2012 Nissan Leaf charging issues

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Ichibahn

New member
Joined
Apr 19, 2019
Messages
4
Hi guys and girls,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
I have been looking at buying a used Nissan Leaf for a while now and finally went and checked one out yesterday. It has a charging issue however. The owner showed me that when he plugs it in to the QC port the three lights light up but the QC charger shows the battery as full already. The car currently has no range on it but the battery health display shows 8/12 bars. I did not have the chance to take a look at what happens when it's plugged into the regular charging port as a QC was the only thing available where we met up. He stated that the car also had a ton of codes on it but I failed to bring along my OBD II scan dongle so I didn't get to check them.
Anyone have this issue before? I want to buy the car because the price is right but am hesitant because I don't know what the range is that is left on it.

It's a 2012 with ~73k miles on it.

Thanks in advanced for any help.

Also I tried to search for similar issues on here but all the charging port issues I've found didn't have to do with the QC port.
 
Ichibahn said:
Hi guys and girls,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
I have been looking at buying a used Nissan Leaf for a while now and finally went and checked one out yesterday. It has a charging issue however. The owner showed me that when he plugs it in to the QC port the three lights light up but the QC charger shows the battery as full already. The car currently has no range on it but the battery health display shows 8/12 bars. I did not have the chance to take a look at what happens when it's plugged into the regular charging port as a QC was the only thing available where we met up. He stated that the car also had a ton of codes on it but I failed to bring along my OBD II scan dongle so I didn't get to check them.
Anyone have this issue before? I want to buy the car because the price is right but am hesitant because I don't know what the range is that is left on it.

It's a 2012 with ~73k miles on it.

Thanks in advanced for any help.

Also I tried to search for similar issues on here but all the charging port issues I've found didn't have to do with the QC port.

Unless you want to take the car apart, and have access to a junkyard of similar aged LEAFs, don't touch.

Car might have one or more dead cells, or perhaps a LBC failure, or HV relay problem, or ... This is likely not just a QC charging problem.

Do you have high voltage isolation gloves? Have you worked on an EV before? Or at least know someone that has?

Once you get this LEAF working, it might have 75 km or 50 miles of range on a good day, and I wouldn't suggest it for trips longer than 50km even in good weather. On a cold day, several years in the future, perhaps 15km or 10 miles to LBW and another 10km after that. Remember that the same range is left at LBW as would be left with a new LEAF.
 
WetEV said:
Ichibahn said:
Hi guys and girls,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
I have been looking at buying a used Nissan Leaf for a while now and finally went and checked one out yesterday. It has a charging issue however. The owner showed me that when he plugs it in to the QC port the three lights light up but the QC charger shows the battery as full already. The car currently has no range on it but the battery health display shows 8/12 bars. I did not have the chance to take a look at what happens when it's plugged into the regular charging port as a QC was the only thing available where we met up. He stated that the car also had a ton of codes on it but I failed to bring along my OBD II scan dongle so I didn't get to check them.
Anyone have this issue before? I want to buy the car because the price is right but am hesitant because I don't know what the range is that is left on it.

It's a 2012 with ~73k miles on it.

Thanks in advanced for any help.

Also I tried to search for similar issues on here but all the charging port issues I've found didn't have to do with the QC port.

Unless you want to take the car apart, and have access to a junkyard of similar aged LEAFs, don't touch.

Car might have one or more dead cells, or perhaps a LBC failure, or HV relay problem, or ... This is likely not just a QC charging problem.

Do you have high voltage isolation gloves? Have you worked on an EV before? Or at least know someone that has?

Once you get this LEAF working, it might have 75 km or 50 miles of range on a good day, and I wouldn't suggest it for trips longer than 50km even in good weather. On a cold day, several years in the future, perhaps 15km or 10 miles to LBW and another 10km after that. Remember that the same range is left at LBW as would be left with a new LEAF.


Thank you for responding.
I've worked on and rebuilt a Prius hybrid battery before so felt pretty comfortable with working on this but am also leaning to stay away right now. I've read some threads that state the OBC was replaced and it fixed charging issue but I'm currently not sure if that's it and it seems like a expensive move for so little range. I was thinking of getting it for my daily commute but at a bit above $2k it's a large gamble. I only drive 30 miles a day, usually less.
 
Without OBD codes, it is impossible to say or suggest about the state of the AUTO and the frequency of the battery.
 
MAR156 said:
Without OBD codes, it is impossible to say or suggest about the state of the AUTO and the frequency of the battery.

Yeah. I'm gonna keep looking for another one. This one just has too many unknowns for me.

Thanks!
 
It all depends on the price, but the OBD codes are very desirable, and the status of the battery is 8 out of 12 (IF THEY ARE RIGHT!) For your mileage, in principle, I will now go to work on a similar AUTO for about 70 km
 
Just to update:

I passed on the purchase and the guy selling it text me just now saying he took it into Nissan and they did a firmware update and now it's back to normal.

Oh well
 
Smells fishy to me.
Take "what the guy texts me" with a grain of salt. Get the name/phone number of the Nissan dealer who did the "firmware update". to verify what was done.
 
Ichibahn said:
Just to update:

I passed on the purchase and the guy selling it text me just now saying he took it into Nissan and they did a firmware update and now it's back to normal.

Oh well
@Ichibahn, I don’t know what part of the country you are in, but if you’re serious about a 2012, I have one available in excellent condition. I agree with @LeftieBiker’s dead-on recommendations, but I have what I have. My LEAF is an SL, just over 13,000 miles, upgraded TCU for 3G service, unused spare wheel and tire, HVAC controller upgrade from Ingineer to allow ventilation withOUT turning on heater/compressor. If you have an interest, PM me. I can capture and forward any current LeafSpyPro readings including code status. Original traction battery since deterioration was not sufficient for 5-year warranty replacement, now showing 10 bars. Note that the 2012 SL includes QC port, heated seats front and back, electronic parking brake, and was made in Japan.
 
Back
Top