Unable to Restart after using AC (was AC causes failure)

[Azrich]

The LEAF service mechanic at my dealer in Tucson found that my AC was undercharged. I was surprised because the AC had been working great - nice and cool - or maybe the level of AC charge has little to do with how cool it gets. I am no mechanic.

I was about 36 miles from my dealer riding in the cab of the flat bed tow truck with one grumpy driver. I hope not to do this again. I might go to the dealer again on Saturday and test it again.

 

[Stoaty]

they reset the fault codes on the car and it started, was an issue with HV bleeding according to the codes.

What is "HV bleeding"?

 

[LindaK]

Just found this thread...haven't even read it all, but my LEAF is now at the NISSAN dealer and I had the A/C on for the first time today. Got the "EV System Warning light" on and drove to where I could safely stop. Turned the car off, and back on ... light still on. TUrned the car off again- read some out of the manual, and decided to limp to the dealership. NOpe. Car is DEAD! Won't go into R or D. Call tow truck....

What a drag. My service guy just called and said that his regional manager said something about an over charged A/C system. So I may have the same problem as the OP.

I'll post again when we get this resolved!
LindaK

 

[palmermd]

My car has been fixed. The ac system was overcharged. It is supposed to be 0.9 and mine had 1.06. They flushed and refilled with new and then ran tests and determined it was fixed. I asked to also run one more test. I had them park the car in the sun for a while and then I turned on the ac with my iPhone while he was standing there and he verified it came on. Then we waited 15 minutes for the car to cool down and he tried to start the car. It worked perfect. So for now it seems the fix is to have the ac charge set to the proper level. I would think that they will also want to change the software so the ac won't leave a car stranded but will only kill the ac system. I'm not sure if that is possible or even on Nissans todo list but I would hope it is. I'm about 2 hours away and I'll be back for delivery 2.0.

 

[LindaK]

Hi all,

One more possibly related item. My NAV screen has often had a comment in the upper right corner saying "Turn on Climate control for -n miles", with 'n' being some single digit #. I have been ignoring it up until now, because I haven't used climate control at all on my car until today.

Have others seen this weird message?

 

[davewill]

Just found this thread...haven't even read it all, but my LEAF is now at the NISSAN dealer and I had the A/C on for the first time today. Got the "EV System Warning light" on and drove to where I could safely stop.

So, it looks like it also can happen when the car is moving.

 

[BrendanDolan]

Just found this thread...haven't even read it all, but my LEAF is now at the NISSAN dealer and I had the A/C on for the first time today. Got the "EV System Warning light" on and drove to where I could safely stop.

So, it looks like it also can happen when the car is moving.

The one I dealt with was moving when it happened.

 

[evnow]

One more possibly related item. My NAV screen has often had a comment in the upper right corner saying "Turn on Climate control for -n miles", with 'n' being some single digit #. I have been ignoring it up until now, because I haven't used climate control at all on my car until today.

Have others seen this weird message?

This just tells how much range the climate control will cost. If you switch the CC on, it will tell you how much range you will get back if the climate control is turned off.

Features, not a bug.

 

[evnow]

My car has been fixed. The ac system was overcharged. It is supposed to be 0.9 and mine had 1.06. They flushed and refilled with new and then ran tests and determined it was fixed.

So - this "overcharged" has nothing to do with battery charging ? What is this 0.9 & 1.06, anyway ?

 

[palmermd]

It's the amount of refrigerant that is put into the ac system. I don't think that anybody in the future has to worry about this issue. It is very high on Nissans radar and I don't know for sure but I believe that part of the pre-delivery checklist is now measuring the refrigerant charge in the ac system.

 

[garygid]

Note: Battery Post Size
The posts on the LEAF's battery seem to be some "small" size, not the "fat" old-standard lead-acid battery posts.
So, this shutoff (a great idea) might not fit.

... On a whim, I disconnected the 12 volt battery and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I then reconnected the battery and tried it again. Success! It once again operated completely normally.

Hmm, Ctrl-Alt-Delete for a Leaf. Maybe one of these...

Battery Disconnect

 

[Stoaty]

My car has been fixed. The ac system was overcharged. It is supposed to be 0.9 and mine had 1.06.

This seems like an amazingly poor design. Will the Leaf also shut down if some of the freon leaks out (usually happens over time) and the AC is undercharged? Agree that the Leaf should shut down the AC system, not the whole damn car. This is the first real problem I have seen that would give me pause about buying the Leaf if I was on the fence about buying. Of course, I still plan to take delivery in a few weeks :mrgreen:

 

[garygid]

"Charging" the A/C system means adding refrigerant to the normally-sealed cooling system.

Reducing from 1.6 to 0.9 (pounds?) of refrigerant might "fix" ONE part of the problem.

Did somebody say they had a similar problem with TOO LITTLE refrigerant in the A/C system?

Any system can develop a leak over time.

So, the more serious part of this problem is that the car refuses to "go", and "locks up" whenever that error is detected.

Nissan NEEDS to fix that as well.

 

[EVDRIVER]

they reset the fault codes on the car and it started, was an issue with HV bleeding according to the codes.

What is "HV bleeding"?

HIgh voltage, and there were no issues with my AC.

 

[evnow]

So, the more serious part of this problem is that the car refuses to "go", and "locks up" whenever that error is detected.

Nissan NEEDS to fix that as well.

I'm fairly sure they will fix that as well ... unless, the over/under charge is actually a potential risk while driving.

 

[LakeLeaf]

... On a whim, I disconnected the 12 volt battery and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I then reconnected the battery and tried it again. Success! It once again operated completely normally.

Hmm, Ctrl-Alt-Delete for a Leaf. Maybe one of these...

Battery Disconnect

Battery disconnect

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Century is no need for 80

Since there is not need for it ?

But funny that are arizona cards have not reported this earlier

the arizona cars?

Are you using voice to text? I've used it a bit and these seem to be similar to my results.

yes i was and i did edit the post. i was in my car when i "wrote" that. i have the font so large i can only see a half dozen words or so. normally i proof read a bit, but was driving...so ya know

not sure i want to disconnect the 12 volt lead. how much if any personal data was lost? radio stations, charging stations (remember in the Pac NW we still dont have automatic updates here yet)

 

[azdre]

Got my car back. Nissan told my tech the wrong spec the first time, so now at .91 and all seems good(1.13 lb=Fail, .99lb=fail,.91 lb= so far good at 90 degree temps). I'm a bit worried about what it will do at 110 degrees. So, sounds like the lbs of refrigerant needed will vary per climate and they must not have had that worked out until now.

I would suggest that folks have this checked out before getting stranded somewhere.

 

[garygid]

The getting stranded part MUST get fixed, or there will be a LOT of towing charges!

 

[Stoaty]

Got my car back. Nissan told my tech the wrong spec the first time, so now at .91 and all seems good(1.13 lb=Fail, .99lb=fail,.91 lb= so far good at 90 degree temps). I'm a bit worried about what it will do at 110 degrees. So, sounds like the lbs of refrigerant needed will vary per climate and they must not have had that worked out until now.

Did the tech tell you why overcharging the AC by 10% would cause the car to lock up? Does the AC have to work too hard and put a load on the battery that the firmware detects as abnormal?

Would the problem occur if the AC was undercharged? That is the biggest worry, since correcting an overcharge is a one time problem that won't recur by itself, but if freon slowly leaked out over a couple of years and the lack of freon caused the same problem it could crop up again unexpectedly at some point in the future.

We need more information to judge how much of a problem this might be down the line.