Leaf dead after two week vacation

Not knowing what my first day back would require, and not having read the recommendation to not charge too high before leaving the car alone, I charged it to 100% and also left it plugged in while I was gone. During that time, there were periods when I got updates about the car being fully charged every hour (our house has marginal cell coverage, so I often don't get any updates for days at a time).

So when I got back the car has no life whatsoever. There is no response to anything, except that when I re-plug it in, the AV EVSE does change to indicate that there is a vehicle connected.

My guess is that something discharged the 12V battery and that has killed everything else. I have not tried to jump it yet, but if I don't hear anything better, that will be my next thing to try.

Hoping not to have to drive my ICE (with broken A/C) to work tomorrow...

mweston said:

During that time, there were periods when I got updates about the car being fully charged every hour (our house has marginal cell coverage, so I often don't get any updates for days at a time).

My guess is that something discharged the 12V battery and that has killed everything else.

Click to expand...

I'd guess those two statements might be connected.

Why Carwings was being so persistent is another question...

If your 12V battery was dead for a week it has been fatally wounded (even if it can be recharged).. measure its voltage if you can, hopefully its around 10V and if so it may survive.

Herm said:

If your 12V battery was dead for a week it has been fatally wounded (even if it can be recharged).. measure its voltage if you can, hopefully its around 10V and if so it may survive.

Click to expand...

Looks like 2.84V. Not good. Sounds like you don't think it's even worth jumping, so maybe I'll call the dealer in the morning before bothering with that.

Sounds like you accidentally left the car in accessory mode (maybe to check something right before you left). That would discharge your 12 volt battery in a hurry, but the traction pack would come on every 30 minutes or so and boost it back up just a little. I've never tried it myself, but maybe this would trigger the charging messages too...

mweston said:

Herm said:

If your 12V battery was dead for a week it has been fatally wounded (even if it can be recharged).. measure its voltage if you can, hopefully its around 10V and if so it may survive.

Click to expand...

Looks like 2.84V. Not good. Sounds like you don't think it's even worth jumping, so maybe I'll call the dealer in the morning before bothering with that.

Click to expand...

It'll be good enough to get the car booted up and headed over to the dealer if your main traction battery has enough juice. You may try jumping it and then powering on the car for 30 min to see if that charges the battery enough to let you charge the car.

Yep, it sure sounds like something was left on to me too. However, I'm not sure that the battery is actually charged that often in that mode (it's five days when the car is off), which may account for it being dead...
I'd try a jump and see if that brings it back to life and what the state of charge in the pack is at that point if it does. If the pack is also discharged, you have your answer.

In my first week of ownership, I accidentally left the car on at work one day when distracted and when I came back 12 hours later, it had gone from 9 to 4 bars...

DarkStar said:

Sounds like you accidentally left the car in accessory mode (maybe to check something right before you left). That would discharge your 12 volt battery in a hurry, but the traction pack would come on every 30 minutes or so and boost it back up just a little. I've never tried it myself, but maybe this would trigger the charging messages too...

Click to expand...

Jumping did nothing. Roadside assistance is theoretically on the way.

I'm worried that the dealer will force recharge the battery and send you home.. you will be back sooner than later. Its possible the Leaf will do well (due to a low load) with a wounded battery but you dont need the aggravation in a new car.

It may be that the pack is also completely discharged though jumping the accessory battery should have allowed you to at least get it to accept a charge from the EVSE...

mweston said:

Jumping did nothing. Roadside assistance is theoretically on the way.

Click to expand...

Either way, keep us posted!

If the voltage in the accessory battery is extremely low, the DC/DC converter in the car will not be able to charge it because it detects an inversion of polarity and reads it as a defective battery.

The only option in that case would be to remove the 12V battery and charge it with a trickle charger in the lowest setting; it may take a whole night but it should bring it back to life, for some time, at least as it may have been damaged and need replacement.

DO NOT USE AN EXTERNAL CHARGER WHILE THE 12V BATTERY IS ON THE VEHICLE, it can damage the DC/DC converter.

"DO NOT USE AN EXTERNAL CHARGER WHILE THE 12V BATTERY IS ON THE VEHICLE, it can damage the DC/DC converter."

That's news to me. Is that in the owner's manual somewhere? :?

This happened to a co-worker of mine here at Microsoft, after leaving his vehicle charging (to 80%, I believe) while on vacation. Nissan got the vehicle from him and proceeded to spend several days analyzing it. Their verdict was that the 12-volt battery was bad, and so they replaced it, confirmed that the vehicle was indeed charging the 12-volt battery as needed (ie. when it drained a lot from lack of driving), and then returned it to the owner. No men in black, but I'd have been interested in seeing what kind of auto-topsy they did.

He said he was going to post his story on the forums and see if others were seeing the problem, though I don't recall seeing a post. It sure sounds like the original poster experienced something similar, if not the same thing.

KeithFrechette said:

This happened to a co-worker of mine here at Microsoft, after leaving his vehicle charging (to 80%, I believe) while on vacation. Nissan got the vehicle from him and proceeded to spend several days analyzing it. Their verdict was that the 12-volt battery was bad, and so they replaced it, confirmed that the vehicle was indeed charging the 12-volt battery as needed (ie. when it drained a lot from lack of driving), and then returned it to the owner. No men in black, but I'd have been interested in seeing what kind of auto-topsy they did.

He said he was going to post his story on the forums and see if others were seeing the problem, though I don't recall seeing a post. It sure sounds like the original poster experienced something similar, if not the same thing.

Click to expand...

That's interesting to know....so does the LEAF traction battery always tries to charge the 12v battery, or just when it is on? If it always try charging it, then we might see more of this issue as other 12v LEAF batteries get older, and starts to die, pulling the HV battery with it.

You likely need a new 12V battery, if you are lucky and it can't be charged at the dealer they may replace it under warranty. You also may get stuck paying for an overpriced battery. I would have swapped it with a 12V battery and be done with it since going to the dealer is a big time suck unless you know for certain the car was off.

If the vehicle is ON , it charges it constantly. If it is OFF, it charges it once every five days.

occ said:

That's interesting to know....so does the LEAF traction battery always tries to charge the 12v battery, or just when it is on? If it always try charging it, then we might see more of this issue as other 12v LEAF batteries get older, and starts to die, pulling the HV battery with it.

Click to expand...

mogur said:

If the vehicle is ON , it charges it constantly. If it is OFF, it charges it once every five days.

occ said:

That's interesting to know....so does the LEAF traction battery always tries to charge the 12v battery, or just when it is on? If it always try charging it, then we might see more of this issue as other 12v LEAF batteries get older, and starts to die, pulling the HV battery with it.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

OK...follow-on question: So if the LEAF is off, then on that 5th day, it starts charging the 12v battery from the Main battery, and the 12v battery is dead/shorted/drawing excessive current, would it stay in that "trying to charge the 12v battery" drawing power until the Main battery is dead too? i.e. is there a timeout, and then a flag set to say "no more 12v charging from now on", and set a malfunction light somewhere? What can any of us do about this, in the likely-event that the 12v battery will die eventually? Looks like when the 12v dies, could be a complete stranding...that even a 12v jump will not fix.

occ said:

mogur said:

If the vehicle is ON , it charges it constantly. If it is OFF, it charges it once every five days.

occ said:

That's interesting to know....so does the LEAF traction battery always tries to charge the 12v battery, or just when it is on? If it always try charging it, then we might see more of this issue as other 12v LEAF batteries get older, and starts to die, pulling the HV battery with it.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

OK...follow-on question: So if the LEAF is off, then on that 5th day, it starts charging the 12v battery from the Main battery, and the 12v battery is dead/shorted/drawing excessive current, would it stay in that "trying to charge the 12v battery" drawing power until the Main battery is dead too? i.e. is there a timeout, and then a flag set to say "no more 12v charging from now on", and set a malfunction light somewhere? What can any of us do about this, in the likely-event that the 12v battery will die eventually? Looks like when the 12v dies, could be a complete stranding...that even a 12v jump will not fix.

Click to expand...

If the 12V is dead the contactor will not close and no charge will result. So if the battery is very low contractor operation is not possible.

A comment from the discussion at Microsoft sums it up pretty well:

"2011 technology foiled by 1859 technology...."