Has anyone experienced a hum/vibration noise on a 2013 LEAF?

We recently leased a second LEAF (2013 SV premium package). The first LEAF (2012) has 36K miles / 28 months on it, so both my wife & I are very familiar with how it drives, feels, sounds, etc.

However, from day one, the new LEAF (my wife is the primary driver) has exhibited a slight humming noise, maybe a relatively high frequency vibration. She says it sounds like a quiet version of when you run over the rumble strips at the side of the highway. I think it kind of sounds like a train whistle, or maybe the sound you'd get if you were running on knobby tires. It's not too awfully loud, but definitely noticeable, and for my wife that has experienced silent electric driving for the past 2 years, it's quite annoying.

It generally happens above 35mph (all the way up to highway speeds) when the car is slightly regenerating or slightly accelerating (we've watched the energy meter and it occurs in between -15 and +15 kW. It's not constant, so I can't imagine it's the tires or something like that. If you press the accelerator hard the noise will stop.

We've had it in 3 times to try to diagnose the problem. The tech has heard it. The salesperson has heard it. We've driven in another 2013 SV to verify that it doesn't make the sound (just in case it's something new with the 2013). So far they are stumped, so I wondered if anyone else has experienced anything similar and can share any ideas.

Thanks,

I would look in the CV joint/axle assembly, or a wheel bearing. Loading either part up with acceleration or braking would likely change or eliminate the vibration (sound).

I haven't spent any time at all with the braking system, so if it is there, I'd have no idea where to look. If it were my car, I'd ensure that one of the brake calipers isn't sticking, allowing a pad to vibrate.

For the past 3 months or so, I have noticed a hum upon slight acceleration ONLY from 25-30 mph, and it seems to do it only when first driving, going away within about 15 minutes of the drive. It almost sounds like a brake caliper is slightly dragging, making the rotor "sing" in a certain frequency. I haven't taken it in, don't have the time.

After consulting with the LEAF experts, the dealer's plan is to replace the "transmission". I'll keep you posted on how it works out.

my dome lights hum when they are on

DaveinOlyWA said:

my dome lights hum when they are on

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Ditto.

We, too have a 2012 and a 2013 LEAF and the 2012 is completely smooth and silent while the 2013 has a hum/vibration at highway speeds. Tires have been rebalanced with no change. I finally decided it's the change in the suspension (the 2013 is much firmer) but I'd be interested to hear what the outcome of replacing the "transmission" is. I'm also going to test drive another example to see if it does the same thing.

I'd probably have been more aggressive about fixing it if it were my car, but my wife drives it and it doesn't bother her. And it's only a two year lease anyway. I drive the 2012 and it's the most perfect car I have ever driven.

alcalira said:

We, too have a 2012 and a 2013 LEAF and the 2012 is completely smooth and silent while the 2013 has a hum/vibration at highway speeds. Tires have been rebalanced with no change. I finally decided it's the change in the suspension (the 2013 is much firmer) but I'd be interested to hear what the outcome of replacing the "transmission" is. I'm also going to test drive another example to see if it does the same thing.

I'd probably have been more aggressive about fixing it if it were my car, but my wife drives it and it doesn't bother her. And it's only a two year lease anyway. I drive the 2012 and it's the most perfect car I have ever driven.

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Well we got the car back and drove it for only 2 days before leaving on a week long vacation, so we don't have a full verdict yet (since hearing the noise is somewhat dependent on the weather conditions, i.e. not as audible during windy and rainy weather). But the preliminary verdict is that the problem is solved. The note on the repair order said something about an incorrect "bearing load", presumably on the reduction gear box (?)

I will say that there is still a very subtle humming noise still. Different than before (seems much quieter), and only when decelerating/regenerating, as opposed to the previous sound which also occurred under light acceleration. I think this is probably the normal sound of the motors in regenerative mode.

I think the conclusion is more or less that the "transmission" replacement fixed the issue. Now she hears the infamous ABS test sound that she swears wasn't happening before. I will say, it is pretty darn loud so it's not like we could've missed it before (and my LEAF never does that), but it is an unmistakable "sprong" noise, and only happens first thing in the morning after she backs out of the driveway, so it's surely it.

I noticed something similar yesterday, but not quite sure is it just a road noise due to the different asphalt surface noise characteristics. Will keep eye on it and see if it persist over smoother roads.

Sounds like a tube of frequency grease will fix it! :twisted:

I have a similar issue. The exception is that the service guy, the service manager and salespeople didn't hear it so I sounded like a crazy person.

I can't drive the Leaf anymore as this noise and vibration bothers me. I've loaned the car to a friend. Just waiting for the lease to be up. Probably won't lease another, probably not another Nissan either. This was my first and probably last.

My car makes an eerie noise like you're describing in extreme cold (below 0F), but I'm pretty sure it's the early signs of bad bearings, but I'm not convinced they are wheel bearings. I think it's coming from the motor or reduction gear, which would be incredibly costly to repair out of warranty.

I have a 2013 leaf and it makes the vibration humming from 45mph to 60mph. Am going to take it in and see what the mechanic says.

I think people can drive themselves crazy looking for a hum.... Especially if it is a lease, drive the car and forget about it.... You are renting the car.....

So I guess I never updated my story....here's how it played out....

Not for lack of trying, Nissan did attempt to fix my wife's issue. I think I left off when the first dealer replaced the reduction gear, and we pretty much accepted that was the solution at the time.

Nonetheless, the noise eventually re-occurred, at VERY specific speeds. At first it was in the high 60's mph, but eventually it started making a noise at a very specific 49mph. It would be silent at 48mph and 50mph, but noisy at 49mph. And it was getting louder. So we took it back to dealer A (where we leased from). They couldn't find anything, but in discussing with Nissan suggested that I call the support line and open an incident with them and perhaps get Nissan to send an engineer out to look at it.

So this is what I did. The first thing they wanted me to do was take it to a different dealer to get a second opinion. Which was fine by me since the other dealer was literally 5 minutes from my house. They too were told by Nissan that it was probably the reduction gear, so they replaced it again. This time it made no difference at all. (Keep in mind that each time they do this they have your car for almost 2 weeks by the time they get the part in and do the replacement!) So now that I had my second opinion, and they attempted a repair, and it did not solve the problem, I got Nissan to send an engineer out.

There were two issues with the engineer's visit. I had figured they would send a LEAF expert from the factory, but what we got was a guy from Virginia and ours was only the second LEAF he had ever been in The other issue is that the day he was here, it was raining pretty heavily and between the rain noise and tire noise from the tires, it masked the sound quite a bit. But not completely. And the engineer did hear it. They did quite a bit more testing with the car on the lift but weren't able to replicate the sound. His Hail Mary attempt was to replace the entire front axle assembly! Which happened. But which also made no difference.

So I cannot fault Nissan for not seriously trying to fix this. They certainly spent a lot of money on parts, labor, and bringing an engineer in to help diagnose this. But at that point I simply suggested to my incident manager that maybe we should just restart our lease with a fresh new vehicle. Well, they did even better than that. Basically they bought out our lease (and even gave us back payments to the point when we first reported the issue). This was far more fair than I expected. Now we were prepared to just get another LEAF lease, but really wanted the 30kWh option so we could make it to Charlotte with the car, but the release of that car was delayed in NC for several more months, and we basically had to surrender our car immediately. So we ended up going with a Volt.

To this day I suspect there was something in the motor itself that was resonating at very specific RPMs. Probably a loose part or something. But definitely in the motor because they replaced the rest of the drivetrain almost completely!

However, the story does not end there. Now we have to shift to MY LEAF (2012 SL). As I was getting close to 60K miles (and focused on my battery degradation--it was down 3 bars and getting close to losing its 4th), my LEAF starts making a noise. But this noise was different in the following ways:

• It happened only when under acceleration or deceleration, not while coasting.
• It was NOT at a specific speed. It was pretty much constant through the whole RPM range as long as it was under accel/decel.
• It was a purring, rather than humming, noise that increased with frequency as the RPMs went up.
• It started out barely audible but gradually got louder and louder over the months.

Finally as I crossed 60K miles it had become quite loud. Despite my earlier experience with false alarms with the reduction gear, listening to this noise and the symptoms, and knowing that Nissan, being quick to diagnose "noises" as a reduction gear issue, I felt pretty certain that that was the issue I was having.

However, given that I was so close to losing my 4th bar before hitting 60K miles, I didn't want to leave my car idle for 2 weeks while they ordered the part. I preferred to "take advantage" of the hot summer weather to cycle my battery through use and hopefully drop that 4th bar. And I hadn't realize that the reduction gear was still under warranty (until 60K miles). Once I crossed 60K miles (without losing the 4th bar--that dropped at 61,250), I took the car to my dealer to investigate the noise (at about 60,100 miles), only to discover at that point that I had just missed the warranty :x

So I had the reduction gear replaced (at my cost--it was about $2600!!!!! don't try to tell me that EVs don't have transmissions!) and opened an incident to get out of warranty relief. Which again, I did right by Nissan and they agreed to cover the full cost since I was just BARELY out of warranty, and I was able to convince them that the sound had started occurring at least several hundred miles prior.

Anyway, that was DEFINITELY the problem with my car. The noise went completely away. So the reduction gear issue IS real (just not with my wife's car).

And, as it turns out, Nissan offered a $10K group buy incentive on new LEAFs and I just couldn't pass that one by, so I now have that 30kWh LEAF and am able to make the trip to Charlotte in the LEAF--only having to use the Volt for our annual 1500 mile trip north.

Well that sounds just like the noise my 2013 Leaf started making about a week and a half ago. At first I thought it was a wheel bearing going out so I jacked up the front end checking passenger then drivers side and there was no evidence of a wheel bearing going out. Did not notice any odd tire wear. After putting tire and wheel back on the the hub I checked for play in the wheel and got a slight movement forward and backward of an equal distance. There was a sound coming from what sounded like the mid section of the motor/transmission unit. Same result on both sides. Car has 66k on it and zero battery loss as of September 02,2019. Sounds like I may get the short end of the stick as car is not under warranty and not a leased vehicle. I absolutely love the Leaf but in no way, shape or form can swing a repair bill of $2600. How long can the car be driven before that part goes out and I’m left with payments on a car I cannot use? Any thought or ideas or resolutions for this situation? Thanks for the time.

Nonetheless, the noise eventually re-occurred, at VERY specific speeds. At first it was in the high 60's mph, but eventually it started making a noise at a very specific 49mph. It would be silent at 48mph and 50mph, but noisy at 49mph.

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I had a similar issue with my '86 Civic Si. The noise was, inconveniently enough, at about 55MPH. The dealer replaced both front axles under an extended warranty I had purchased with the car, but then didn't road test the car. It was still making the noise and (slight) vibration. I got a cheap loaner from them, and they did finally diagnose it successfully: broken belts in the Michelin tires. I suspect that I may have caused it myself, by on several occasions getting the car up to 125MPH on a long, steep freeway downhill stretch. The tires were rated for, IIRC, 110MPH. I suggest you folks extend the search radius to the tires...

Good call. I did hit a curb and I may have damaged the tire. Too bad too because it was fairly new. Thanks. I’ll check into that as it’s less expensive than a transmission.