2011 not charging with EVSE - left light solid blue

Hi all,

Yes i'm a newbie but I've searched the other posts about Leaf's that stop charging, and my situation seems a little different.

So a week ago I bought a used 2011 Leaf with 88,000 kilometres. Level 2 charger not yet installed in my house so have been using the ESVE with no problems for the first week, then today it just won't charge. Specifically: I came home and turned off the charge timers. I plugged in the level 1 charger and no blue lights turned on. The charger had a green 'ready' light. I pressed the instant charge button just in case the car had 'forgotten' i turned off the timers... this made the left blue light turn on but solid, not flashing, and the plug symbol lights up in the car. And a few minutes later the blue light turns off. I unplugged and this sequence all repeated. The manual doesn't talk about the left blue light staying solid.

Context:
- I just had it 'certified' at a Quebec inspection place that only certifies used vehicles from out of province, so wouldn't get many EVs. I wonder if they messed something up?
- I was experimenting with range today, and got home with 7km to spare.
- It's about -8 degrees celsius where I am.
- There was a huge snow storm a couple days ago and the charger was in it for a while, but never registered any fault.
- car has 9 out of 12 battery

The level 2 charger will be installed tomorrow, so I'll know more then. I'm hoping it's just too cold for the level 1 to handle when the battery is that low? In the meantime, i'm worried about the PDM problems others have written about on day 7 of ownership

Other threads I checked:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=24485 (and related links)

Would super super appreciate any insight, especially as I may be dragging this to the dealer tomorrow, and am still learning about EVs and don't want to get hozed! :roll:

That's kind of an unusual situation. I suppose that you may have a failed diode in the onboard charger (worst case?) or an issue with the EVSE. I was thinking that the pack got too cold, but even with your 2011 likely not having a battery warmer, it should be so cold that it wouldn't charge. Let's wait for possibly someone who has experienced this before you panic.

One thing you can now do is check the voltage of the 12 volt battery under the hood, with the car off, using a multimeter set to "DC Volts." 12 volt battery failure can cause an amazing variety of faults in EVs, and even if your car's 12 volt battery was replaced once at 3 years, it may be dying again. If the battery reads 12.2 or so volts or less, it becomes the Prime Suspect. Under 12.0 volts and you likely have your killer. ;-)

LeftieBiker said:

That's kind of an unusual situation. I suppose that you may have a failed diode in the onboard charger (worst case?) or an issue with the EVSE. I was thinking that the pack got too cold, but even with your 2011 likely not having a battery warmer, it should be so cold that it wouldn't charge. Let's wait for possibly someone who has experienced this before you panic.

One thing you can now do is check the voltage of the 12 volt battery under the hood, with the car off, using a multimeter set to "DC Volts." 12 volt battery failure can cause an amazing variety of faults in EVs, and even if your car's 12 volt battery was replaced once at 3 years, it may be dying again. If the battery reads 12.2 or so volts or less, it becomes the Prime Suspect. Under 12.0 volts and you likely have your killer. ;-)

Click to expand...

Thanks so much. I will do this later today with an electrician present so I don't fry myself!

My 2011 does have a battery warmer.

I updated my OP because just before this happened I took it to the Inspection station my province requires only for used cars purchased outside of the province. They may not get a lot of EVs, and I wonder if in their 'testing' they fried something?

I am already at panic stage, i have to admit :shock:

I have a 2013 LEAF. Its manual shows the indicator lights on page CH-37. If the passenger side light is on it can mean that the EVSE is connected but the car is not charging. Try pushing the immediate charge button in the car again.

In the past I have experienced my car not registering that I have pushed the button. I'm not sure if it matters whether the EVSE is connected or not but the problem was solved each time by trying the button a few more times. It has not happened for months now so my memory is foggy about the details. Mostly I walked away with the impression that sometimes the button has to be pushed firmly.

I tried it on my neighbour's Level 2 and still it won't charge. Pushing the immediate charge button makes the blue light turn on solid but it does not really charge.

Delete the timer setting in your car, then try charging.
If that does not work then search for 'diode' in this forum and see if the symptoms are similar to yours. They may not be exact because different EVSEs lead to different specific lights -- but they all share the problem of not being able to charge on some EVSEs

Anitza said:

...today it just won't charge. Specifically: I came home and turned off the charge timers. I plugged in the level 1 charger and no blue lights turned on. ...

Click to expand...

To be clear, you didn't plug in the EVSE until *after* turning off the timers? If that's the case then I'd suspect that "turning off the timers" somehow precipitated the problem. I'd second the recommendation of completely deleting all timers and schedules. If that doesn't work, I'd disconnect the 12V battery for a while, reconnect and retry charging.

And as Leftie said, a weak 12V battery can create all kinds of havoc.

Anitza said:

Hi all,

Yes i'm a newbie but I've searched the other posts about Leaf's that stop charging, and my situation seems a little different.

So a week ago I bought a used 2011 Leaf with 88,000 kilometres. Level 2 charger not yet installed in my house so have been using the ESVE with no problems for the first week, then today it just won't charge. Specifically: I came home and turned off the charge timers. I plugged in the level 1 charger and no blue lights turned on. The charger had a green 'ready' light. I pressed the instant charge button just in case the car had 'forgotten' i turned off the timers... this made the left blue light turn on but solid, not flashing, and the plug symbol lights up in the car. And a few minutes later the blue light turns off. I unplugged and this sequence all repeated. The manual doesn't talk about the left blue light staying solid.

Click to expand...

I have a 2011 Leaf, so my car's behavior should be identical to yours. Note that I have charge timers configured and enabled. I set my charge timers to charge to 80% from 3am until 2:50am.

With the EVSE disconnected, and the car OFF, hitting the immediate charge button (located to the left of the steering wheel) toggles the middle light (not the left). Sometimes when I hit this button the car does not respond, especially if it's been asleep, and I have to hit it twice. Hitting the button again will toggle immediate charge (the light will turn on and off). Once the middle light is illuminated, I connect the EVSE and it will beep twice, pause, and beep again. It will then charge. The middle light will be illuminated solid (not flashing) for 15 minutes. If no EVSE is detected in 15 minutes, it will automatically turn off.

If the immediate mode charge button is illuminating the left light, I would double check the dash to make sure it's not the middle. If you're getting any other behavior, I would agree with others in this forum that a faulty 12V is an extremely likely cause. I would disconnect the 12V battery (located under the hood), charge it using an external battery charger for a few hours, and then read the voltage using a multimeter. If < 12V, get a new battery. Then reconnect the battery and try the immediate charge button again.

Disconnecting the battery for > 5 minutes will cause the car computers to reset. I have had one case in the last year where my 12V battery became depleted and the Leaf was behaving strangely. Simply charging the battery was not enough--I had to disconnect the battery for a few minutes to reset normal operation. This will also clear any charge timers or misconfiguration, if somehow the programming got corrupted.

Once you can verify that the immediate charge is illuminating the middle light with the car off and EVSE disconnected, you can connect the EVSE. Your car will probably charge. If not, see the rest of this post.

Keep in mind the early Leaf on-board chargers had a problem with certain EVSE equipment where the EVSE could fry the on board charger. See:
https://www.plugincars.com/nissan-dealer-warns-customers-using-ges-wattstation-charger-can-damage-your-leaf-123121.html

When this happens, the diode fails, which is manifested by no response from the car when connecting the EVSE. If you get no response from the car when connecting the EVSE, your diode may have failed. Thankfully, checking a diode failure is very quick and requires only a multimeter.

Follow the instructions in the video to diagnose the diode using a multimeter:
https://youtu.be/5R4dGg8nIUs?t=35

While the diode failure is a design issue inside the Nissan Leaf, it was not recalled. This fault will not usually happen with the Nissan supplied EVSE, the Upgraded Nissan EVSE (evseupgrade), or the common chargers used by most people on these forums (Juicebox, etc). However, if you do have a GE Wattstation, get a different EVSE.



Finally, my experience with Nissan dealerships has been extremely poor. They do not typically understand the Leaf, nor demonstrate skill to diagnose issues with it. Their typical approach for repairs seems to be replacing parts (mostly) at random until the problem disappears. I would do everything in my power to avoid taking the car to them. You're likely to get a multi-thousand dollar repair bill that might not even fix your issue. Three separate dealerships were unable to even follow a technical bulletin (presumably, with detailed steps) to unplug the power cable from the TCU in my Nissan Leaf. After 3 attempts, I gave up and just did the service myself in 15 minutes.

If you can fully diagnose the issue yourself, your chances at a successful outcome will be much better. Sorry you're having problems with your new Leaf... for what it's worth, I really love mine.

If you're stuck and want to give me a call, drop me a PM and I'll give you my phone #.

Deleting the timer seemed to have worked!!!!!!!!!! I am so grateful to you people!!!

SageBrush and Nubo, if by 'delete' you mean setting the times back to "--" then that's what i did. (They were for sure already off.) NB I had only set and used charge Timer 2 for some reason, and I wonder if turning it off when Timer 1 wasn't ever set somehow confused the poor computer's brain. To just play around I made Timer 1 applicable to Fridays (today) but didn't turn that one on either. Not sure which action did it.

So I pressed the immediate charge button (middle blue light went on), plugged in to a Level 2, and it's charging!!

LothSahn I had the very same concerns about bringing it into the dealer. From my limited experience getting it safetied I could tell they really don't know these cars inside out. That's concerning. Plus I'm a short female climbing this learning curve so an easy candidate for getting hozed!

I still have to figure out how to ensure this doesn't happen again with the timers. There does seem to be something funny going on there. But I cancelled the tow truck!

Huge thanks to you all! I hope to return the favour on this forum one day soon.

If you had two timers active then I suggest you use only one in the future. You'd be amazed at how many failure-to-charge issues are caused by the charging timers. You may also want to verify that the timer override (immediate charge) button hasn't failed or gotten disconnected. Oh, and I also suggest that every month or two you 'top off' the 12 volt battery with an external trickle charge like Battery Tender. No need to disconnect the 12 volt battery to do that. Just connect and disconnect the trickle charger with the car Off.

Anitza said:

Deleting the timer seemed to have worked!!!!!!!!!! I am so grateful to you people!!!

LothSahn I had the very same concerns about bringing it into the dealer. From my limited experience getting it safetied I could tell they really don't know these cars inside out. That's concerning. Plus I'm a short female climbing this learning curve so an easy candidate for getting hozed!

Click to expand...

VERY glad to hear it.

Remember, it doesn't matter how tall you are or what gender you are, just what's between your ears. You seem like you're smart and you have the right attitude, so I expect you'll climb that curve quite quickly.

Lothsahn said:

Anitza said:

Remember, it doesn't matter how tall you are or what gender you are, just what's between your ears. You seem like you're smart and you have the right attitude, so I expect you'll climb that curve quite quickly.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Now getting off topic, but put it this way: being a petit female means the frequency of people trying to pull fast ones may be a bit higher. Whether they succeed or not is indeed a function of what's between the ears But the added effort is a drain on my own batteries.

Nonetheless, thanks again for helping me climb this learning curve!

LeftieBiker said:

If you had two timers active then I suggest you use only one in the future. You'd be amazed at how many failure-to-charge issues are caused by the charging timers. You may also want to verify that the timer override (immediate charge) button hasn't failed or gotten disconnected. Oh, and I also suggest that every month or two you 'top off' the 12 volt battery with an external trickle charge like Battery Tender. No need to disconnect the 12 volt battery to do that. Just connect and disconnect the trickle charger with the car Off.

Click to expand...

The BatteryTenderPlus comes with a ring terminal pigtail that I simply attached to the battery cable lugs. Ran the wire out the charger port in the front. I now can easily charge the 12V battery without even opening the hood!

gncndad said:

LeftieBiker said:

If you had two timers active then I suggest you use only one in the future. You'd be amazed at how many failure-to-charge issues are caused by the charging timers. You may also want to verify that the timer override (immediate charge) button hasn't failed or gotten disconnected. Oh, and I also suggest that every month or two you 'top off' the 12 volt battery with an external trickle charge like Battery Tender. No need to disconnect the 12 volt battery to do that. Just connect and disconnect the trickle charger with the car Off.

Click to expand...

The BatteryTenderPlus comes with a ring terminal pigtail that I simply attached to the battery cable lugs. Ran the wire out the charger port in the front. I now can easily charge the 12V battery without even opening the hood!

Click to expand...

I'd like to see a couple of photos if possible.

I did the same thing with my 2013. There are a couple of things that make it a bit more work. First, the lead on the Battery tender JR isn't long enough - I had to extend it a couple of feet with a section of appliance cord. (Maybe the larger BT has a longer lead, in which case you'd likely need to cut it.) Second, you have to drill through the plastic in the charge port compartment, and if you want a small hole, you have to assemble the extended lead only after running it through the hole. A grommet is nice, but not absolutely necessary. It works very well, but I didn't suggest it because it is a fair amount of work.

LeftieBiker said:

I did the same thing with my 2013. There are a couple of things that make it a bit more work. First, the lead on the Battery tender JR isn't long enough - I had to extend it a couple of feet with a section of appliance cord. (Maybe the larger BT has a longer lead, in which case you'd likely need to cut it.) Second, you have to drill through the plastic in the charge port compartment, and if you want a small hole, you have to assemble the extended lead only after running it through the hole. A grommet is nice, but not absolutely necessary. It works very well, but I didn't suggest it because it is a fair amount of work.

Click to expand...

Sagebrush: I attached the ring terminals to the top accessory posts.

LeftieBiker: I purchased an extension (don't remember from where?) for the BT cord. On my 15, I removed the upper plastic cowling behind the "grill", ran the cord underneath the cowling and through an opening in the charge port compartment...didn't drill anything.

The excess cord is wire-tied next to the battery.

My 2012 LEAF SL refuses to take a level 1 or level 2 charge. It just kicks out after 8 seconds and gives me LEAFspy error codes:
B2840
B2820
U1000
U1A05
I have replaced the 12v battery & confirmed it has over 12.5 resting volts available. I have ruled out they bad diode possibility by following EVs Enhanced you tube video.

So now I'm looking for a used replacement ON-board charger. The salvageyard/seller doesn't know if the charger came from a Level 3 quick charge capable car.

Did all 2012 LEAF on-board chargers come with L3 quick charging capabilities, (regardless of trim level)?

Thank for any advice!

***

@nubo, please delete your post--you have posted incorrect information about the OBC. The VCM schematic is posted in the engineering section. Your knowledge and understanding of the OBC is lacking in this case. There is obviously a connection in the OBC related to DCQC.

The B2820 code refers to an error of the quick chargger, either from the DC chargger or an incorrect voltage reading by the LBC.

The B2840 code has 4 subgroups of potential failure points, 3 are related to the OBC and the 4th could be the AC input voltage, the EV_SE or the OBC. The listing of this code was posted in another thread, here is the link.https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=30617&p=573221#p573221

The U1000 is for missing or erratic CAN buss messages to the OBC,

The U1A05 doesn't show up in the list for the OBC, VCM or LBC, so is there more information in your scanner.

The U-codes are related to CAN buss communication faults, which can be caused by a weak, old or worn out 12V battery. A new battery should be much higher than 12.5 OCV.