Charging system messed up after failed charging at public station

New owners of a lease transferred 2014 Leaf here. 48000km in very good condition. Previous single owner was very excited about the car and showed us everything about it, and the car was clearly babied with no history of problems. His work situation changed which made the range an issue.

4 days in, we managed to kill our charging system at a public station. Plugged in, did not register, unplugged, and car still shows the plug attached. Tried a bunch of things including detaching the 12v, checked the voltage (low-ish, but not too bad). Traction battery had about 58% but car would not ready due to the plug status. Ended up calling roadside assistance since it was still covered and got it towed to the nearest dealer.
Lucky this happened within walking distance of our house and was able to get our Corolla and pick up the wife and kid...

Today, after 5 hours of diagnostics, the tech said some module that talks between the charging system and dash is defective, and the entire power converter assembly box has to be replaced. I expect they are not able to pinpoint the exact problem. The total cost would be $4460cad after tax (about $2500 for the part). And they also were adamant it was not covered by warranty (although manual clearly states it’s part of the EV system 5 yr/100k km).

So right now I’m waiting for them to confirm with Nissan that the part is indeed covered, after showing them the exact pages on the warranty book.

Anyone else have this happen? Was it just a freak accident? Of course a call to the charger company bounced the responsibility back to Nissan, and vice versa.

The vehicle has another 3 months left on lease, and our original plan was to have a trial period before diving in with a buyout at the end. This experience is undoubtedly frightening, considering we haven’t even had ownership officially transferred yet! Also we live in a city with a lot of public chargers and our current residence means in winter we have to rely on them (attached row house with back lane/driveway potentially inaccessible due to snow in winter).

The first few days while everything worked was great however, as we had done enough homework regarding range issues in the cold etc, so no other bad surprises so far.

If it was me, I would hook up an OBD2 dongle and Leaf Spy to retrieve the trouble codes, then review the troubleshooting manuals here:

http://www.nicoclub.com/manuals/Leaf/2014%20Leaf/

The PDF names correspond to the DTCs that Leaf Spy will report. For example:

B2820 0028 charger Quick charger VC-63

For that code, you would consult the VC PDF document, then search the PDF contents for "B2820"

Although those manuals are intended for technicians, if you carefully read through them you'll get some indications of what the root cause might be.

Any part that is part of the EV drivetrain, including the charging system, is covered under the EV powertrain warranty. The only exception is battery degradation.

Although those manuals are intended for technicians, if you carefully read through them you'll get some indications of what the root cause might be.

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d'oh! had leafspy on to check 12V voltage while waiting for the tow, didn't think of looking up codes for some reason... :S hopefully the dealer did exhaust any option that i had available, and did not prescribe more repairs than needed. my gut feeling is they simply couldn't pinpoint the actual cause of failure and thus the "nuke it from orbit" approach of replacing the entire assembly! i also expect this was an extremely rare situation...

Any part that is part of the EV drivetrain, including the charging system, is covered under the EV powertrain warranty. The only exception is battery degradation.

Click to expand...

Hopefully this is the confirmation I get tomorrow

Wow, that is freakish. Tell the dealer he's free to replace the entire assembly (or the whole car) as long as Nissan's footing the bill. Definitely sounds like a powertrain warranty issue that should be covered. Good luck, and welcome to the fold.

thanks for the replies everyone!

the dealer just replaced the entire power delivery module (grey box you see under the hood) under warranty that contains the charging circuitry. a circuit somewhere there had fried, and i guess it wasn't serviceable by itself.

jt123 said:

thanks for the replies everyone!

the dealer just replaced the entire power delivery module (grey box you see under the hood) under warranty that contains the charging circuitry. a circuit somewhere there had fried, and i guess it wasn't serviceable by itself.

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Good to hear

Nice!

wow, super weird:

car was charged full at the dealer and we took it home last night. the first time we charged it this evening, the charge was cut short (public charger informed charging complete, but car only charged to 70%).

as soon as we drove off (wife just pulled out of parking spot), the car suddenly stopped and the charge plug light went on again! this time we were stuck halfway in traffic, and the car wouldn't even go into neutral to be pushed back into the parking spot. got a lot of angry stares and honks (and some even shouted profanities at us as they drove by, despite the hazards and popped hood). a few kind souls offered to help as well.

went through the same routine of unplugging the 12V, to no avail. this time as i waited for the tow, i left the car in the ON state. (but not ready of course since the plug indicator was on). after a while, i restarted the car (since tow always takes longer than they say) and the plug light magically disappeared. cancelled the tow and drove home, with a mixture of frustration and relief.

could it just be a bad 12V thats tripping/not tripping some relay on the charging circuit, causing this failsafe to occur (including stopping the charging at the station)? times i probed the battery were: last time before service, when it was 12.6V open and 11.6 when car was in ON state. tonight when it failed i didn't have meter (nor android phone to look at leaf spy), but when i got home the battery was sitting at 12.8.

can a bad 12V have good voltage readings but drop quickly when loaded? and does the above assertion of needing a good 12V to keep the charge plug status even make sense? rest of electronics work fine, and no 12V warnings on the dash.

either way, gonna replace the 12V tomorrow, since by the date (its a 2014 SL on its original battery) it should be near or past the end of its life, especially considering our weather conditions (where its often -10 deg C or below in the winter). probably won't spring for the optima since we're not set on keeping it after the lease runs out in 3 months (we got it as a lease transfer)... but the better battery will be in the future if we decide to keep this car.

Would be nice to know the make/model of the EVSE that did the damage...not to mention the location (for those local to you). There is a history of "bad" EVSE behavior (for example the GE Wattstation) documented on this site over the years, but it's scattered among many threads.

They’re part of the public charging network (The Electric Circuit) in Quebec/Ontario.

The first charger was on Rue Allard (cea10822) and the second Wellington (cea10276)

We’ve used a number of them around the city so far without issue, so not too sure how certain that the EVSE is at fault here...

*edit*: they’re made by AddEnergie (Flo)

jt123 said:

They’re part of the public charging network (The Electric Circuit) in Quebec/Ontario.

The first charger was on Rue Allard (cea10822) and the second Wellington (cea10276)

We’ve used a number of them around the city so far without issue, so not too sure how certain that the EVSE is at fault here...

*edit*: they’re made by AddEnergie (Flo)

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Never seen or heard of that company in my life. I guess they got a public contract in Canada because they are a Canadian company (not too much of a stretch).

jt123 said:

wow, super weird:

car was charged full at the dealer and we took it home last night. the first time we charged it this evening, the charge was cut short (public charger informed charging complete, but car only charged to 70%).

as soon as we drove off (wife just pulled out of parking spot), the car suddenly stopped and the charge plug light went on again! this time we were stuck halfway in traffic, and the car wouldn't even go into neutral to be pushed back into the parking spot. got a lot of angry stares and honks (and some even shouted profanities at us as they drove by, despite the hazards and popped hood). a few kind souls offered to help as well.

went through the same routine of unplugging the 12V, to no avail. this time as i waited for the tow, i left the car in the ON state. (but not ready of course since the plug indicator was on). after a while, i restarted the car (since tow always takes longer than they say) and the plug light magically disappeared. cancelled the tow and drove home, with a mixture of frustration and relief.

could it just be a bad 12V thats tripping/not tripping some relay on the charging circuit, causing this failsafe to occur (including stopping the charging at the station)? times i probed the battery were: last time before service, when it was 12.6V open and 11.6 when car was in ON state. tonight when it failed i didn't have meter (nor android phone to look at leaf spy), but when i got home the battery was sitting at 12.8.

can a bad 12V have good voltage readings but drop quickly when loaded? and does the above assertion of needing a good 12V to keep the charge plug status even make sense? rest of electronics work fine, and no 12V warnings on the dash.

either way, gonna replace the 12V tomorrow, since by the date (its a 2014 SL on its original battery) it should be near or past the end of its life, especially considering our weather conditions (where its often -10 deg C or below in the winter). probably won't spring for the optima since we're not set on keeping it after the lease runs out in 3 months (we got it as a lease transfer)... but the better battery will be in the future if we decide to keep this car.

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When you noticed that the car soc was 70% on the dash did you shut down before unplugging, then restart and drive away ?
I personally have not tried to drive away after charging without restarting the car yet but I am wondering possibly this might have happened .
Any error codes?

ElectricEddy said:

When you noticed that the car soc was 70% on the dash did you shut down before unplugging, then restart and drive away ?
I personally have not tried to drive away after charging without restarting the car yet but I am wondering possibly this might have happened .
Any error codes?

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We unplugged first before getting into the car and turning it on, as we usually do. I'm not even sure what you describe is possible as typically you'd have to restart the car regardless to get into ready mode?

Was not able to check for error codes that time (no Android phone with me).

Since the 12V replacement we haven't had the car disabled yet, but at this point it's only taking charge with the AeroEnvironment EVSE at the dealer and not the public ones... So we left the car at the dealer before they went on Christmas break. Will probably poke at it a bit on the 26th when sales reopen, and then talk to service on the 27th when they're back.

I haven't been following this thread. Has anyone mentioned a failed diode yet?

jt123 said:

Since the 12V replacement we haven't had the car disabled yet, but at this point it's only taking charge with the AeroEnvironment EVSE at the dealer and not the public ones... So we left the car at the dealer before they went on Christmas break. Will probably poke at it a bit on the 26th when sales reopen, and then talk to service on the 27th when they're back.

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The statement bolded above (by me) screams blown diode! Mentioning that up front would have ended the discussion.
The dealer can replace the OBC assembly ($$), or you can search this forum for a diode-only replacement DIY thread ($), but the latter requires some electronics/soldering expertise...or you can continue with only being able to charge on AE equipment.
I sure hope none of those EVSE's are in the US!

Stanton said:

jt123 said:

Since the 12V replacement we haven't had the car disabled yet, but at this point it's only taking charge with the AeroEnvironment EVSE at the dealer and not the public ones... So we left the car at the dealer before they went on Christmas break. Will probably poke at it a bit on the 26th when sales reopen, and then talk to service on the 27th when they're back.

Click to expand...

The statement bolded above (by me) screams blown diode! Mentioning that up front would have ended the discussion.
The dealer can replace the OBC assembly ($$), or you can search this forum for a diode-only replacement DIY thread ($), but the latter requires some electronics/soldering expertise...or you can continue with only being able to charge on AE equipment.
I sure hope none of those EVSE's are in the US!

Click to expand...

thank you, very useful! the current issue definitely points close to this! the car is still under warranty so will just let Nissan take care of it.

the first failure (before they replaced the power assmebly module) was WEIRD though, because after they probed a long time, the found the quick charge port circuit to be FRIED! nissan wouldn't believe the tech and they had to show picture evidence.

Addendum: does the problem apply to the 2013 and onwards?

the plot thickens... looks like its most likely not a diode, and looks like the new charger has something strange going on... there's basically random failures during the charging routine, and after which a 12V reconnect seem to be required to get the car working normally again. Since this is (probably) related to the new PDM and not original failure, i've started a new thread here:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=25091

jt123 said:

the plot thickens... looks like its most likely not a diode, and looks like the new charger has something strange going on... there's basically random failures during the charging routine, and after which a 12V reconnect seem to be required to get the car working normally again. Since this is (probably) related to the new PDM and not original failure, i've started a new thread here:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=25091

Click to expand...

I don't know what laws would be in Canada, but here in California, we have a lemon law, basically if the same issue fails more than three times in the warranty period, the car is considered a lemon and they must make you whole again, usually this means they buy the car back from you for everything that you paid, including interest on the loan. If it is a lease, then they refund all lease payments plus any downpayment.

Now as I said that is usually more than three times, but if they can't figure the problem out, then you can often get it to be considered a lemon sooner than that. Something to look into at least.