Air conditioning issue

Was wondering if anyone is having an A/C problem. Can not seem to get our Leaf cooled down to a comfortable temperture.

Can you give any details? How long you were driving? Where you in ECO mode? What was the outside temp? What was the thermostat set to? Humidity?

Otherwise, all I can tell you is that it works fine for me.

davewill said:

Can you give any details? How long you were driving? Where you in ECO mode?

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pardon my ignorance and I apologize if this is covered in a faq somewhere but does running the car in ECO affect the A/C ?

apvbguy said:

davewill said:

Can you give any details? How long you were driving? Where you in ECO mode?

Click to expand...

pardon my ignorance and I apologize if this is covered in a faq somewhere but does running the car in ECO affect the A/C ?

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Yes it does. One of the ways that ECO makes the car run more efficiently is that it sets the AC to a lower power setting.

Boomer23 said:

apvbguy said:

davewill said:

Can you give any details? How long you were driving? Where you in ECO mode?

Click to expand...

pardon my ignorance and I apologize if this is covered in a faq somewhere but does running the car in ECO affect the A/C ?

Click to expand...

Yes it does. One of the ways that ECO makes the car run more efficiently is that it sets the AC to a lower power setting.

Click to expand...

interesting, as it gets warmer I will note the differences

I've had my car a week and a half and the first 80+ degree day we've had was yesterday.
Maybe the AC is weak but it didn't seem to blow anything resembling cold air. After several minutes of fiddling with it I opened a window.

Is there a fuse or something simple I can check? Taking it in for service is a royal hassle since I don't have a Nissan dealer near me.

A/C on my '12 is almost too cold. When we set the thermostat to 76 it gets too cold and we usually bump it up to 78 if we're in the car for a long time.

I'm on of those (possibly rare) people that like using AUTO mode and let the car figure out fan speed, output vents, etc. Except when I need to defog the window, I find I agree with its strategy.

I know this doesn't help the OP other than being another data point.

ggulik said:

I've had my car a week and a half and the first 80+ degree day we've had was yesterday.
Maybe the AC is weak but it didn't seem to blow anything resembling cold air. After several minutes of fiddling with it I opened a window.

Is there a fuse or something simple I can check? Taking it in for service is a royal hassle since I don't have a Nissan dealer near me.

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I think a service call might be in order. If the fan is blowing air but it is not cooling there could be a larger issue than a bad fuse.

You can pretty easily check if the compressor is running. Just look at the energy monitor screen and see if the climate control is using any power. Of course, just because the compressor is running doesn't mean it is working, but its a start.

I did that and turning the AC on and off made no noticeable different on the energy monitor screen.

ggulik said:

I did that and turning the AC on and off made no noticeable different on the energy monitor screen.

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Just to make sure, try setting temperature to 70 F and put the HVAC system in AUTO. Drive the car at least 20 mi/hr in D (not ECO). There are some optional settings (at least for 2011 and 2012 models) that the dealer can set that reduce the cooling when the car is sitting still or moving slowly. If the A/C works OK while driving in D, you may need to complain to the dealer.

Gerry

You might also want to seak help if the A/C does NOT work
while driving in D. Possibly one of your control is set incorrectly?

A/C on, recirculate, temp set to 60 degrees, fan going,
should cool you well after just a minute or so.

IIRC the a/c compressor won't actually chill the air if the ambient air temp is lower than the temp setting on the CC. Best way to test any CC issue imho is to plug into EVSE and activate CC in CarWings. This should take all the variables of D vs ECO etc out of the way. What is the result after 10 minutes? What is the energy consumption listed in CW? For example when I had A/C running a couple days ago when it was 80*F outside, CC set to 60*F inside and on lowest fan setting the energy draw was approximately .3 kWh.

Previous posts for A/C best performance suggested setting the temp to the lowest setting and the fan to the lowest setting. I found this works wonderfully for me in a windows up environment when ambient air temp is below 90-95*F. Above that I have to kick up the fan speed but rarely above 3 clicks.

Yes, in my 2011 LEAF, I am quite pleased
with the performance of the air cooling system.

Ok, did some tests this morning. It was low 70's outside, I turned the AC to Auto and cranked it down to 60 degrees. The fan turned up but in the 10 minute drive it never got colder than ambient and the energy monitor screen showed nothing for the climate control.

Looks like a trip to the dealer is not avoidable.

ggulik said:

Looks like a trip to the dealer is not avoidable.

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Here's hoping your AC compressor is simply unplugged. We've seen a few assembly hiccups so far.

FWIW, I'm a licensed (building) AC contractor...

I don't have experience with Leaf AC, but every car AC I've measured / tinkered with has managed to blow 38-45*F air from vents in recirc mode, 45-50 in fresh air mode if working properly. YMMV, obviously, particularly on a 120*F parking lot in Phoenix.

A $15 digital meat thermometer from Walmart should suffice to tell quite quickly (<30 seconds) if the system is cooling reasonably. Sounds to me as if OP's compressor is not running. Speaking generally, could be control / wiring issue, loss of charge, or loss of airflow across condenser.

ggulik said:

I did that and turning the AC on and off made no noticeable different on the energy monitor screen.

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You have a problem: take it to the dealer. My A/C (2011) is so cold I have to turn it down.

Got the car back yesterday finally. Turns out there was a problem during assembly where the valve used to fill with refrigerant was leaking. At first they thought it was just loose but turns out there was a defective o-ring. It's in the 40's here in Chicago today but 80's are expected again next week so I'll have to wait until then to really test it.

It took a long time because apparently the Leaf uses a different refrigerant than all other Nissans and they had to have some machine serviced before they could refill the Leaf.

ggulik said:

It took a long time because apparently the Leaf uses a different refrigerant than all other Nissans and they had to have some machine serviced before they could refill the Leaf.

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Even Nissan has special parts/processes for repairing a Nissan! I hope I never have to use it, but I'm glad I bought an extended warranty for my Leaf. :shock:
Glad you got your A/C fixed.