HELP! Direct Hit with a Lighning Strike Today While Charging

My house received a direct lightning strike today while Leaf was actively charging. :shock:

PLUGZIN was charging level II from an aeronvironment charger.

The strike blew out lots of things in the house, tripped every GFI breaker I had, and blew out some surge strips.

I just discovered, by way of LeafLink, that my charging status is 19%, exactly what it was when I plugged it in at noon.

I went out and checked into it, and while all the "normal" lights are lit on the EVSE, I get no vehicle connected indication, and obviously no charging indication.

I pulled out the level I EVSE, and got the same results.

Little red car lit up on dashboard, no blue lights in windscreen.

No Beep BeepBeep Click when I plug in.

I have the service manual, but it's not much use in this area as it wants me to read all the service codes with a DTC I don't have.

I figure there must be some fuses in line with that charging plug, and I'd love to find and check them before I go crawling to the dealer like a Nube tomorrow.

Any Ideas?

Thanks

You might try disconnecting the 12V battery for a while to see if it clears any faults.

The wiki has some explanation and links: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Warning_lights_leading_to_LEAF_that_won%27t_run#disconnect_12v" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Even better: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3964" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I don't recall hearing about any fuses in the line. If they exist at all, they are probably deep inside the charger.

All of the failures I've heard about don't involve the big heavy current wiring; rather, the control lines and sensors are what get damaged (the pilot signal and all that). And I think the car sensing "plugged in" (the light on the dash) is just a jumper wire inside the J1772 plug.

But, power up the car, and double-check that you have the two bars that LeafLink says you have--and that the car actually comes up to Ready.

If you were actively charging when lightening struck, then my suspicions are that something got blown out in the car. And, I would just leave it to the dealer to take care of it under warranty. Your AV EVSE may also have blown out. But because your L1 EVSE (which was not connected to the car) also does not work to get the car charging, I'm thinking the surge in electricity also damaged the car.

I had something similar happen when a fallen tree caused a surge in house electricity and blew out many of the home appliances and other equipment. My L1 EVSE was plugged into the outlet and LEAF but had NOT started charging because it was still waiting for the timer to kick in. Anyways, that electrical surge blew out my L1 EVSE. But fortunately, my LEAF checked out with no problems at the dealer. It operated without any problem as soon as it was charged up on another EVSE.

Now I feel a little more justified in disconnecting my Leaf and Volt during thunderstorms. Good to know I haven't been wasting my time.

Disconnect the negative battery terminal for a bit and reset the car, be sure it resets. There is a charge fault code and it may need to be cleared. If you have positively reset any codes and the car will not charge then you likely blew something in the charger, there is no fuse.

It would pay to have the extended warranty if you like in thunderstorm alley, Tampa to Orlando in Florida.

There are entire home surge protectors and some homeowner insurance covers damage.

This may be of no consolation, but the first lightning strike badge may be yours... I seem to recall seeing some nissan test footage of the car being struck by lightning during charging, but not likely that the charge cable was lightning energized to the on board charger. Sorry for the grief you are going through, but please report back how it resolves. This hazard is something I had not thought about...

adric22 said:

Now I feel a little more justified in disconnecting my Leaf and Volt during thunderstorms. Good to know I haven't been wasting my time.

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1+

First Update
9/5/2012

Took it to the Dealer First thing this morning.
At my request, they lent me their Demo Leaf.
(Loughead Nissan, Swarthmore, PA. Nice people)

They had it all day.
They Called a little while ago, and said "NO codes came up"?
They "Let Nissan factory hook to it, and they had full connectivity, but they were unable to ID the problem either".

So, the good news is at least I'm driving a Leaf.
I'm Missing my Leather seats, etc. though

If it were a "regular Car" with quick parts availability, I'd just start at the J1772 and work towards the charger until it works, but that's not going to happen.

Maybe I AM the first lightning strike.

Oh, I HAD whole house surge supressors on my panels; Main and 3 subs. 8 "Cans" Total; 1 per phase per panel.

7 out of 8 were physically destroyed.

Ouch!

I'll keep you posted

At least now you can test your L2 with the loaner to see if that is okay. Good luck and thanks for keeping us posted.

KillaWhat: I am an electrical engineer and I am very interested in what manufacturer TVSS you had in your house that apparently failed as a result of the lightning strike. I have a commercial TVSS to protect my PV inverter and other electronics (incl. EVSE charger).

Just curious - besides the lightning protection devices you had in your service panel - what other kinds of lightning protection do you have?

Do you have any properly grounded lightning rods? From what I understand, properly grounded lighting rods are essential to surviving direct lightning strikes with minimal damage.

Bummer!

JimSouCal said:

This may be of no consolation, but the first lightning strike badge may be yours... I seem to recall seeing some nissan test footage of the car being struck by lightning during charging, but not likely that the charge cable was lightning energized to the on board charger. Sorry for the grief you are going through, but please report back how it resolves. This hazard is something I had not thought about...

Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxL4LVgdP7E" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (skip to the 2:50 mark), thanks to http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2961" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

I'm no EE nor weather expert (not even a novice), but from what I understand, but from a Mythbusters ep I saw before (found someone's annotations at http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2005/03/mythbusters_son_of_a_gun_showe.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false, man-made simulated lightning is nowhere near as powerful as real lightning.

Maybe the problem was that it was a "thunder" test. (Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it was a translation issue.)

OK This is update 2(a).

I'll answer some of your questions when I can, but here is the status of PLUGZIN.

Day 2, about 3:30 pm here.

Went by the dealer, for a face to face "just stopping by" talk. I get better results this way.

As far as the dealer is concerned, their status is "waiting for a call back from Nissan to tell them what to do".

Oh..... that is sooo not the answer I wanted to hear.

So I went in the back and got to talk directly with the Tech working on the car.

Nice guy, but he had only 1 day of Leaf training, and access to that amazingly hard to understand service manual.

I quickly discovered that he had no idea how the charging system works.
So, In my best teachers voice, I explained the whole deal.
He had never heard of the pilot signal, or how the EVSE is told to close the contactor when the car signals it's readiness to charge, etc.
I think they thought it was just a simple plug in.

By this time, with the car naked and the charger cover removed, I had an audience, including the service manager.
He actually asked me what I thought we should do next.
(This impressed me. Most would never admit they didn't know more than everyone)

Here is my question for anyone who knows more about this than I do. Ingineer??
The harness from the J1772 seems to run directly to a gray "module" about 5"x5" that sits dead center in the charger area.
(silver heat sinked Charger on the passenger side, black enclosure ??? about 10"X10" on the driver side.)

So, I'm assuming this gray module is the charger controller.
Pilot signal circuitry and switching relays?
(Anybody confirm this? and have a part number?)

I would think that the pilot signal circuitry would be the most fragile component in the path to the charger.
I suggested that they quickly switch this part out, and see if it solved the problem.
Looked like a 15 minute job (It's just a module with plugs?)

This amused them.
THEY can't do anything involving warranty work unless pre-approved by Nissan.
I suggested that we pull one off the loaner I was driving, and just sort of ...swap it out, and see if that would take care of it.
(You would have thought I pooped on the floor. This was apparently not an option)

So, as a final suggestion, I asked if, rather than passively waiting for "Nissan" to "call us back", could we sort of kick the "swap the part out and see if that solves the problem" idea up the pipeline and see if we "get permission" to do that.

I guess I will have to see what they do next.

The sales manager got involved at one point, and he "handled" me.
"At least I have another Leaf to drive if this turns into an EXTENDED REPAIR".
There's a scary term.

I'll keep you posted.

PS: My son thinks I should pull the module off my loaner, take it over, and say "I over-nighted one in from California; stick it in and see if it works"
I'm so proud :roll: :roll:

KillaWhat said:

...
PS: My son thinks I should pull the module off my loaner, take it over, and say "I over-nighted one in from California; stick it in and see if it works"
I'm so proud :roll: :roll:

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attaboy!

In my case, I received a call the next day from Nissan Engineer TCM(?) Bill Grossi (maybe based in southern California, but I got the impression he was responsible for North America). Very concerned, wanted to be sure he understood what caused the electrical problem. Sorry, I looked through my paperwork but could not find his phone number. Maybe there is some kind of Nissan directory.

So does your at-home L2 EVSE work okay with your loaner LEAF? Does your L1 EVSE work okay on the loaner?

So does your at-home L2 EVSE work okay with your loaner LEAF? Does your L1 EVSE work okay on the loaner?

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Yes, The AV L2 EVSE works perfectly with the loaner.

Didn't check the L1.
It was in it's bag in the "trunk" at the time of the hit.

Thanks

So there was no damage to the AV EVSE from the lightning strike? Damn good advertisement for AV products then.