Heater failure

The heater stopped working in the Leaf and there didn't seem to be any fuse blown, so I took it in to the dealer and after initial diagnosis, they said they had to have some specialists flown in. They said there was one other car with this problem. Anyone else out there have that car?

There was a heater related problem that was being fixed in the distribution center (at the port) on the early cars. But this was like 8 months ago, so I don't remember exactly what it was. Something to do with the wiring loom going to the heater getting trapped and potentially causing a short, IIRC.

One other person on here had a heater issue that took some days for the dealer and Nissan to resolve. I don't remember who it was but you can search for it here.

svtripper said:

The heater stopped working in the Leaf and there didn't seem to be any fuse blown, so I took it in to the dealer and after initial diagnosis, they said they had to have some specialists flown in. They said there was one other car with this problem. Anyone else out there have that car?

Click to expand...

Looks like my heater won't come on, either. Do they know what the issue was with this? I'll make an appointment to take the Leaf in for Monday or Tuesday.

You're not getting a Check Engine Light or error code? Find out what it is and let us know. It would be nice to know what can cause a heater failure without throwing a code. Some of us, like here in South Florida, will rarely if ever need heat, and it would be nice to know how to disable it. :twisted:

No error light, nothing looks out of the ordinary. But I have the climate control on, with the temperature set to 90, for several minutes, and the air is purely outside air. On the energy screen, I see no climate control power drawn. Outside temperature is 56 degrees when I tried it.

phxsmiley said:

No error light, nothing looks out of the ordinary. But I have the climate control on, with the temperature set to 90, for several minutes, and the air is purely outside air. On the energy screen, I see no climate control power drawn. Outside temperature is 56 degrees when I tried it.

Click to expand...

Sounds like it could be 1 or 2 things:

1. The low voltage control circuit (probably a relay) that connects the HV to the Heater coil is broken

or

2. the heater coil is defective or open, or wiring became disconnected to it.

svtripper said:

The heater stopped working in the Leaf and there didn't seem to be any fuse blown

Click to expand...

You won't find a blown fuse, of course, because the heater runs off the ~400v main battery, not the 12v auxiliary system. There is no way you will find 400v fuses in an owner-accessible fuse box. If it were as simple as pulling a 12v fuse the folks complaining about no switch to turn the heater off would have solved their problem some time ago.

Ray

I am the guy who had the heater failure the day I got the car and had similar symptoms. Although the heater failed as a result of DC block sending too much voltage I think. They replaced tons of wiring and QC port as well. Thread here

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3262&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IBELEAF said:

Thread here

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Corrected URL:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3262&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Took car into dealer yesterday, and they confirmed that the heater module had failed. The pump appeared to still be working, but no heat generated by the coil. They are expediting the part in from Japan, and will have it here by Friday or Monday.

He stated that this was the third one on the west coast that failed.

Just got the heater fixed today, and this was what was replaced, according to the invoice:

92516-3NA0A PUMP ASSY

Part was shipped from Japan, arrived in about 1 week. Heater works well now

I have not tried mine yet. Maybe I should soon.

Glad this had a happy ending.

I wish I could have mine fixed. When I crank it up to 90 it blows slightly warmish air. Wish I could upgrade to the cold weather package with seat heaters. Can't so I have to wear a big sweater. Lucky late adopters

After reading this thread, I decided to try my heater; since I live in San Diego, I've never had occasion to use it up to now. So....I selected "automatic", set the temp up to 90 degrees. Well well----my heater doesn't work. rear defroster works, fan runs like crazy, but no heat whatsoever.

So, I'll take it to the dealer for diagnosis/repair.

derkraut said:

After reading this thread, I decided to try my heater; since I live in San Diego, I've never had occasion to use it up to now. So....I selected "automatic", set the temp up to 90 degrees. Well well----my heater doesn't work. rear defroster works, fan runs like crazy, but no heat whatsoever.

So, I'll take it to the dealer for diagnosis/repair.

Click to expand...

How funny. Being in Southern California, I never had to use the heater until about a couple of weeks ago. Cranked the heater all the way up but felt only warmish air. The trip was only 10 min so I thought it might be a slow heater or something...

So does the heater really feels at least "hot'ish" ? and how long does it take to feel the heat from the vent? Can someone with heater that works describe how it should be working? THanks.

Yes, warmish air is what a working heater produces. When it warms up and starts to get hot, it turns itself down to warmish again. Hot air does come out when it is already warm outside though. Luckily I live in the bay area where it is never much more than a few degrees below freezing during the peak of winter.

occ said:

derkraut said:

After reading this thread, I decided to try my heater; since I live in San Diego, I've never had occasion to use it up to now. So....I selected "automatic", set the temp up to 90 degrees. Well well----my heater doesn't work. rear defroster works, fan runs like crazy, but no heat whatsoever.

So, I'll take it to the dealer for diagnosis/repair.

Click to expand...

How funny. Being in Southern California, I never had to use the heater until about a couple of weeks ago. Cranked the heater all the way up but felt only warmish air. The trip was only 10 min so I thought it might be a slow heater or something...

So does the heater really feels at least "hot'ish" ? and how long does it take to feel the heat from the vent? Can someone with heater that works describe how it should be working? THanks.

Click to expand...

I've turned my heater on a few times recently, tonight being the most recent (yes, I'm a wimp, here in San Diego County, where it was a blisteringly cold 58 degrees when I got in the car).

I set the temp for 68 degrees, and let 'er rip. I can't say I ever felt warm air flowing, but over time I slowly realized that I was getting warmer.

Eventually, the heater turned off, judging by the energy display. I managed to make it home, hills, freeway and all, with 4.9 mpkW.

Definitely a different experience from an ICE heater (oxymoron there, eh?).

With the heater just fixed, I did a quasi-scientific test to see how well the heater is working, using a digital thermometer capable of reading up to 122 degrees F.

I started the car, parked in the garage. Outside air is about 66 degrees. About 3 bars of battery left. Thermometer probe is placed in the vent.

I kept the heater off, fan on (set temp to 60, verify 0 kw on the climate control) for a couple minutes to let the thermometer stabilize - it stabilizes to about 71 degrees
0 Minutes: Turn on the heat and set it to 90 degrees. Power in Energy meter is rising from 0 kw up to about 3.5 Kw
1 Minute: 78.6 degrees
2 Minutes: 90.5 degrees
3 Minutes: 115 degrees
4 Minutes: 122 degrees, Energy meter still shows about 3.5KW
After that, the temperature goes beyond the limits of the thermometer, but doesn't feel much hotter.

Also note that when I put the car in ECO mode after that, the power drops down to about 1.5kw. Temperature doesn't go down very fast.

This would be obviously be different if the car was moving or in a colder environment, but I thought it would be helpful to provide this.

I tried the heater out a while back and didn't think it was working. I was kind of afraid of this huge draw on the electrical system after reading how dramatically wasteful the heater is. So I didn't leave it on all that long. I did shift into D, thinking that ECO might also be shy about turning on the heat.

But it seems a watched pot never boils. The first time it came on by itself (left it set to Auto, and it was cool out) I eventually noticed it was getting warmer in the car. When I looked over at the gauges, then I saw that 3-4 kW draw everyone was talking about. So, it seems, the secret is patience.

Surprise #1: I tried out the remote climate control for the first time last week. I didn't run it very long in advance of getting in the car (five minutes, maybe), but when I got in, it was warm in there! That thing works when it puts its mind to it!

Surprise #2: The (nav) screen tells me that using the heater will cost me 5 miles or so. Well, that's the same or less than the air conditioner was telling me in the summer! They say the heater is four times hungrier than the A/C, yet the range effect estimates are largely the same? Somebody's mistaken here. (Probably the screen, if Carwings is involved in any way )

Other things I have observed:
- The c.c. power gauge is heavily damped. It takes 10-15 seconds before the reading settles.
- The heater "warms up" before it comes on...just like in an ICE vehicle.
- The heat generally doesn't come out the vents, rather it comes out near the floor.
- The "mode" (where the air comes out...in Auto, of course) changes with temperature setting. If you watch the screen, you can see the "arrows" (face or feet) change as you adjust the temperature. When the temperature setting is very near that of the interior, it comes out the "face" vents. When the separation is large, it comes out the floor vents. In between, it will use both. You can use this display to determine what it thinks the interior temperature is. (Wouldn't it be slick to just, well, you know, tell us the temperature instead of making us hunt for it...?)