In-car charger replaced

Sorry if these questions have been asked but I couldn't seem to come up with a good set of words that would produce a valid search. I recently had to have my in-car charger replaced. I was just shy of 77,000 miles on my 2011 Leaf.

1. Have other owners had to deal with this? At how many miles?
2. How common is this issue?
3. Does Nissan replace it with like charger (3.3) for the 2011 or with the newer 6.6 charger? ( I asked the technician and he said the newer one but I didn't necessarily trust his answer. When I asked him if anything else had to be changed out to accommodate the newer charger, he said "no." I thought there was a lot more work for such an upgrade)

Any thoughts would be welcome :|

mistermar said:

Sorry if these questions have been asked but I couldn't seem to come up with a good set of words that would produce a valid search. I recently had to have my in-car charger replaced. I was just shy of 77,000 miles on my 2011 Leaf.

1. Have other owners had to deal with this? At how many miles?
2. How common is this issue?
3. Does Nissan replace it with like charger (3.3) for the 2011 or with the newer 6.6 charger? ( I asked the technician and he said the newer one but I didn't necessarily trust his answer. When I asked him if anything else had to be changed out to accommodate the newer charger, he said "no." I thought there was a lot more work for such an upgrade)

Any thoughts would be welcome :|

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I would doubt they would replace it with a 6.6kW charger. You could post the part number from the invoice and someone could look it up.

Was it covered under warranty?

Yeah, I don't think I'd trust that answer. The 6.6 kW inverter on the newer LEAFs is located under the hood (in the "engine compartment"), whereas the 3.3 kW inverter on a 2011 LEAF is located in the hump between the rear seats and the luggage area. I don't think it's possible to upgrade a 2011 LEAF with the larger (Nissan-made) inverter.

I would insist that the better 6.6 one be installed, or offer to pay the difference....

The 6.6Kw charger was not a year to year improvement or a superseded part, it was an added option in later years. You have no leg to stand on to insist they replace the 3.3 with a 6.6, but yes, you could always pay for it out of pocket, but as mentioned in a previous post, it is not just a new part replacment. It would require rewiring, probably replacing other parts under the hood, etc... very expensive.

Thanks all for your respective input. I tend to believe the collective here especially if the two versions are installed in completely different locations. The tech did say it was installed in the back seat area; hence, it was probably the 3.3. I did make an attempt to look at the part number on the invoice but it was very difficult to read. I think they still use a dot matrix printer and it didn't transfer very well onto my copy. I don't think I'll go through the trouble of getting the part number from the dealer now because I think we already know the answer.

Unfortunately, I'm out of warranty based on time and mileage so I had to pay full freight on this one It was about $2400 when it was all said and done. Even with this expense, though, my Leaf is still 2.5x less expensive to operate and maintain than my gasoline-powered vehicles.

Thanks, again.

mistermar said:

... Unfortunately, I'm out of warranty based on time and mileage so I had to pay full freight on this one It was about $2400 when it was all said and done. Even with this expense, though, my Leaf is still 2.5x less expensive to operate and maintain than my gasoline-powered vehicles.

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Did you keep the old one?

Likely it could be repaired by someone with inexpensive diode replacement.

Dealer will not do that.
They will only replace the whole charger which is very expensive.

On Prius shops sprung up that could do diode replacements.

I haven't heard of anyone for LEAF charger yet, but it is probably just a matter of time.

You asked how common charger failres have been.
They were fairly common early on.
Haven't heard of too many recently.
Some died from GE EVSE use.
Nissan programming had an incompatibility that was corrected by P3227.

Mine has lasted five years and four months without failure.
But I only have 35,000 miles.
So about half the use of yours at failure.

ahagge said:

The 6.6 kW inverter on the newer LEAFs is located under the hood (in the "engine compartment"), whereas the 3.3 kW inverter on a 2011 LEAF is located in the hump between the rear seats and the luggage area. I don't think it's possible to upgrade a 2011 LEAF with the larger (Nissan-made) inverter.

Click to expand...

Yes. The OBC on '11 and '12 Leafs is under the hump in the back: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=3010. There are coolant lines that also go back there.

And, there's a high voltage line from the inlet to the back where the charger is: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=3896.

It got moved to the front of the car, under the hood, as part of the PDM stack on the '13+. See http://articles.sae.org/11993/ and 2nd to last slide of http://sfbayleafs.org/news/2013/01/2013-nissan-leaf-product-highlights/.

To top it off, the b&w display on Leafs w/6.x kW OBCs has 3 charging estimate times: 240V 6 kW, 240V 3 kW and 120V.

The cost of trying to retrofit an '11 or '12 Leaf to accept a '13's OBC probably means replacing the entire stack under the hood and then some. It would probably cost more than the used value of a '12 Leaf.