Something in my charging system just died (2011)

[defiancecp]

So almost made 2 years trouble free (a bit over 22 months!) but it was not to be . Friday my leaf decided it did not wish to charge.

Details: When the car is plugged in the normal (thunk) noise and beep are heard (all as normal), but the blue dash lights never come on (not normal). Watching my Aerovironment charger it blinks to charging for an extremely brief moment, then turns back to ready. Intermittently if I turn the car on after this it sometimes has the orange "car-exclamation" error code, but turning the car off and back on again will remove that code. Additionally if the car is left on it will beep as if charging is attempting to start intermittently - not sure how long between, but I'd guess 15 or 30 minutes.

There was a storm mid-day Thursday here. It was minor, of the sort we get quite regularly in this area; I would not have expected it to create a problem with the car. No other problems with electronics was experienced - so if the storm is a contributor it would indicate some very weak surge protection built into the charging circuitry and/or AV EVSE, which would be quite disappointing.

Local Nissan dealer's got me a rogue to drive for now - they took the car in Friday but haven't yet given me any progress updates (got impatient about 3 and they just said they'd call me back).

Anyway if anyone has had similar experience I'm quite interested (didn't see any quite the same on a quick search), and either way just putting it here for anyone who may deal with similar in the future.

 

[TimLee]

My first Blink EVSE acted a bit strange 2 or 3 times and would not charge.
Every time unplugging it and plugging it back in after 5 minutes got it to reset and it worked.
Did you try that with the AV?

 

[braineo]

I had similar issues and fixed them by re-setting the charging timers.

I had turned them all off but somehow the charger never got the message. Happened with my Blink and my Nissan charger and at work.

It would start charging and stop withn a few minutes. called Blink and they send me the baffling logs.

When I finally changed the timers to charge from 11 p.m. until 7 p.m. every day - it stopped having problems.

Only encountered an issue when going for dinner and trying to charge after 6:30 p.m. - charging stopped at 7 p.m. wihtout a 100% charge. Made it home OK that night.

 

[defiancecp]

This isnt a timer or evse issue. Timer is set and active, manual charge start button has no effect, same with dealership evse.

 

[z0ner]

It sounds to me like it could be a diode failure on the OBC. The included Panasonic EVSE will continue to charge, but the AV and several other commerical EVSEs will refuse (they check for diode failure).

Since the car is at the dealership you can't rightly try the Panasonic test, but I'm sure their LEAF experts have arrived to that conclusion.

AFAIK there have been a few with this problem and they've had to get a complete OBC replacement.

Please report back and let us know the outcome.

 

[defiancecp]

Will do. I'd have tested the panasonic evse myself, but it just so happens I sent it off for upgrade - after nearly two years of it sitting in the back of the car - the day before the issue. grand timing eh? So far their leaf experts seem to have determined nothing - I called just before 5 today and was told they'd "been working on it" but they still weren't sure what was wrong. Not overly comforting... but I'm sure they'll get it, they're probably just taking their time being careful with it... I believe there are 3-4 leafs total in central Arkansas, so they probably haven't actually worked on one any more in-depth than software updates and battery checks.

 

[defiancecp]

Dealership just called, said they've got a conference call with Nissan techs and wanted to go over charging habits, what charger I was using, and when I last successfully charged (Wednesday night). Little disappointed that at 2pm on the third full weekday they've had it (handed it over about 8:30 AM friday) they still have no idea... While it's true that they couldn't have done anything Friday since they don't have a "leaf tech" that day, that really just adds to my disappointment. Anyway, I mentioned what others here said about some cars with similar issues able to charge on the 110, and that representing a charger module diode failure ... I'm sure he thought I was full of it, though he was quite polite about it

We'll see how things turn out... hopefully however it is, it's soon though.

Finally managed to find some other threads about similar issues (man, search on this site can be tricky...), and lots of mentions of the onboard charger being backordered ... Anybody know if that's still the case? Man I hope not, but it sounds like I'm about to find out....

 

[gbarry42]

I understand the OP has an Aeovironment charge station, but I'm going for completeness.

The Blink's timer can be overridden right there on the home screen where it tells you how long before it will charge.
The LEAF's timer can be overridden by pressing the "Timer off" button.

The "damaged by EVSE" concept arose from the several occurrences when using the GE WattStation. Although the most common, I don't know that it's limited to the GE unit. I also don't know if the root cause has been determined. But the trigger event seems to be a power failure, not a power surge. There's a possibility this is what happened to you. Not that I can explain why.

The giveaway clue for the diode is that the Panasonic EVSE will charge, while the Blink won't. Unfortunately (I guess) the Aerovironment unit is in the "doesn't check" group--that means it will still charge even if the diode is blown. This often figures into the story because the Nissan dealer will demonstrate that it "works on their charge station, so there must not be anything wrong". Since you have the AV unit, it will probably not be the diode.

In the end, whether it's the diode or the on board charger, it's the charger that gets replaced, so you suffer the downtime either way. The one plus for the diode is the possibility that you could keep your car and slow charge it, while the parts are on order. It's just stupid to have to leave the car sit while waiting for parts.

Maybe, just maybe, now that there's a production facility in Kentucky, the parts could be more available.

 

[LookoutLeaf]

I had almost same problem (I posted at "2013 S won't charge") 6 days ago.
Thanks to GBARRY42 I took the car to the dealership who never accepted that something wrong with the car because it charged at the dealership .
Until I contacted Nissanusa.com, also, the Blink engineer talked to the dealership the diode was tested and it was bad. They ordered the part and I'll be back to have it replaced in couple days

 

[CAC]

Bought my 2013 Leaf 10 days ago. Have 700 miles on it and it does the same thing as yours. The dealer has informed me they have diagnosed the problem to a power delivery module. They do not have an estimate on the time to repair the car yet. I'm not to happy with this happening so soon after buying a new car.

 

[z0ner]

Bought my 2013 Leaf 10 days ago. Have 700 miles on it and it does the same thing as yours. The dealer has informed me they have diagnosed the problem to a power delivery module. They do not have an estimate on the time to repair the car yet. I'm not to happy with this happening so soon after buying a new car.

I wouldn't be either, but the technology is still relatively new. At least you won't run into the air-conditioner-turns-the-LEAF-into-a-paperweight bug

 

[defiancecp]

*sigh* almost a full week it's been there, and they "think they may have a diagnosis" today. .... .... wow.

I almost turned down the loaner they offered, thinking I could get around using alternative methods for a little while right? Glad I decided to go ahead and get it just in case.

 

[defiancecp]

Holy crap.
Kinda in shock right now.

Apparently the Little Rock spent a full week trying to figure it out, gave up, and shipped it to hot springs. So my car is en route to a dealership ~60 miles away so we can start the process over.

WTF?

...........

 

[defiancecp]

trying not to get mad every time they call me to ask for some inane detail like the serial number of my AV Nissan-branded charging station, charging habits, and now detailed pics of the EVSE and installation. WTF people, just fix the damn car! Happy to help you track down the cause and all that, sure - but this seems more to me like they're grasping for something external to blame.

 

[defiancecp]

Quick update - So the Hot Springs Nissan dealership got my car sometime mid-day Friday, and by 5 they had called to let me know that the problem was identified (onboard charging module, as I'd kinda expected) and the new part was on the way, with hopes that it would be there Monday. That turned out to be an aggressive estimate since they're still waiting on it. Still, I knew from other threads that part was relatively hard to get, so this delay makes quite a bit more sense to me than the week of "Well, we're trying to figure it out..." I got from Little Rock.

So if any of you are in Arkansas and ever need service, may just want to look straight to Hot Springs...

Meanwhile I spent 4 days in Seattle this weekend. Got to see my first wild (as in on the road and not mine) leaf! and second...third.........seventh.... Man, you PNW guys got them all over the place

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Quick update - So the Hot Springs Nissan dealership got my car sometime mid-day Friday, and by 5 they had called to let me know that the problem was identified (onboard charging module, as I'd kinda expected) and the new part was on the way, with hopes that it would be there Monday. That turned out to be an aggressive estimate since they're still waiting on it. Still, I knew from other threads that part was relatively hard to get, so this delay makes quite a bit more sense to me than the week of "Well, we're trying to figure it out..." I got from Little Rock.

So if any of you are in Arkansas and ever need service, may just want to look straight to Hot Springs...

Meanwhile I spent 4 days in Seattle this weekend. Got to see my first wild (as in on the road and not mine) leaf! and second...third.........seventh.... Man, you PNW guys got them all over the place

glad to hear you are getting "some" progress. as far as LEAFs in Seattle, we got a few. LEAF was #1 sales for Nissan for all brands in March and betting that will continue in April. should find out latter today

 

[defiancecp]

Apparently I spoke too soon. They just called to say they're "having calls with the engineers" trying to figure out the issue. No ETA, not even a definitive diagnosis. *sigh*.

 

[EdmondLeaf]

Sorry about your problems, and all the EVSE explanation you have to do. Is under warranty and they have to fix it.

 

[defiancecp]

Well, as far as the EVSE thing goes, I sent them high-res pics from a bunch of different angles including the evse, showing the label with serial number, showing the installation and fuse box (it's right beside the box), etc., and that seems to have resolved those questions.

In the meantime I just got a job offer today and will be moving to Seattle in ~4 weeks-ish. I'd normally not be worried about this running that long, but at this point who knows...

 

[defiancecp]

Got it back! Yay! Surprise- it was the onboard charging module