Charging problem: beep but no charge (2012)

OK, we have a 2012 leaf with ~ 32k miles and have charged ot for years with the standard evse modified for higher output by evse upgrades. have never had a single problem.

For some reason the last couple days I plug it in, get the beep and the "clunk" sound like it normally makes, but then none of the charging lights come on and charge. If its during restricted charging hours, I push the timer override button, the center charge button lights up indicating its bypassed, but then i get the same no-charge result when I plug in the charge cable.

Any ideas what is going on here? We park outside and it has been raining, but I've check and blown out the connection and it is not wet.

Thanks!

OK, may have figured it out - I think the button was sticking on the handle per the thread below. It seemed in good shape, but I lubed it a bit and and exercised the button and catch - might have just gummed up from weather and moisture. Not sure why the guys in the threa dbelow started immediately disassembling and hacking their up. :shock:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=21207

Will advise if this does not work - anyone feel free to message with a follow up.

At one point I had a similar problem due to an intermittent cable fault that EVSE upgrade kindly diagnosed and repaired after 4 years of trouble free charging... If the problem comes back without a clear cause, that might be one suspect... If you are solved long term, great. Adding the thought for future searchers....

I have had a few charging cable issues... One is to make sure that the evse has a good ground connection, otherwise the charger will not begin charging "error". The other is to check that the insides of the plug "tubes" and connections are clean. I had a few weeks where the plug did not want to go in completely into the car, and the blue lights on the dash did not work. good luck.

OH! Buy the way, another problem I had is that somehow the car's dash controlled charging timer was on, and did not let the car charge.... I had to reset the whole dash display, and then the car charged fine from then on.. I hate that charging "off" timer. They should have a timer of "how many minutes would you like CHARGE from that moment.", that will ZERO itself after each use.... Like an egg timer. Why do we have to mentally calculate what time it is, and add the number of minutes we want to charge, AND THEN input the "time off" into the dash..

JimSouCal said:

At one point I had a similar problem due to an intermittent cable fault that EVSE upgrade kindly diagnosed and repaired after 4 years of trouble free charging... If the problem comes back without a clear cause, that might be one suspect... If you are solved long term, great. Adding the thought for future searchers....

Click to expand...

I appreciate that as last night I could not get it to charge at all, then today it was fine. It was too dark and I was too tired to try to sort it out last night, so i think I'll try to blow both connections out wiht compressed air and see if I can determine any other problems.

peakay said:

JimSouCal said:

At one point I had a similar problem due to an intermittent cable fault that EVSE upgrade kindly diagnosed and repaired after 4 years of trouble free charging... If the problem comes back without a clear cause, that might be one suspect... If you are solved long term, great. Adding the thought for future searchers....

Click to expand...

I appreciate that as last night I could not get it to charge at all, then today it was fine. It was too dark and I was too tired to try to sort it out last night, so i think I'll try to blow both connections out wiht compressed air and see if I can determine any other problems.

Click to expand...

On my cable, there was a "fatigue" break near the EVSE "brick". Good fortunes on resolving... Can be frustrating whatever the issue is...

JimSouCal said:

On my cable, there was a "fatigue" break near the EVSE "brick". Good fortunes on resolving... Can be frustrating whatever the issue is...

Click to expand...

Agreed! I tried it the next day and worked perfectly and has since. Will try to keep this thread informed as I figure this out.

powersurge said:

I hate that charging "off" timer. They should have a timer of "how many minutes would you like CHARGE from that moment.", that will ZERO itself after each use.... Like an egg timer. Why do we have to mentally calculate what time it is, and add the number of minutes we want to charge, AND THEN input the "time off" into the dash..

Click to expand...

It's simple, really... it's designed with two goals in mind:
- let people charge during lower-cost time periods with their utility
and
- ensure the local utility isn't strained when the time period rolls around and everyone STARTS charging at the start of their low-cost period.

It accomplishes this by centering the charge time at the _end_ of the allowed period. The car calculates the "start" time based on the "time to full charge" (or "time to 80%") figure shown on the dash, and internally sets a timer to wake-up and start charging at that time - based on (a) when you told it to "end", and (b) how long it knows it needs to charge. For example, if the dash says "2 hours 30 minutes", and you have it set to "stop" at 7am, it'll start at 4:30am.

Everyone uses a different amount of power every night, so this is a perfect way to stagger the startup times of all these charging cars.

That said, is there something you're trying to do that requires you to tweak it with math every day? :?

JimSouCal said:

At one point I had a similar problem due to an intermittent cable fault that EVSE upgrade kindly diagnosed and repaired after 4 years of trouble free charging... If the problem comes back without a clear cause, that might be one suspect... If you are solved long term, great. Adding the thought for future searchers....

Click to expand...

Jim, Ive had more charging problem, which leads me to believe it is a similar issue to yours. I plugged it in last night, charge time lights were blinking o i thought all was good, but no charge today. After driving, plugged it in and got a beep, but no lights. jiggling the cord right behind the handle got various results, leading me to believe somethign is loose in the handle or the cable has a problem.

What if anything did evse upgrades charge you for the fix? How fast was the runaround?

Thanks!

peakay said:

JimSouCal said:

At one point I had a similar problem due to an intermittent cable fault that EVSE upgrade kindly diagnosed and repaired after 4 years of trouble free charging... If the problem comes back without a clear cause, that might be one suspect... If you are solved long term, great. Adding the thought for future searchers....

Click to expand...

Jim, Ive had more charging problem, which leads me to believe it is a similar issue to yours. I plugged it in last night, charge time lights were blinking o i thought all was good, but no charge today. After driving, plugged it in and got a beep, but no lights. jiggling the cord right behind the handle got various results, leading me to believe somethign is loose in the handle or the cable has a problem.

What if anything did evse upgrades charge you for the fix? How fast was the runaround?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Turnaround was very quick... I can't remember the fee but the main cost seemed to be shipping. EVSEupgrade either did it as goodwill or at very low charge. I had referred them a couple of customers so that might or might not have been in the mix. You might try an L2 nearby and see how that goes well before sending mailing it in for diagnostic and service. (Ironically, I did that at a local park that the city of SM had put on a timer to only work during park hours...so at first I thought it was the onboard charger--which thankfully it was not...) My guess is cable and hoping it's that simple a fix...