Noisy Air Conditioning - 2013 Nissan Leaf S

Hi All,

I just noticed a problem with my Leaf this past Thursday. I got out of my car while it was still running and I heard a very loud noise coming from under the hood. I turned my AC off and the noise immediately went away. I cannot hear this noise from inside the cabin, but it does sound like there is rattling from one of the vents near the passenger side. This rattling is noticable when the AC is blowing at a low level and I don't notice it when the AC is blasting. I noticed this rattling a week or two ago.

My AC is still blowing very cold air. The only thing that seems wrong is the loud noise.

I took a video today (linked below). I went into my garage and heard the noise -- it was caused because I have the Climate Control scheduled to run from 5:00 - 5:10 in the afternoon. As soon as I turned the scheduled Climate Control off the noise immediately stopped.

Any ideas as to what is causing this?

https://youtu.be/IBtPMJ7i3p4

I had a thought and went outside to see if the car only made the noise when the AC is on. Or, if it also made the noise when the AC is off but the fans are blowing air.

When AC is off, and the fans are blowing air, the car is silent.

When AC is turned back on, the noise comes back.

That sounds like the clatter of the AC compressor. Mine sounds like that too but I've had some front end repairs done in the past. Not sure if it's a normal sound, would be good to have a 3rd opinion.

I too was quite dismayed by the racket my 2016 SL's HVAC system makes. Turn its defroster on, and the LEAF sounds like an ICE car. A cheap alternative or adjunct to a VSP system, though...

Noticed this as well on Saturday when starting the AC remotely. Never got around to checking under the hood while it was running but was surprised by how noisy it is. I actually think mine is a little louder. I immediately noticed it when I started to walk outside toward my driveway. I did not check it again after I turned on the car with the ac running.

I will check it today and see if it goes away when starting the car.

ChaChaCheetah said:

Hi All,

I just noticed a problem with my Leaf this past Thursday. I got out of my car while it was still running and I heard a very loud noise coming from under the hood. I turned my AC off and the noise immediately went away. I cannot hear this noise from inside the cabin, but it does sound like there is rattling from one of the vents near the passenger side. This rattling is noticable when the AC is blowing at a low level and I don't notice it when the AC is blasting. I noticed this rattling a week or two ago.

My AC is still blowing very cold air. The only thing that seems wrong is the loud noise.

I took a video today (linked below). I went into my garage and heard the noise -- it was caused because I have the Climate Control scheduled to run from 5:00 - 5:10 in the afternoon. As soon as I turned the scheduled Climate Control off the noise immediately stopped.

Any ideas as to what is causing this?

https://youtu.be/IBtPMJ7i3p4

Click to expand...

Your Leaf may or may not have a heat pump, which can get loud when running on high power. Since there is no engine noise to mask it, that sounds normal if going by the video. Especially if you switch between heat and AC on the fly. As the system gets the vehicle to the temperature that you want, the sound gets quieter. An easy test is to set the fan speed down on the AC to the lowest setting and wait for the compressor to quiet down once the air is so cold, the compressor switches to low power.

It's hot everywhere, so expect the AC to do a lot of work this summer in the record heat wave around the world.

You may not notice this as much in the winter time because the heat pump is limited to 1,500 watts for heat extraction. In the summer time though, it can top +4,500 watts for AC (hence it can get cold air, really, really fast). The flip side though is that when stationary, your Leaf will only use 1,500 watts for AC to conserve power (which can make it louder), but once you start driving and reach 15 mph, it will boost the AC power to max to get the air really cold quick. If you were driving with the AC on and come to a stop, jump out and listen to your AC it will be loud as it has switched back down to the lower 1,500 watt limit and thus using max load to cool the vehicle.

In Summary, unless it is not working like it should, your AC is fine!

Thank you for the replies.

I called Nissan this morning and my car is currently at the shop. There is a recall out for the AC tubing (I think that is what Service Adviser said). They are going to correct that issue first before running any type of diagnostics. Hopefully the recall is the only issue and I won't have to pay any money out of pocket.

Unfortunately, the warranty on the car expired 04/2016 so any other issue will have to be paid for by me.

I will update the thread when I hear back from Nissan's service department so anyone looking up a similar sound will know how my issue was resolved.

ChaChaCheetah said:

Thank you for the replies.

I called Nissan this morning and my car is currently at the shop. There is a recall out for the AC tubing (I think that is what Service Adviser said). They are going to correct that issue first before running any type of diagnostics. Hopefully the recall is the only issue and I won't have to pay any money out of pocket.

Unfortunately, the warranty on the car expired 04/2016 so any other issue will have to be paid for by me.

I will update the thread when I hear back from Nissan's service department so anyone looking up a similar sound will know how my issue was resolved.

Click to expand...

Please let us know what the outcome is, especially if it really was an issue that was fixed vs. no issue and just warranty replacement as a precaution. The video you linked, it didn't sound like anything was wrong.

knightmb said:

Please let us know what the outcome is, especially if it really was an issue that was fixed vs. no issue and just warranty replacement as a precaution. The video you linked, it didn't sound like anything was wrong.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I was replying to your other comment earlier today but then was pulled away at work. I will be sure to post what Nissan says.

Here is my response I previously wrote and didn't have a chance to post:

If Nissan says there is no issue I will try to run the AC until the temp is lowered to see if the sound gets quieter. Thanks for that suggestion!

I live in Southern California and it is quite hot here right now. Last week temps were >100*. The car was still very loud when I left for work this morning and it was in the low 70's at my house. Also, I've previously been outside my car many times while the AC has been running in hot weather and it used to be silent. So, who knows what is going on...