12v battery dies overnight 2013 S

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npav

New member
Joined
Oct 21, 2015
Messages
4
Hey guys,

I've run into a problem with my 2013 LEAF S. The 12v battery dies overnight, back in November I bought a new 12v battery from AutoZone because the original died and there had been no problems since.

Now a few days ago I go to drive the LEAF and it doesn't start, no lights, no door unlock, nothing, just like when the original battery died. So I figured the 12v was low on charge, so I jump started it and drove around for a while to charge it up.

Next morning it's dead again. So this time I jump it and take it to AutoZone to test the battery, they say it's healthy, just needs a charge, so I plug in the portable Stanley battery charge kit and leave it there for about 3 hours or so. Give it a shot and it starts right up, checked the battery voltage and it shows at just over 13v. Figure that's that and call it a night. Next morning the car won't start again and it registers at just 4v.

So I figure something must be draining the battery and I've dropped it off at the dealership for them to have a look, sadly the 36 month warranty is expired (naturally) and I don't know yet if it will be covered by the 6 year EV systems warranty... Nissan said it will be $80 to find out what is wrong and there are 2 unrelated re-calls on the car, which they will fix while it's in. Interesting side note, while I could have sworn I saw in the warranty booklet in my car that Nissan would provide a loaner car, the dealership repeatedly denied it and I can't find it in the online version of the booklet.

Seems like a major ripoff that they will charge me $35/day when the car is in for re-calls that is Nissan's fault, so now I'm left without a car until they figure out what's going on.

Then again this whole thing could just be a bad battery from AutoZone and they don't want to admit it...
 
There are a couple of threads on this. I also have a 13 S and have the same problem. It is just so random, my guess is something is sticking or staying on for some random reason and runs the 12v dead. The funny thing is the Nissan tech said that can't happen becasue if the car sees the 12v gets low it will automatically start itself and charge the 12v battery from the HV pack. Well.... that doesn't happen. I would believe that the car may sense a low 12v battery condition and then "try" to close the HV contactor to start charging the 12v, but that is also run from the 12v battery and guess what, it's to late and it's already almost dead and trying to close that big contactor just runs it totally flat :)

I so wish I knew what it was, I weekly charge ours now no matter what, but just last Sunday it was dead again, and took 35 amps to get the 12v back to "full".

And before any asks, no I don't leave my leafspy plugged in, I only plug it in when I am actively using it and unplug it afterwards.

This is my biggest pet peeve with this car, and it has happened to my wife out shopping and once at her parents. I keep a 12v 9Ah lead acid in the car all the time now to "jump" it. She had to call me and I had to walk her through how to jump it. She is not happy about that.
 
npav said:
Now a few days ago I go to drive the LEAF and it doesn't start, no lights, no door unlock, nothing, just like when the original battery died. So I figured the 12v was low on charge, so I jump started it and drove around for a while to charge it up.

Next morning it's dead again.
A couple of things here: 1) It takes many hours to fully charge a 12V lead-acid battery at 14.4V and 2) The LEAF generally does a very poor job of fully-charging the 12V battery since it drops back to a float voltage of 13.1V prematurely. (There is an indication that this issue may be greatly improved starting with MY2015.)

It's too bad Nissan has left these 12V problems in place for so many years. I know that they are aware of them since I have personally told their management about them.

I now regularly charge the 12V battery in our LEAF using a high-quality desulfating trickle charger. It is almost six years old and it is in like-new condition.
 
Sometimes an issue that seems random has an easily-determined cause. Are you leaving the car plugged in for hours after charging ends? That is not a good idea, with the 2013 especially. It will gradually drain the accessory battery, and the car won't quite keep up with recharging it.
 
I don't leave the J1772 plugged in, unless it is going to charge in the am before we leave.

I used to think it was when the windows were down, something with the "alarm" system, but I have ruled that out. Key not in or near the car. I am open to trying anything to figure it out.

It was an odd coincidence but youtube blogger suddenly now has their leaf doing the same thing, also a 2013, but they have the telematics and ours (the S) doesn't or does it ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_EHoLTIIAE

A while ago I started clamp on ampmetering the 12v battery and I believe only once did I see a load stay on. I power cycled the car and it was gone. I didn't hear any pumps running or any fan, I should have really dug in to it when I saw that load. It has run dead in summer and in winter, in rain and dry, garaged and outside, alarmed and shut or just "off" and not alarmed. I agree it is something. I did swap to a larger battery and it is less frequent, but I believe that is becasue it can sit powering that stuck on load longer.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Sometimes an issue that seems random has an easily-determined cause. Are you leaving the car plugged in for hours after charging ends? That is not a good idea, with the 2013 especially. It will gradually drain the accessory battery, and the car won't quite keep up with recharging it.
Yes it has an easily-determined cause: the car was manufactured with a design flaw. Hmmm an electric car shouldn't be left plugged in for hours, yeah that makes sense. I know I wake up in the middle of the night and unplug my cell phone when it's 100% too... And the other design flaw that the onboard DC converter waits until the 12v is too weak to close the relay and contactors before it decides to start charging it. Let's not make excuses for lazy engineering.
 
Let's not make excuses for lazy engineering.

I agree that it's a design flaw. Now, how helpful would it have been to just write "The car was poorly designed. Don't buy another Leaf."? Instead I tried to find a way to diagnose and solve the issue, or at least apply a bandaid. If you think I'm a cheerleader or apologist for Nissan, then you haven't been comprehending much of what I write.
 
There was a post quite a while back about a bad power window switch causing a random
load. I don't remember much about it though.
 
npav said:
I've run into a problem with my 2013 LEAF S. The 12v battery dies overnight, back in November I bought a new 12v battery from AutoZone because the original died and there had been no problems since.

Now a few days ago I go to drive the LEAF and it doesn't start, no lights, no door unlock, nothing, just like when the original battery died. So I figured the 12v was low on charge, so I jump started it and drove around for a while to charge it up.

Next morning it's dead again. So this time I jump it and take it to AutoZone to test the battery, they say it's healthy, just needs a charge, so I plug in the portable Stanley battery charge kit and leave it there for about 3 hours or so. Give it a shot and it starts right up, checked the battery voltage and it shows at just over 13v. Figure that's that and call it a night. Next morning the car won't start again and it registers at just 4v.

Then again this whole thing could just be a bad battery from AutoZone and they don't want to admit it...

npav -
A "new" battery that is installed in a Leaf MAY need to be fully charged before it is put to use. This would be an unusual case where the seller has old inventory (and had installed the acid!) and the battery has discharged. What is important to understand about the Leaf is that the charging system is quite different than a typical ICE auto and (at least I've proven for my 2012 Leaf - cannot comment on other models!), it is better at MAINTAINING the FLA battery than it is charging a discharged battery.

Next, if you buy a oversized auto battery, it can take a very long time to charge from a discharged state to fully charged with a trickle charger. Let's say you have a 100 ahr FLA battery (I know - it's rated in CCA!) and you use a 1.5 amp "trickle" charger to recharge a fully discharged battery- at best it will take about 60 hours to charge! Also, individual cells in a FLA battery like to be "equalized" periodically with a typical full amperage (15+) auto style charger - up to essentially 15 volts for 1/2 to 2 hours - and that assumes it was near full charge to start with.

Lastly, if you've seen 4 volts on your new battery - take it back and insist on a new one. This is a very destructive voltage for any lead acid battery - for any length of time. It is possible the new battery had a "shorted" cell - or some defect that effectively quickly drains itself - with no external connections.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.
 
LeftieBiker said:
The power windows only remain active for 30 seconds after power off, though.
I finally got around to checking the service manual, while there is a switched power supply,
there is also a non switched power on pin 18, that manual says observe battery voltage
when power is off. Bottom line, the 30 second power off would not effect this pin for
a failed controller.
 
Hi all,

Another possibility: it's the Carwings radio that remain on and retrying to connect to Nissan. I've had my battery drained down twice and both times Carwings was also having issues. Right now, neither the app or website can connect to the car. Maybe it's all coincidence.

JR
 
JRoque said:
Hi all,

Another possibility: it's the Carwings radio that remain on and retrying to connect to Nissan. I've had my battery drained down twice and both times Carwings was also having issues. Right now, neither the app or website can connect to the car. Maybe it's all coincidence.

JR

There have been some problems with CarWings (and the TCU upgrade) draining 12v batteries, but an "S" trim doesn't have CarWings.
The OP has never posted again, so for all we know it was a bad 12v battery to begin with.
 
I have a 2013 S. No OBD2 attachment. I suffered dead 12v after roughly 18 hours of sitting unplugged. The factory 12v battery had spewed sulfuric acid all over the place. I pulled it. Baking soda and a hose handled that. I dropped in an AGM deep cycle battery for $90. problem has not returned. As a bonus, no core charge because I think the battery is supposed to go in a wheelchair.

A question I do have for the collective: Which kinds of devices (cheaper the better) should I acquire and which kinds of symptoms should I watch for? Are there certain behaviors that precede 12v battery death? I would have liked to have seen the original 12v battery coming and headed it off at the pass.

When I bought the damned thing, the next day was a brand new pair of nerd tires. Next time I buy a car, first thing will be replacing any battery that farts acid!
 
You can check the rest voltage regularly, with the car off and doors closed. Anything under 12.6 volts is a warning flag. A Battery Tender, Battery Tender JR, or similar "smart" maintainer, used regularly, will top the battery off if needed.
 
I have a 2014 Leaf SL. Bought new. When it was two months old the 12v battery died. Dealer replaced it and did an "update" on the software. No problems for three years. In August I had the 2G to 3G update done. Right after that the 12v battery mysteriously drained down to about 3-4 volts a couple of times.
Nissan did an "update" again and no problems for the last two months. Yesterday it was dead again! Had it towed to the dealer and they could not find anything wrong.
A couple of lessons learned:
1. Nissan knows there is a problem, but have no clue what it is.
2. Make sure nothing is plugged in the cigarette lighter or OBD port. "sometimes aftermarket devices will drain the battery"- quote on my August service report to explain away a problem Nissan knows nothing about.
3. The 12v battery is a 84 month battery (new 30 months ago) that is now marginal based on Nissan's testing todayof the battery. This is due to the several times it has been drained to 3-4 volts.
4. Nissan has nothing else to go on, so the now marginal 12volt battery is the potential problem.
5. After reading this thread, I did realize that I left the drive battery charger plugged into the car for over 24 hours. Could be the culprit.

Anyway, I hope my experience and observations help someone. I'm going to plug in the car tonight and leave it plugged in all weekend as a test.
 
Given your situation, the best bandaid for you is a hardwired connection through the charge port compartment for a 2 amp or so battery maintainer. Just plug it in whenever you plug the car in to charge, and unplug it when you unplug the charging cable. That will also allow you to leave the car plugged in but not charging for as long as you like. It's what I use, except my Battery Tender JR is only 0.75 amp.
 
bbrowncods said:
I have a 2014 Leaf SL. Bought new. When it was two months old the 12v battery died. Dealer replaced it and did an "update" on the software. No problems for three years. In August I had the 2G to 3G update done. Right after that the 12v battery mysteriously drained down to about 3-4 volts a couple of times.
Nissan did an "update" again and no problems for the last two months. Yesterday it was dead again! Had it towed to the dealer and they could not find anything wrong.
A couple of lessons learned:
1. Nissan knows there is a problem, but have no clue what it is.
2. Make sure nothing is plugged in the cigarette lighter or OBD port. "sometimes aftermarket devices will drain the battery"- quote on my August service report to explain away a problem Nissan knows nothing about.
3. The 12v battery is a 84 month battery (new 30 months ago) that is now marginal based on Nissan's testing todayof the battery. This is due to the several times it has been drained to 3-4 volts.
4. Nissan has nothing else to go on, so the now marginal 12volt battery is the potential problem.
5. After reading this thread, I did realize that I left the drive battery charger plugged into the car for over 24 hours. Could be the culprit.

Anyway, I hope my experience and observations help someone. I'm going to plug in the car tonight and leave it plugged in all weekend as a test.
When you keep using the name Nissan, are you talking about the dealer and its service department or Nissan, the company? In most places in the US, state franchise laws prohibit automakers from owning dealers. This makes your post extra confusing.
 
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