told me that my only recourse is to deal with my local dealership.

We have probably 20 public EVSEs in town. None of them work with my car (surprise! They're the same EVSE that I have at home.) So it would be plenty easy to show them. But they already know. I've told them. I'm not complaining about my home EVSE to them. I'm complaining that NO other EVSE works (that I've yet found) except for the Panasonic unit that came with the car, and AV units.

BTW, have you actually tested for the diode?

Yes. Unfortunately we seem to have parallel threads going now. I found this thread after I began discussing my situation on the other thread. On the other thread, I'm helping others test their own.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=24138&p=502970#p502970

Yeah, I ran into that thread just after I posted. The intermittency just makes everything worse. Just try to remember that the idiot at the dealership is simply 100% wrong every time he says that Nissan only supports the AV EVSE. It is not true, and you will eventually prevail.

 

[darelldd]

That's my plan! He's a nice guy, and I don't want to burn bridges. And he already knows that he's in over his head. I mean come on - he hasn't even heard of this diode. All he knows is reading the codes, and doing what the book tells him to do about what the code says. (and tell me the policy about how all chargers but AV are "bad" and didn't follow Nissan's directions).

Today's news. It appears that my diode has now permanently failed. And the fix may be really easy for me (to add a diode to the circuit just behind the inlet).

I just tested, and found this.

Direction 1: 65 k Ohm
Direction 2: 87 k Ohm

 

[2k1Toaster]

Today's news. It appears that my diode has now permanently failed. And the fix may be really easy for me (to add a diode to the circuit just behind the inlet).

If you take on the problem yourself, you take it on forever. Now they can deny warranty claims because you are modifying the same thing your're complaining about. Now the problem will be the diode you added even though it actually has nothing to do with the problem.

At this point I would tell the tech to just replace the charger again, it is obviously defective. And even if it is not defective and just a shoddy repair, doing it again hopefully they follow the manual more closely and actually get it to work.

 

[Nubo]

Today's news. It appears that my diode has now permanently failed. And the fix may be really easy for me (to add a diode to the circuit just behind the inlet).

If you take on the problem yourself, you take it on forever. Now they can deny warranty claims because you are modifying the same thing your're complaining about. ...

Well, it depends. One denial is as good as another. It depends on the age of the car, and your tolerance for clawing until you finally hit a nerve. Some people are better at that than others.

If you really know what's going on and have confidence in the necessary repair, sometimes DIY can be preferable. After two trips to the dealership with a previous vehicle for steering/pulling problems that they were unable/unwilling to fix, I fixed it myself, bypassing a crappy connector on the electric steering harness. Cutting that SOB out of the car was far more effective and satisfying than hours on the phone belly-aching (to Mazda in that case).

 

[darelldd]

If you take on the problem yourself, you take it on forever. Now they can deny warranty claims because you are modifying the same thing your're complaining about. Now the problem will be the diode you added even though it actually has nothing to do with the problem.

This is woven into the fabric of my being. I take everything on forever. When I get a new car - even an irreplaceable one - I make it my own by cutting holes, adding wires, removing stupid things. I like to know what's happening with my cars - and the best way to do that, is to personally do as much of the service/repair/maintenance myself. It's just what I do, and this is no different. Plus... what's the difference between wasting my time fighting to have them do what's right *now* vs doing this fix myself, and then maybe having to fight them over denying a warranty claim (which they'd be hard-pressed to legally win?) in the future?

At this point I would tell the tech to just replace the charger again, it is obviously defective. And even if it is not defective and just a shoddy repair, doing it again hopefully they follow the manual more closely and actually get it to work.

Must be some confusion. So far they've done nothing but clear a code that pertains to EVSE use. So far I've paid nothing for these except in wasted time. If I take the car in tomorrow (which I now think that I won't do) I begin incurring costs.

 

[darelldd]

Well, it depends. One denial is as good as another.

...

If you really know what's going on and have confidence in the necessary repair, sometimes DIY can be preferable. After two trips to the dealership with a previous vehicle for steering/pulling problems that they were unable/unwilling to fix, I fixed it myself, bypassing a crappy connector on the electric steering harness. Cutting that SOB out of the car was far more effective and satisfying than hours on the phone belly-aching (to Mazda in that case).

This!

 

[2k1Toaster]

As long as you are willing to do the work yourself, then just go do it. Less than a dollar in parts and you can be fixed by the end of the day.

I just don't like seeing posts advocating for these types of solutions to problems where people who take their cars to the dealer to re-fill the blinker fluid reservoir, do something like this, and then get roped into an unneeded multi-thousand dollar repair because they just made their care terribly unsafe, a road hazard to themselves and everyone else. :shock:

While I try not to cut any holes in my car, I do try to do most of the maintenance if it is worth my time. Especially on some of the rarer cars, I don't trust them alone in a room with a wrench monkey for even 2 minutes. I've had over-eager gearheads in parking lots cause tons of damage by just "helping" pop the rear engine cover on an exotic as if it was their F350 (Ford not Ferrari lol)...

 

[cliff]

At this point I would tell the tech to just replace the charger again

I tried to post on this before, but did not go thru, so again, in earlier post
it was stated that the VCM(and a wrong name used for the VCM) was replaced
not the charger. The add a diode repair method, only works if the original
diode is shorted, not open. Is the original diode an opto-isolator? I have
never seen any one post where this is. Now that I think about it, it can not
be an opto-isolator, as then the shorted diode fix would not work.

 

[tn77]

Nissan says this answer isn't right.

Their diagnostics show ZERO issues with the car... yet I cannot charge anywhere but their dealerships.

 

[darelldd]

Same here. My car is fine! It charges on AV equipment! So... all good.

Just can't use any public chargers, nor any of my Clipper Creek chargers. But that's not their concern because only AV equipment has been licensed to use with their cars.

 

[tn77]

ChargePoint equipment worked for 16 months in multiple places; all ChargePoint equipment in the world didn't fail at the same time. Something must be amiss on this vehicle.

 

[darelldd]

In case I was too subtle: Yes, I agree. I was being sarcastic.

The rest of the world has suddenly failed. AV equipment still works.

It turns out that AV equipment does not check for the diode that seems to fail far too easily in the Leaf.

 

[darelldd]

To avoid confusion, I've started my own thread for my situation and eventual (I hope!) solution.

It's been too confusing having two threads with multiple discussion threads. So I'll duck out of this one, and contribute only to my new one:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=24560&p=505289#p505289