My Leaf roll back and almost kill a kid!

[cwerdna]

I have the same problem with my Nissan Leaf 2014 model.

It happens to my wife once but I didn't believe her last month. I've ask her what happen and describe in sequences. She told me had her foot on brake, press start then put it in Reverse while the foot still on the brake from the beginning. Once in Reverse she looks back and saw people coming so she kept her foot on the brake. All of sudden the brake just felt soft and sink to the floor and car roll. She panic and lift her foot half way off the brake and press again it still roll; while the parents walking in back screaming. My wife pulls the electronic brake it didn’t work. Finally she applied the parking brake and it stopped. The parent came screaming at her trying killing her kid. I first brushed it off thinking she must have done something wrong...

I gave my car to Nissan service and lets see what they come back with.

What "electronic brake" are you talking about? '13+ Leaf moved to a foot operated pedal for the parking brake. There's no more electrically activated parking brake switch/lever that was on the '11s and 12's.

 

[RegGuheert]

What "electronic brake" are you talking about? '13+ Leaf moved to a foot operated pedal for the parking brake. There's no more electrically activated parking brake switch/lever that was on the '11s and 12's.

I wondered the same thing when I first read it, but I concluded that he must have been referring to the "P" button on the shifter which engages the parking pawl.

 

[rusang]

Yes. The "P" button on shifter....

@oscar, you said you were in bay area. Which dealer did you take your car to? I might have to talk to them if my Sunnyvale dealer needs some convincing....

 

[TimLee]

..
@oscar, you said you were in bay area. Which dealer did you take your car to? I might have to talk to them if my Sunnyvale dealer needs some convincing....

Suggest you send PM.
Last post was 19Mar2014.

 

[dhanson865]

Reg, thanks for the graph. I wish I'd seen that back in 2012. I finally took Phil's advice and bought the CTEK battery maintainer. Now I hook it up every night to the Leaf and then switch it over to the IEC in the morning. It's a pain, but it does the job and keeps both batteries above 13 V.

every night?

I charge mine several times a year. I'd think if you did it once a month it'd be enough. Maybe twice a month if you wanted to be extra vigilant. Maybe once a week if doing it on a certain day of the week as part of a habit.

I'll probably be buying one or two used leafs this year (replacing a Saturn first, if prices go down enough I might even replace the Prius). I'm too lazy to grab the voltage meter every time so I'll just plug up the CTEK and see if it says the battery is mid or full (LEDs are empty, mid, full).

Every time I've ever plugged the CTEK up to the Prius it has said mid and implies it needs a charge. I'm assuming it'll behave the same with the Leaf but I'm sure not going to plug it up any more frequently than I have to.

On the Prius the 12v battery could get below 11v and everything was still stable. In fact once you got it into gear the brakes are guaranteed to work fine because of the supercap for the breaking system. The only possible downside is not being able to ready up and put it into gear leaving you stuck at home/work/parking lot/wherever you parked.

Sounds like the Leaf doesn't have as good of a break aux power supply (weaker or no supercap) so maybe I'll charge the battery on the Leaf more often but I still don't think I'd get down to plugging it up every night. If I had to do it more than once a month I'd be looking at replacing the battery.

 

[rusang]

What I found useful was the following sequence:

1. Start the car when pressing on the brake.
2. Remove the foot from the brake
3. Change gear to D or R and go.

This always worked. In addition I got the battery replaced of my leaf. So far I am trouble free.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I have a lead acid jump box. it recommends a charge up once a month for long term storage. They generally sit for 8 months at a time at my house since I use them for camping a lot and that is the few Summer months only. They last me 6-7 years like that

 

[Reddy]

Reg, thanks for the graph. I wish I'd seen that back in 2012. I finally took Phil's advice and bought the CTEK battery maintainer. Now I hook it up every night to the Leaf and then switch it over to the IEC in the morning. It's a pain, but it does the job and keeps both batteries above 13 V.

every night?

Naw, I got tired of that pretty quick. I now do it a couple of times a month. Still it's amazing how long it takes to "fill" the Leaf PbA battery while my 1992 ICE only takes a few minutes to top up and I hardly drive it. No vampire drain I suppose.

 

[terrif]

I had a similar incident happen to me that caused me to hit a brick wall. Are there any class action lawsuits out there addressing this?