Recharge problem during winter cold

First, I'm sorry for my English.

I'm owner of a Leaf SV 2016.

When the temperature goes under -18C (-1F), the car will not recharge with 220V and 440V.
The only way I can recharge the battery is the 110V charger and it take 20 hours to recharge.
The indicator "EV system warning light" turned on.

At this temperature I have another problem.
The heater stop working.
The heater consumption drop to zero KW. Only the fan continue to work.

The answer of the technical chef at the dealer is "That why you have heaters for your seats and steering wheel."
and for the recharge "maybe some ice in the recharge port."

It's the same port for 220V and 110V !!!

I like this car, but the service not come with it.

Most mechanicals guys was trained for fuel engine they know nothing about computers, electronics and electric things.

Nissan and the dealer never call me back to fix the problem. When I call them, the answer is "Yes we still working on that"

Do you know is someone already had this issue ?

Thank you.

It sounds like you have a failed resistance heater (also called "PTC heater"). In addition, you may also have a nonworking pack heater. This heater is supposed to come on at roughly 6F to keep the pack warm enough to function. You may be able to configure Nissan Connect to send you a text message when the pack heater is activated. If you do that and receive no such message, that would tend to confirm the problem.

Your English, by the way, is better than that of most Americans. ;-)

Hold on a second, I think I have some clues here.

Works on 120v but not 240v. This sounds like an EVSE issue. You're using different charging systems, right? Can you elaborate on what happens - exactly what beeps and what LEDs come from the car - when you use the 240v (L2) charging station? The Leaf will always beep one time when it detects the plug handle itself being attached, then it will beep two times and start flashing the dash LEDs when it begins/accepts charging. If you only have one beep, the charging station is dead (or not allowing charging). If you get a repeating 3-beep and flashing dash LEDs, it means the button on the handle is held down.

Heater doesn't work. On this one, there's some specifics needed. Are you talking about the car being in "Ready" mode (green "car" icon in middle of the dash, under the "Power" bubbles), able to drive, and the heater doesn't work? Or are you trying to run the heater while charging, or while not in "Ready"? The Leaf will allow you to use the heater while charging, but only once the battery is out of "low battery" mode - above about 20% charge. If you've got the orange "low battery" warning on the dash, the heater won't run while charging - it'll just blow cold air.

Do either of these help...?

120V or 240V.When I connect the 240V, the first light has flashed one time and I got one beep. After that nothing happened. I remove the 220V and replaced it with 110V, the charge started normally.To make sure is not my charger, I tested the 220V on a public station and i got the same problem.

About the heather. I'm on the road and the temperature has fall from -17C (2F) to -21(-5F). Around -18C (-1F), the heater has stop working. The second time, I tried to preheating, but it never started. That time the car was connected on 110V (-4F).

When the temperature is around -1F, I have enough heat to get something around 50F. I can't get the selected temp like 72F. It is just enough heat to defrost the windshield.

Each time, the battery was fully charged.

Thanks for your help.

The preheating function will not work when connected to a 110V charger. There is not enough amperage available.

Dooglas said:

The preheating function will not work when connected to a 110V charger. There is not enough amperage available.

Click to expand...

Unless something's been changed, I don't believe that's the case. What will happen is that the battery will have to supply some of the energy for preheating, as 110V doesn't provide enough power to supply the entire draw when requiring max. heat (6kW? if using the resistive heater) even if the car's done charging, so you lose some of your charge. This was also an issue with the 3.3 kW on-board chargers.

Gra is correct. The heater runs directly from the battery, and the charging system just tries to replace as much of the lost power as it can. There was just a whole topic on this.

Just to add some informations.

If the car is not connected to a charger but the battery is full charged and I try to start the heating with Nissan Connect, the heater not start under -1F.

If the outsite température goes up, everything return to normal.

The key point here is that "each time, the battery was fully charged". So that rules out a couple things: 1, that it won't heat while charging on 120v (it will, as Gra mentioned*). And 2, that it won't heat while charging when the battery is low (it isn't low). Of course, it'll always heat while "Ready", even if the battery is in Turtle mode - the heater can actually be used to totally drain the battery start to end this way.
* - it just draws from the battery when the heater needs more load to start-up. The charger, heater, and battery are all connected in parallel so the charger replenishes what it can. If the temperature difference isn't too large, it may still be able to keep up on 120v, but given the temps we're talking about here, it's likely going to run full-blast the whole time.

So, that leaves one more question.

You have a 2016 SV trim, which means you've got the nav unit (lucky you! I have an S, with just a stereo). On that nav unit is a display for the "energy monitor" - you access it under the "zero emission" button menu, then there should be a button for "energy monitor". Tap that, and check what it's showing for climate control when you try firing up the heater.



Do you see a pattern to this energy consumption when you try running the heater in these different situations? What does it show when it doesn't work, versus when it is working? Does it start consuming energy, then suddenly stop? Or does it never draw any power at all?

Is it possible that the heat pump is supplying all the heat that it can when active above 0F and the resistive heat is not ever working at all?
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And one leg of the 220v charging has something blown?
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Isn't this car in warranty? Take it back to the dealer, get a loaner car, and don't take the car back until it is fixed.

+1^, any dealer will service under warranty. Do you have lemon laws?

If the pack heaters aren't working, wouldn't that restrict charging? You probably don't have LeafSpy? How many temperature bars?

sendler2112 said:

Is it possible that the heat pump is supplying all the heat that it can when active above 0F and the resistive heat is not ever working at all?
.
And one leg of the 220v charging has something blown?
.
Isn't this car in warranty? Take it back to the dealer, get a loaner car, and don't take the car back until it is fixed.

Click to expand...

DNAinaGoodWay said:

+1^, any dealer will service under warranty. Do you have lemon laws?

If the pack heaters aren't working, wouldn't that restrict charging? You probably don't have LeafSpy? How many temperature bars?

Click to expand...

^^ This! I think this is the right track. I hadn't even thought of that. The car should be under warranty all around. And being an "SV" model, it has the heat pump (I forget about that - I have the 2013 S without heat pump). That's probably what's kicking in when the temperature is high enough. And the charging thing, too -- but it'd sure be strange to have two different heating systems go "out" at the same time...

But yeah... time to stretch that warranty out, if you have that option!

Dooglas said:

The preheating function will not work when connected to a 110V charger. There is not enough amperage available.

Click to expand...

preheating will work when connected to nothing...

GRA said:

Dooglas said:

The preheating function will not work when connected to a 110V charger. There is not enough amperage available.

Click to expand...

Unless something's been changed, I don't believe that's the case.

Click to expand...

Of course, you are literally correct. The heater will work. But I wouldn't really call it preheating if you are simply heating from the battery. You can do that while driving down the road. Anyone who is actually interested in effectively preheating their car needs to invest in a level 2 charger.

"Preheating" refers to warming the car before you drive it. This is often done with "shore power" to save battery charge, but that isn't intrinsic to the definition. Rather than try to get everyone else to change their definition, you might consider changing your own...

The story continues.

The car is very well covered by a warranty, this is not the problem.
I called many Nissan Dealer and the big problem is they don't know anything about a Leaf.

Some questions and answers from dealers.
- Did you took the block heater options when you buy the car ?
- This is normal, this car is not made to run under -1F.
- We recommend to make the engine maintenance and lubrication.
- Under -1F, you only have the seats heater and steering wheel heater.

I let the car to a dealer.
I clearly explained the problem to the service.
"The car work perfectly over 0F and the heating and recharge (220V) stop working as-early the temperature goes under -1F."
When I let the car, the temperature was -4F.

The mechanical guy put the car into the garage for the night and has tested the next day. The garage is heated to 72F. He said. "Everything work fine"

I really don't know how to explain the problem more clearly.
When Nissan say "Leaf certified", this is bulls.....

I asked if they have check the components are working ?
Basic check up, like fuses, battery warmer or basic cabin heater (the thermo pump is working).
The answer, we will not check that before we can really see the problem.

It's look like the client is a liar and we will not hear you more than "I have a problem".

Sandman said:

The indicator "EV system warning light" turned on.
.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry for you to have this problem and none of the Nissan techs have enough knowledge to help you. The fact that you had a warning light on should give them something to start trying to diagnose with. But they didn't. There is no way for us to fix it for you over the internet. Only a dealer can fix it and it is under warranty so it shouldn't cost you anything. And whoever sold you the car owes you a loaner car until they get it fixed so that is where you must take it for the repair. And they only get three tries or 30 days total in attempts or it becomes a buy back if you want it to be. The car is useless to you if it can't be charged at the correct rates. And it has no heat. It seems that something is wrong with the resistive cabin heater and the battery heater?
.
You will have to call Nissan and open an owner contact case to let them know what you are going through so they will send a tech specialist who knows the car to the shop to fix it.
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Pick a really cold day to try to charge the car to get the warning light to come back on and take it back to the dealer who sold it to you and demand a loaner car until it is fixed. Take a photo of the warning light in case it goes back out. They cannot argue with you about whether or not there is a problem if there is a warning light.
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Find the display screen that shows the climate control energy consumption. If it is below 0F outside and the heat is on full, the consumption should be maxxed out at approximately 5kW. If it is showing a great deal less than this, the cabin heater element is not drawing power. Take a photo of this also.

Sandman said:

First, I'm sorry for my English.

I'm owner of a Leaf SV 2016.

When the temperature goes under -18C (-1F), the car will not recharge with 220V and 440V.
The only way I can recharge the battery is the 110V charger and it take 20 hours to recharge.
The indicator "EV system warning light" turned on.

At this temperature I have another problem.
The heater stop working.
The heater consumption drop to zero KW. Only the fan continue to work.

The answer of the technical chef at the dealer is "That why you have heaters for your seats and steering wheel."
and for the recharge "maybe some ice in the recharge port."

It's the same port for 220V and 110V !!!

I like this car, but the service not come with it.

Most mechanicals guys was trained for fuel engine they know nothing about computers, electronics and electric things.

Nissan and the dealer never call me back to fix the problem. When I call them, the answer is "Yes we still working on that"

Do you know is someone already had this issue ?

Thank you.

Click to expand...

OK, let's start again from the beginning. You're not getting any satisfaction from dealers or Nissan corporate. That's a real PITA, and sadly, not uncommon. But, you can't give up if you want to fix the problem. So, start with getting LeafSpy. When the EV system warning light comes on, you'll be able to see the error code, and maybe other codes, like the pack heater. (If you have heated seats, you have pack heaters.) Take screen shots of the codes and print them out. This gives you evidence to leverage your case with service and Nissan. The dealer gets paid for a warranty item so they have some incentive.

Leaf Spy, Leaf Spy, Leaf Spy. Yes!

(edit: don't use these links injected above or below this line! The forum adds them when I say those words... didn't mean for it to turn into 3 links Amazon's app store is super crappy... go for the real iOS or Android stores -- linked right here!)

Get yourself a Leaf Spy setup. The app, either iOS or Android, whichever you prefer, and then get a compatible adapter for iOS or Android - BLE OBD2 for iOS, or just generic Bluetooth OBD2 for Android - there's a recommended adapter in each of the apps' description.

With that, you can pull info from all over the car.

Be sure to get the PRO version of Leaf Spy (I think it's $20?) to pull diagnostic codes and such.

Dont want to steal the topic, but there are problems charging when you don't have a battery heater???