Dead Car, Master Yellow Light On

Apologies if this has been asked before. I tried taking my 2011 Leaf (mine since April 2014) out this afternoon, only to find it completely dead. Symptoms:

-No response from fob, no beeping when I press the lock/unlock button on the door handle.
-Nothing happens when I press the start button, even when I hold the fob to the button (tried with spare fob, too).
-The Master Yellow Warning Light is on continuously, but I see no other indicator lights.
-When I plug in the charger, nothing happens.
-Car was fully charged as of 24 hours prior to my finding it dead, during that time it remained unplugged.

Maybe the 12v is dead? I tried jumping with nearby gas car (but only for a minute -- should I leave the batteries connected for longer?) and nothing changed.

Any help would be much appreciated. This is the first problem I've had with an otherwise wonderful car.

Can you measure the voltage of the 12 volt battery?

The accessory (12 volt) battery is the likely cause. Do a gentle 10 minute 'jump charge' and try again.

Slightly off topic but related -
If the car is indeed dead due to 12v battery being too low, how much of a "jump" really should be needed? What I mean is that with an ICE I believe you have to boost the battery enough to get the cranking amps, but with the Leaf does it really require a very high charge/significant amp pull to start up?

Could one boost the car into running with just about any 12v source (perhaps pull the dead battery out of the circuit first)?

http://www.amazon.com/PowerAll-PBJS12000R-Rosso-Portable-Starter/dp/B00D42AFS8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407769590&sr=8-1&keywords=car+jump+starter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Slow1 said:

Slightly off topic but related -
If the car is indeed dead due to 12v battery being too low, how much of a "jump" really should be needed? What I mean is that with an ICE I believe you have to boost the battery enough to get the cranking amps, but with the Leaf does it really require a very high charge/significant amp pull to start up?

Could one boost the car into running with just about any 12v source (perhaps pull the dead battery out of the circuit first)?

Click to expand...

You don't need anywhere near the CCA that an ICE uses but you do need >10 Amps briefly to get the HV relay to engage (Using D cells to jump start).

There was a thread here that said you can't jump the Leaf like other cars. You'll do more damage.

Your not supposed to use one if the battery terminals. I can't remember exactly.

Search YouTube for jump start leaf. There's a guy showing it being done with his black Chevy impala



I'd take out the 12V battery and charge it up with an outboard battery charger.

Lasareath said:

There was a thread here that said you can't jump the Leaf like other cars. You'll do more damage.

Your not supposed to use one if the battery terminals. I can't remember exactly.

Click to expand...

Just make sure you don't jump the LEAF (or use the LEAF to jump another car) using the negative battery terminal.

Instead connect the negative to one of the big ground wires on top the inverter (at least on '11-12 LEAFs).

drees said:

Lasareath said:

There was a thread here that said you can't jump the Leaf like other cars. You'll do more damage.

Your not supposed to use one if the battery terminals. I can't remember exactly.

Click to expand...

Just make sure you don't jump the LEAF (or use the LEAF to jump another car) using the negative battery terminal.

Instead connect the negative to one of the big ground wires on top the inverter (at least on '11-12 LEAFs).

Click to expand...

+1---what drees said is correct.

drees said:

Lasareath said:

There was a thread here that said you can't jump the Leaf like other cars. You'll do more damage.

Your not supposed to use one if the battery terminals. I can't remember exactly.

Click to expand...

Just make sure you don't jump the LEAF (or use the LEAF to jump another car) using the negative battery terminal.

Instead connect the negative to one of the big ground wires on top the inverter (at least on '11-12 LEAFs).

Click to expand...

Why? I have read this, but never an explanation.

Connecting to the battery terminals seems safest for the leaf, in that no current flows through any other part of the leaf from the jumping/charging activity.

For years, the standard jumping instructions have been:
1) Connect positive to positive terminals.
2) Connect frame to frame (not at the battery) for the negative connection.
This is because lead-acid batteries give off hydrogen (and have some inside the tops of the cells). Hydrogen is rather explosive, and easily ignited. Exploding the top of the battery is hard on the person making the connection, and hard on the car it was in. Thus, you make the last connection (and first disconnection) away from the battery, so any small spark will be away from the hydrogen. Note that this has nothing to do with the electrical system of either vehicle.

So, does anyone have a good explanation of what damage (other than possibly exploded battery) this might cause?

There is a voltage or current sensor at the negative battery terminal that might be damaged.

^^^
Sounds right.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=375409#p375409" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. alanlarson might also want to read from the beginning of the thread, focusing on posts by Ingineer.

Also see http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=182295#p182295" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and Google for site:mynissanleaf.com current sensor negative ingineer (NOT engineer).

Indeed, Ingineer makes he same point I made about making the possibly sparking connecion away from the battery.

I do believe someone got it wrong, claiming that the hydrogen would be around the discharged battery - hydrogen comes from a CHARGING lead-acid battery, so the running donor car would be likely to have more around.

However, I don't see an advantage of running potentially very large currents through a current sensor on the negative lead - it seems safer for the leaf to have external load/source connected to the battery terminals - that way all the current to/from the other car (or external charger such as a battery maintainer) will flow only to the battery and not through the current sensor.

(This does not change the requirement that for jumping, the final connection should be made away from the batteries.)

Note: EVs with NiCad traction batteries measure the current used and the current put back into the battery for their bulk charge phase. Lead-acid charging is generally not done that way, so the leaf knowing how much current was added or removed from the lead-acid battery should not matte, it just needs to put 13.x volts on the terminals and wait.