TPM Malfunction Take it to Dealer

I have Tires Low pressure lights on for almost a week, its freezing temp here in Chicago ( -9F). I check my Tire pressure is ~30psi.
But now the Car wont even Start and complains about TPM Malfunction take it to Dealer.

Since I cant even move my Car I can not put any Air in the tires. So should I towed it to Dealer or is their any other trick I can use to reset the TPM and at least move the car to the closest Air Fill Station.

This is Ridiculous for Leaf on board Computer to not let the car move even tire are at 30psi..

That doesn't sound right, there must be something else going on. Are you sure its not an issue with the 12 volt battery? Have you tried jumping it? Do you have LeafSpy to read any codes?

keydiver said:

That doesn't sound right, there must be something else going on. Are you sure its not an issue with the 12 volt battery? Have you tried jumping it? Do you have LeafSpy to read any codes?

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+1; You should be able to power up the car with 4 flat tires. Tire pressure has nothing to do with power-up. Charge up the 12V battery; or jump start it. -9F is brutal temperature, and has a negative effect on batteries. I used to live in the Chicago area. Best thing I ever did (40+ yrs. ago) was move.

I just observed that the Charger is not charging the Car, dont see any blue lights blinking on the dash board. Charger itself has Green light and looks good.
Car showing it can go 86 Miles saw an amber Car icon on the dash with a arrow going down. see all 12 bars but it shows 0 to 1 on right side of the Bars.

Cant put the car in D or R or N but all other stuff working inside the car like radio, Navigation, Menu and Console...

derkraut said:

keydiver said:

That doesn't sound right, there must be something else going on. Are you sure its not an issue with the 12 volt battery? Have you tried jumping it? Do you have LeafSpy to read any codes?

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+1; You should be able to power up the car with 4 flat tires. Tire pressure has nothing to do with power-up. Charge up the 12V battery; or jump start it. -9F is brutal temperature, and has a negative effect on batteries. I used to live in the Chicago area. Best thing I ever did (40+ yrs. ago) was move.

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Yep. I wouldn't be surprised if the 12 volt is too low.

I also doubt it has anything to do w/TPMS. The TPMS error is likely a red herring having to do w/the 12 volt bus voltage being too low, causing wonkiness. (Just like Priuses have all sorts of weird behavior when their 12 volt is too low, including no start conditions, despite the 12 volt playing no role in turning the ICE on a Prius.)

I put the 12V Battery on my 10Amp AC charger lets see if it helps resolve the issue.

Just on Thursday my car was parked at the ORD Airport parking garage for 3 Nights and it was extreme Cold like it went upto -9F.
I did left the Car Charging through an AC Charging outlet at the parking garage which has parking spots reserved for EV cars so Flyers can leave their
car parked and charged. When I came back my car was Fully Charged and I even turned ON the Heat remotely via WINGS. Luckily the car start without any issue
and I drive back home (45 miles) without any issues. Then at home I charged the car and then See this issue. Could be leaving the car outside in extreme temp might have drained the 12V Battery.

By the way I went to Miami and it was 91F their and saw so many Tesla all over Miami and Coral Gables area. I atleast saw 50 Tesla in 3 Days.

If the car was left plugged in, that prevents the car from charging/topping off the 12 volt. :roll:

There are numerous threads about dead 12 volts after leaving the car plugged in for extended periods of time.

cwerdna said:

If the car was left plugged in, that prevents the car from charging/topping off the 12 volt. :roll:

There are numerous threads about dead 12 volts after leaving the car plugged in for extended periods of time.

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If that the case then mine was left for almost 3 Days. I thought charging stop when the Blue lights stop flashing.
So once you drive the car dosent the 12V charge again ? like ICE cars with Alternator..

Lets hope it come back since the car is going back first week of May due to End of Lease. it has 17K on it now and was leased for 2Y/24K miles And it will be at 18K or less by May.

The 12 volt battery does charge when you drive, but not fast enough to make up for a large drain like leaving it plugged in for days. Hopefully charging will be enough, but you may also have to disconnect and reconnect the 12 volt battery to clear the errors. If so, do it carefully. He can pull a fuse, right...?

freshleaf said:

cwerdna said:

If the car was left plugged in, that prevents the car from charging/topping off the 12 volt. :roll:

There are numerous threads about dead 12 volts after leaving the car plugged in for extended periods of time.

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If that the case then mine was left for almost 3 Days. I thought charging stop when the Blue lights stop flashing.
So once you drive the car dosent the 12V charge again ? like ICE cars with Alternator..

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Charging of the HV battery stops when all the blue lights come on solid (for 5 minutes, IIRC) then turn off. Apparently, the 12 volt does NOT charge while the car's plugged in. :roll: (Although, I seem to recall that maybe climate control timer/triggering it remotely while plugged in might force a "disconnect" to allow the 12 volt to charge? I may be totally wrong on that.)

Yes, the 12 volt does get some charge via the DC to DC converter while in READY mode (green car w/left + right arrows), but not very rapidly, AFAIK.

I can't find some of the good posts on the suboptimal 12 volt charging/management algorithm. Maybe skim these?
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=16161" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=18579" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=404910#p404910" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=18258" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=12448" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For the record, my 12 volt has never been an issue. But then again, it's almost never left plugged in overnight esp. since I almost never charge @ home.

Good News is Now everything works fine. I can move the Car without any problem.

So I verify that 12V Battery is at 13.1v when Car is in Ready State (Green Car with left-right arrow).

So after charging the 12v B it fixed the problem and also my EVSE is charging again with Blue lights blinking.

Now I recall I saw a GM Volt in the Parking garage next to mine Leaf and he has a cable running into his Trunk and may be he was trickle charging his 12v Battery.
He had it plugged the EVSE also. I was wondering why he has a cable going into the trunk of his Car maybe that's where the 12V Battery is.

I will keep an Eye for now to make sure 12V Battery wont drain again and go out tomorrow and put some Air in the Tires may be 40psi for frigid temp.

freshleaf said:

I was wondering why he has a cable going into the trunk of his Car maybe that's where the 12V Battery is.

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It is.

freshleaf said:

So I verify that 12V Battery is at 13.1v when Car is in Ready State (Green Car with left-right arrow).

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That's correct and that is the problem. At 13.1V, the 12V battery neither charges nor discharges. It is known as a "float" voltage.

The LEAF charges at 14.4V for a while in order to try to "top off" the battery before dropping down to 13.1V. Unfortunately, the algorithms used to do this do not seem take into account charge lost whenever the car is just sitting. As a result, the Coulomb-counting algorithm tends to replace less charge than it should. The result is that the charge level steadily drops in applications where the LEAF is not driven frequently.

But there does seem to be a lower limit of about 50% on the SOC since, below that level, even 13.1V will tend to provide some charge. While that may sound OK, the fact is that the lead sulfate that results from the 50% discharge will eventually harden and will never participate in the charge reactions again. You lose more and more capacity in this fashion until there is not enough left to maintain the voltage between starts.

The bad news is that many new cars are moving to this type of charging regime to save a bit of fuel. I really think this is why you have seen lead-acid battery warranties disappearing or being minimized over the past few years. Hopefully they will eventually get it to the point were we are not throwing away batteries every couple of years to save a tiny amount of fuel.

RegGuheert said:

...
The bad news is that many new cars are moving to this type of charging regime to save a bit of fuel. ...

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What the OEMs are doing to manipulate the miles per gallon results is very disturbing.

Even worse is the turning the engine off when stopped approach.
Yes, that manges to get better mpg results in the short EPA test cycle.
But in real life with standard lead acid batteries it DOES NOT.
The OEMs know it doesn't work.
A Chattanooga company with advanced battery technology has a battery that would work.
But sadly the OEMs do not care that their Start Stop approach with standard lead acid does not work.
All they care about is the EPA test result.

Why they don't use different type of 12v Battery instead of Acid Batteries.?

freshleaf said:

Why they don't use different type of 12v Battery instead of Acid Batteries.?

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Because they are cheap and they are the standard.

Some here will recommend that you switch to li-ion instead.

Is this true for all the EV cars out their or just few manufacturer.?

This whole car is a Big Battery and they spend almost 15k on the Big Battery but they trying to save few $$ by choosing a 12V Acid run battery which causing
the issue of Dead car while left in plugged for longer duration like few Days... The plant which makes these Big Li-ion Battery should start making these 12v Batteries too.. or they should have a SW fix.

freshleaf said:

...or they should have a SW fix.

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I've requested this directly from Nissan management a couple of years ago. Not only have they not fixed it, they apparently have not even changed the 12V charging firmware in the new LEAFs.

RegGuheert said:

freshleaf said:

...or they should have a SW fix.

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I've requested this directly from Nissan management a couple of years ago. Not only have they not fixed it, they apparently have not even changed the 12V charging firmware in the new LEAFs.

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Thats why my Car will go back to Nissan in 2 months. In Chicago freezing weather my car is mostly sitting in the Garage because its mileage normally drops to 40% as compare to Summer Driving. I have to wait for 2017 Model to get that extra Miles and may be by then Nissan fix these issues too.. I was using this as a short trip car and in summer as a work commute Car but in Winter its only purpose is to run small distance errands.. Dont get me wrong its a very Nice Car and I love driving it.

Start the Car again in the morning and same issue wont start, check the 12V Battery and its showing 7.1v. Put back on 10A Charger.
Looks like my Battery is pretty much Dead and afraid of taking the car out today it might wont start where I will park and its 23F now.

Taking the Car to the Dealer on Monday since its under Warranty. Is 12V Battery Covered under the Warranty or Dealer will stick me a Bill for this..
I also have extra mechanical part breakdown Insurance which the Financial Guy stick in during the Lease process ($250).