The Shifter Wouldn't Set My Leaf in Drive, Neutral nor

Reverse. I valeted my Leaf for a week while on a business trip to get it charged and washed. Upon return, the car started properly but the shifter wouldn't move out of Park! For the Leaf S LCD display, I get indication 15 "Check Position of Shift Lever".

The car has been towed home and I'll tow it to the local Nissan for diagnostics and repair. Will let you know what was the root cause; I suspect a disconnection between the shifter and interface wire assembly during original build was the cause. Very sad to see the car towed!!

Check the charge on the 12V battery. There have been many problems caused by low voltage from bad batteries.

Woosie said:

Reverse. I valeted my Leaf for a week while on a business trip to get it charged and washed. Upon return, the car started properly but the shifter wouldn't move out of Park! For the Leaf S LCD display, I get indication 15 "Check Position of Shift Lever".

The car has been towed home and I'll tow it to the local Nissan for diagnostics and repair. Will let you know what was the root cause; I suspect a disconnection between the shifter and interface wire assembly during original build was the cause. Very sad to see the car towed!!

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91040 said:

Check the charge on the 12V battery. There have been many problems caused by low voltage from bad batteries.

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If the valet left it plugged in the whole week, that could have contributed to a battery problem.

According to the Nossan technician, one of the three shifter contacts broke so I never could complete a fwd, neutral or reverse circuit. A new part is being shipped fron No Carolina so I'm driving a Versa Note as a loaner...it drives very nicely. Surprising actually!

Woosie said:

According to the Nossan technician, one of the three shifter contacts broke so I never could complete a fwd, neutral or reverse circuit. A new part is being shipped fron No Carolina

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Well this is not good news. I find that I am "shifting" mine all the time when driving like its some manual transmission car since the S does not have B mode- just Eco. I generally (but not always) like the drag on the car in Eco (hardly touch the brakes), but not so much the reduced power for acceleration. So I have to "simulate" B mode. Maybe I need to stock-up on this part. I wonder what it costs?

jpadc said:

I generally (but not always) like the drag on the car in Eco (hardly touch the brakes), but not so much the reduced power for acceleration.

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There is no reduction in power in Eco. The only difference is the pedal mapping. If you floor it in Eco, it's every bit as powerful as flooring it in D. Eco gives you more control over lower-power adjustments.

This seems a little odd... The shifter is a Hall Effect device and there are no moving contacts nor any mechanical components beyond the physical knob... Perhaps a contact broke off of the Hall Effect sensor itself...

Woosie said:

According to the Nossan technician, one of the three shifter contacts broke so I never could complete a fwd, neutral or reverse circuit. A new part is being shipped fron No Carolina so I'm driving a Versa Note as a loaner...it drives very nicely. Surprising actually!

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Tom, that's what the technician said. I'm an engineer and know how Hall Effect sensors work. This sounds like it was a bad part.

I'd love to get my hands on the part to do some failure analysis but that's unlikely. At least the plastic cover is being replaced...my new pup took a quick chew on the cover as she was teething so that portion will be good as new.

I chalk up the failure as random, for now.

Woosie said:

Tom, that's what the technician said. I'm an engineer and know how Hall Effect sensors work. This sounds like it was a bad part.

I'd love to get my hands on the part to do some failure analysis but that's unlikely. At least the plastic cover is being replaced...my new pup took a quick chew on the cover as she was teething so that portion will be good as new.

I chalk up the failure as random, for now.

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Ah, ha! I'm going to blame dog drool. :lol:

This is what the inside gubbins of the shifter mechanism looks like (the white box looking thing):



The shift knob itself is simply attached to a shaft that sits in that "cup" you see to the left of the mechanism. Like the tiller of some boats, you move the shift knob to the left and that "plate" (for want of a better word) with the "cup" in it moves to the right; move the knob forward and the plate moves backward, etc... I haven't taken it apart any further than this, but since there is a substantial electrical connector on the underside of the box, I would suspect there is a circuit board inside and that the contacts you speak of are on the reverse side of the plate. I too have a hard time imagine how one could go bad, unless there was corrosion caused by some kind of viscous liquid.