Jump start attempt / reversed polarity / now car does not charge main batteries

Apologies if this has happened to someone before and the answer is somewhere in this forum. If it is please direct me to it. If it's not, please let me know the amount of trouble that I am in... Hopefully it is just a main fuse easily replaceable (I hope Nissan engineers pre-planned the car's systems for idiots like me). So I reversed the polarity on my first attempt, everything got all sparky and hot and smokey, realized after about 5 seconds and disconnected it. A few minutes later I successfully jump started it to get to the dealer to have the 12v battery replaced under warranty (should go 2 years at least). Turned around when I realized they were 35 miles away and gauge read 20 miles left...Made it back home safely Symptoms are: when I plug it to the 110v it makes the beep beep noise but no blue charging lights light up. A few seconds later, it clicks again and that is it. I have to say that the 12v battery reads 9.49v so I am hoping that is the culprit. (probably too low and the initial reason for jump starting it to take it to dealer)

Thanks in advance for your insights! Let me know if you need additional info.

Jay

2011 Silver Leaf
2012 Blue Leaf

If you own the other car that you jump started it from then swap the batteries and see if that resolves the issue.

Hopefully the other car that you used to jump start the Leaf was not running when you attempted the jump start. That is a common mistake that motorcyclists make when jump starting their bikes and causes all sorts of electrical problems on the motorcycles whose 12 volt electrical systems are a tad bit light duty compared to the average car with an internal combustion engine.

Yikes! Hope all works out okay for you. But it doesn't sound good. Let us know how things work out.

Thanks Rocky and Darth, I used a spare car battery that I keep for these kind of emergencies...there are no ICEs in our garage except for a couple of motorcycles...

If you still need to charge to get to the dealer, CAREFULLY connect your booster battery to the car's dead 12-volt battery and then plug in the EVSE cable. The car will not charge if the 12-volt battery is too low to power the computers and energize the main DC contactor.

Gerry

All good in the world, dealer replaced the 12v battery under warranty (did not make it to 2 yrs). Is it true that the earlier cars 2011-2012 have this problem due to a faulty algorithm that keeps the 12v battery depleted most of its life, shortening its lifespan?

ventisoy said:

Is it true that the earlier cars 2011-2012 have this problem due to a faulty algorithm that keeps the 12v battery depleted most of its life, shortening its lifespan?

Click to expand...

That's exactly right.

And the 2013s and later aren't much better. Those also have an additional problem in that they sometimes fail to disconnect all the loads in the car, resulting in the battery being drained overnight.

Glad to hear your car was not damaged!

Man then I dont know what is best, to park the cars outside so the solar panel can trickle charge the 12v battery but risk the high temps inside the cabin (we live in San Diego, it's a 100F today) to shorten the main battery pack or park inside the garage where it's cool but the solar panel does not work and drive to the dealership every two years for a free 12v replacement??? I say park in garage, cheaper to replace a $100 12v than a $6k LiIon???

ventisoy said:

Man then I dont know what is best, to park the cars outside so the solar panel can trickle charge the 12v battery but risk the high temps inside the cabin (we live in San Diego, it's a 100F today) to shorten the main battery pack or park inside the garage where it's cool but the solar panel does not work and drive to the dealership every two years for a free 12v replacement??? I say park in garage, cheaper to replace a $100 12v than a $6k LiIon???

Click to expand...

The solar panel does NOT charge the 12V battery in any meaningful way. I saw it bring the battery up to 13.2V one morning, but as soon as the the Sun got up in the sky, the voltage dropped back down to about 12.8 V. The reason? Thin-film PV panels have a high negative temperature coefficient for voltage, so as soon as the PV panel got hot, the charging dropped to nothing. (Even 13.2 V is considered to be a float voltage which really does not charge the battery but rather keeps it from losing charge.)

The cheapest solution is to purchase a high-quality trickle charger and top the battery off ever week or so. I recommend the BatteryMinder 1500 or 1510. The 1500 can be bought at RV Upgrade Store for about $40.