Dead 12V Battery Overnight??

Yesterday morning my wife took her 2013 to town and back, and plugged it in when she got home. Several hours later, we unplugged it and plugged in the 2012 instead as we'd taken it to town in the afternoon.

This morning I went out to get something from the 2013 and found that the 12V battery was completely dead. Nothing in the car was alive at all -- no lights, couldn't turn it on, etc.

I jumped it with the 2012 and it's now sitting in the garage in "READY to drive" for at least 20 minutes, as the manual states in the jumping instructions, to charge the 12V battery back up.

Any idea what could have caused the 12V battery to die in less than 24 hours? There were no lights on in the car or anything, it was just sitting there.

Computerizer said:

I jumped it with the 2012 and it's now sitting in the garage in "READY to drive" for at least 20 minutes, as the manual states in the jumping instructions, to charge the 12V battery back up.

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It is not possible to fully recharge a 12V lead-acid battery in 20 minutes. (At least not the kind in the LEAF using the charging system in the LEAF.). Unfortunately, the way the LEAF charging system works, it may NEVER get fully recharged, no matter how long you leave it in READY mode.

Computerizer said:

Any idea what could have caused the 12V battery to die in less than 24 hours? There were no lights on in the car or anything, it was just sitting there.

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It could just be a bad battery. I would definitely try to get Nissan to replace it. I would not drive the LEAF with a bad 12V battery given some of the reports of strange things that can happen in that case.

But it could also be an issue with the car itself. The most obvious issue is that the charging system in the LEAF is not good at fully recharging the 12V battery. But there are other possibilities. One 2013 came from the dealership with a loose battery terminal. I recommend you check that. Finally, there could be a problem with the DC-DC converter that charges the 12V battery. That is highly unlikely, given that we have no reports of a failure of that part of the LEAF.

If you have a battery maintainer, I recommend using that to fully charge the LEAF battery, as several of us have decided to do given the poor charging characteristics of the LEAF. If you don't have one, you may be able to borrow it from a neighbor.

Good luck!

Welcome to the club! My 2013 has now drained it's battery 3 times in less than 2 months. If the battery wasn't bad when new, it appears to be now. The Leaf's DC-DC appears to have plenty of power, but they don't let it stay up in the 14.4 volt range long enough to get the battery charged and keep it that way. I have installed a battery tender plug in the charge port so I can keep the battery charging. Just sitting overnight it was down to 12.04 volts this morning, about 50% dead. My dealer says they haven't had any problems.........I have contacted Nissan and have a case #. They are supposed to get back to me next week. Very frustrating.

After letting the car sit in "READY" mode for about half an hour, I turned it off then into accessory mode, and it seemed to have enough power, so it did recharge the battery somewhat -- or it got charged while I was jumping it. In any case, after another 24 hours passed, the battery still had a charge, so it got enough for now anyway.

I figure if it does it again we'll take it to the dealer and have them test it.

Tyrel

voganni said:

The Leaf's DC-DC appears to have plenty of power, but they don't let it stay up in the 14.4 volt range long enough to get the battery charged and keep it that way.

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Your analysis is dead-on. Nissan has known about this issue for at least a year, if not longer, yet they did nothing to resolve it in the 2013s.

Computerizer said:

After letting the car sit in "READY" mode for about half an hour, I turned it off then into accessory mode, and it seemed to have enough power, so it did recharge the battery somewhat -- or it got charged while I was jumping it. In any case, after another 24 hours passed, the battery still had a charge, so it got enough for now anyway.

I figure if it does it again we'll take it to the dealer and have them test it.

Tyrel

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The problem is that a lead-acid battery will permantly lose capacity if not FULLY recharged at least every few days or so. In its current condition, your LEAF could possibly leave you stranded at any time. You really should check and fully charge your 12V battery.

I'm going to let my self into the dead battery club. I've had my leaf for 6 days now. Last night after work, came in and charged it on the 220v charger. This morning, I got nothing. Wont start, no lights. This darned thing is kept in a warm garage and only has 250 miles on it. It's pretty clear to me that you'll need to carry a spare battery if you're going drive a leaf. Too bad I bought it instead of leased. I'm going to ask that they give me a spare battery once I get to the dealer. What a load of bull ****.

leaf037: You wrote "It's pretty clear to me that you'll need to carry a spare battery if you're going drive a leaf.".

Have you ever not been able to start your ICE car? Was it your conclusion then that you needed to carry a spare battery?

Almost three years on my 12V, leave it parked for long periods. Never a single issue, never touch it.

Mine has always indicated a lower than ideal voltage, unless checked immediately after the car has been used. But it hasn't failed...yet.

Same here. At my two year battery check, it got a perfect grade with still excellent CCA capacity... I think Nissan is simply either using a cheaper and lower quality battery these days or they have had a bad run of them...

EVDRIVER said:

Almost three years on my 12V, leave it parked for long periods. Never a single issue, never touch it.

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You guys are checking the electrolyte levels thought, right? Mine was down in a couple of the cells last time I checked.

OP here. For what it's worth, after that first instance of the dead battery, jumping it with the other LEAF and letting the car "run" for 20 minutes, this has not happened again. We never ended up taking it to the dealer to replace the battery or get it checked or anything.

You really should... When a non-deep-cycle lead acid battery goes completely dead, some damage almost always occurs.

Computerizer said:

OP here. For what it's worth, after that first instance of the dead battery, jumping it with the other LEAF and letting the car "run" for 20 minutes, this has not happened again. We never ended up taking it to the dealer to replace the battery or get it checked or anything.

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TomT said:

Same here. At my two year battery check, it got a perfect grade with still excellent CCA capacity... I think Nissan is simply either using a cheaper and lower quality battery these days or they have had a bad run of them...

EVDRIVER said:

Almost three years on my 12V, leave it parked for long periods. Never a single issue, never touch it.

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Or people also abuse their 12V too many times so it fails even earlier.

EVDRIVER said:

TomT said:

Same here. At my two year battery check, it got a perfect grade with still excellent CCA capacity... I think Nissan is simply either using a cheaper and lower quality battery these days or they have had a bad run of them...

EVDRIVER said:

Almost three years on my 12V, leave it parked for long periods. Never a single issue, never touch it.

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Or people also abuse their 12V too many times so it fails even earlier.

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From what I've seen this has been a common issue with the batteries included with 2013s.

By what means would one abuse their 12V battery?

Computerizer said:

By what means would one abuse their 12V battery?

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The mind boggles! Using it to power 12v devices designed for sexual pleasure perhaps? :?

RegGuheert said:

voganni said:

The Leaf's DC-DC appears to have plenty of power, but they don't let it stay up in the 14.4 volt range long enough to get the battery charged and keep it that way.

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Your analysis is dead-on. Nissan has known about this issue for at least a year, if not longer, yet they did nothing to resolve it in the 2013s.

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I'd speculate that the 12V charging tries to err on the low side as to not cause gassing of the battery, so as to avoid the associated acid mist/corrosion issues which would probably be undesirable in the underhood environment of this car. And also it reduces maintenance of rewatering the battery.

But I think the larger 12V issue for LEAF is the way it perversely uses more power AND refuses to keep the battery topped off when the car is plugged-in to a power source! Depending on customer habits, this can introduce deep cycling of the 12V. Conventional automotive 12V batteries don't tolerate this well.

To me, a deep-cycle AGM seems most appropriate for this car (and most modern cars, actually). I replaced the OEM 12v with such once the OEM voltage started indicating weak. Whether or not this is worthwhile probably depends on how you use the car. The longer it sits plugged-in, the deeper the discharge cycles will be. I usually plug-in as soon as I get home and don't uplug until leaving the next morning. Some weekends ours sits plugged-in for a day or two. I'd rather install a better battery than have to be a stickler about plug time.

leaf037 said:

I'm going to let my self into the dead battery club. I've had my leaf for 6 days now. Last night after work, came in and charged it on the 220v charger. This morning, I got nothing. Wont start, no lights

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There is so much you haven't told us:

• Which model do you have, and which major options? (LED lights, for example?)
• How many charge bars were showing when you got home last night? Or What was the % Charge if it was displayed? (That's the number in the middle of the dash that says %, not the big number by the charge bars.)
• Were you charging to 80% or 100%?
• Did you have a timer set, and how? (start time, end time, both)
• Is there any chance you might have left your lights on, or the interior lights?
• Could you perhaps have forgotten to power off? (In which case the car wouldn't have charged at all even though it was plugged in.)
• It's easy to double-bounce the Power button. Are you sure you left it fully powered off?

These questions all matter because if the traction battery finished charging early in the evening, or didn't charge at all, and if something was draining the 12v battery, we know that the car is programmed not to recharge the 12v if the car is plugged in but not recharging and is in OFF or AUX power state. Surely everyone who has owned a car knows that it is possible to run down the battery if you leave the headlights or interior lights on.

Ray

Well I can answer all of these questions for MY situation:

• Which model do you have, and which major options? (LED lights, for example?) SV with Charge Package
• How many charge bars were showing when you got home last night? Or What was the % Charge if it was displayed? (That's the number in the middle of the dash that says %, not the big number by the charge bars.) It was probably 4 bars
• Were you charging to 80% or 100%? 80%
• Did you have a timer set, and how? (start time, end time, both) No timers configured
• Is there any chance you might have left your lights on, or the interior lights? Unlikely, and none of these items were on when the power was restored which helps to confirm this
• Could you perhaps have forgotten to power off? (In which case the car wouldn't have charged at all even though it was plugged in.) In a 2013 you can't open the charging hatch if the car is on, so this is impossible, as it did charge (it was at 80% and CARWINGS sent a notification e-mail).
• It's easy to double-bounce the Power button. Are you sure you left it fully powered off? I've never experienced this "double bounce", but I must admit that it is possible that my wife did this when she got home, and thus it would have been in AUX. I haven't tested whether it'll let you open the charging hatch while in AUX mode, but I don't see why not.

So 3 bars to 10 bars on a 2013 SV with charge package means less than two hours to charge, right? Then it sat all night still plugged in. As you said, since it did charge, you didn't leave it in READY or ON state. Due to Nissan's questionable logic, that means the 12v battery would have been on its own, with no chance of being recharged from the traction battery. So it seems it has to be either a bad 12v battery or some pretty hefty drain on it. Anybody see any logic errors yet in my thinking?

Even if you had left the lights on they would have turned themselves off, so that couldn't be the problem (and you do have LED lights, anyway). Good point on the interior lights. It sounds like we can eliminate those, as well. The auxiliary power outlet (aka "cigarette lighter" plug) is not powered when in OFF or AUX mode, so it couldn't be anything plugged in there. What about the USB port? I don't know whether that is powered in AUX mode or not. Other than that, the only thing I can think of is some weird looping communications connection, like a nearby remote control with a stuck button, or something (ELM327 maybe) plugged into the diagnostic port sending commands.

I'm no expert but, all in all, my guess is a bad (shipped bad, not abused) 12v battery. There have been a number of reports here which seem to come down to that.

Ray