$700+ OUCH - Parking brake actuator

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.

bowthom

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Messages
663
Location
Portland Oregon
Hello,
My 2011 Leaf started acting up with the wife driving. Master alarm lit up, "Visit dealer" in the multi info display, The park brake indicator is blinking as is the LED in the park brake switch. System is in Fail safe mode but she drove it back home OK.
SOoooooooo, I tore into it naturally and found water had run down the emergency release cable and rusted out the cable and stuck the actuator. GRRRRRRRR, this has to be a side effect of the 2 rear enders we got into. I suspect the body shop let water get in there when it was all torn down and waiting for parts (parked outside in the rain, it was feb).
Well, I went ahead and tore the actuator apart. The motor was rusted but repairable. Had problems getting the reduction gear and clutch apart but managed to do so. I cleaned it up greased everything and reassembled it. AND................. it worked while on the bench. :?
After reinstall the system is still in fail safe telling me to visit the dealer. I disconnected the 12V battery for 2 hours but it came back on as "visit dealer."
I need a new emergency release cable so I went online to check on buying one only to find out it only comes as part of the $709 actuator.
OUCH!!! that cable is the same as a speedo cable from yester-year with their proprietary spinner on one end. Me thinks I will attempt to make one using the old parts. :twisted: Or I'll just run without it, it's not like it did any good in this situation anyway.

OK, so anybody know how to clear the PBK codes and thus the fail safe mode it's in???????

Thanks
Don T
 
TomT said:
Leaf Spy Pro may be able to do it...

bowthom said:
OK, so anybody know how to clear the PBK codes and thus the fail safe mode it's in???????


OK I'll bite. Anybody in the greater Port OR area have a Leaf Spy Pro?
Do you know if clearing codes is something it can do?
Willing to clear my codes?

Don T

ON EDIT: removed
 
LEAF Spy Pro will reset the DTCs.

The "Pro" version adds the ability to perform functions normally requiring a visit to the dealer.
* Change automatic door lock/unlock settings
* Read Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC)
* Register Tire Positions (required after tire rotation or seasonal tire changes so your Leaf knows the correct location of each tire on the car)
* Ability to reset DTCs from selected ECUs
 
donald said:
When did the bodyshop do the work? They appear to be liable here.

Well it's been rear ended twice and repaired in two different shops and it was over a year ago so no joy going that way.

I took it to a Nissan Dealer this morning but they are all jammed up with pre-holiday work. Took it to a buddy's body / mechanical shop who has Snap-on "Modis" scanners / programmers and they would not even recognize the leaf. I'm just going to park it for 24 hours with the 12V battery disconnected and see what happens. The service manual warns that codes will be lost under that condition so it seems logical to try it.

In the mean time it drives fine.............
 
Hello,
So the answer is..........NOPE...... Letting the car sit for 24 hours with the 12V battery disconnected does not work, fault is still retained. Either that or my PBK controller is toast, which is always a possibility given that it probably was trying to power the frozen actuator. When the battery was first disconnected (ground cable) the system retained 1.6 volts probably due to capacitors etc. I hooked a 1 ohm shunt between the positive cable end and the chassis and at the end of 24 hours it showed 2.1 mV with the shunt removed so the capacitors had discharged during that time. Who knows, maybe the controller has a battery backup.

Leaf Spy Pro next and if it doesn't work it means a visit to the dealer ($108) for a diagnostic.

Don
 
Hello,
So the final answer is "YES" LeafSpy Pro can clear codes and was even able to initiate the park brake controller self diagnostic (find zero point). And thus, my leaf is back to normal all systems are GO.

I'm a happy guy. Many thanks to camasleaf for hooking up his LeafSpy rig and curing my ails.

Don

You guys putting all that work into a very useful system deserve the praise of all us DIY leafers who will eventually need it. Many thanks to you also.
 
Oh one more thing, which android phone / device would be best to buy if I want to run it as my LeafSpy device only (not activated & not used as a phone)?
 
bowthom said:
Oh one more thing, which android phone / device would be best to buy if I want to run it as my LeafSpy device only (not activated & not used as a phone)?
I purchased a Samsung tablet first and used it for a while. I eventually decided it was larger than I wanted to keep in the car all the time so I bought a Kyocera Event (Virgin Mobile non-contract was on sale at Best Buy) phone, but did not activate it. Leaf Spy Pro works fine on both devices and I was able to clear many DTC codes caused by low power supply voltages when my 12-volt battery died. I intend to add diagnostic software for other vehicles to the Samsung and use it as a garage tool.

Gerry
 
bowthom said:
Oh one more thing, which android phone / device would be best to buy if I want to run it as my LeafSpy device only (not activated & not used as a phone)?
Some have bought the Kyocera Event at Target for $19.95.

bowthom said:
... And thus, my leaf is back to normal all systems are GO. ...
Is the parking brake working?
Were you able to rework or repair the emergency release cable, or did you obtain replacement at salvage yard?
If so, from what?

Might be useful info if mine breaks after extended warranty expires in four years.
 
Here are the codes that we cleared:

pLjm3B3.png


If I remember correctly we cleared C10E0 7709 by selecting some ECU and that did the brake initialization. After that we selected the brake in the clear codes check boxes and cleared the first code.

There were two more codes we did not clear:

5SZX5f8.png
 
bowthom said:
Oh one more thing, which android phone / device would be best to buy if I want to run it as my LeafSpy device only (not activated & not used as a phone)?

If you have amazon prime, you can purchase the Kyocera Event (a popular model because activation is not required and you can use the play store on wifi to load apps) for less than $30 on amazon (http://amzn.to/1x6Z0gD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Sometimes you can also find it at other stores for a similar or cheaper price.
 
Hello,
Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Yes, the E-brake actuator works fine. It's a little noisier than new because the motor output bearing suffered some water damage. I have not scoured the wrecking yards for a replacement yet but I plan to when next I have time to do so.
I have not repaired the E-release cable yet either. Both items are on my TODO list.

Don

Special thanks to camasleaf for helping me out. That was a BIG favor.
 
Hello,
So why again does Leaf Spy not give the choice of WiFi or Bluetooth?
I have an ELM327 WiFi that I use with my iPhone to diagnose my GMC and Prius but leaf spy only has a bluetooth option.

My only option here is to buy another ELM327 device? What the heck, now I have the Kyocera Event but still can't use it.

Frustrated……………….

Don T
 
Is the $10 for a BlueTooth ELM-clone type device too much,
or are you having trouble making the BT device pair with the
eVent phone?

There is a thread detailing how to setup the Kyocera eVent,
for those not familiar with the procedure, but I cannot find
it at the moment. It should be in the Leaf CANbus subforum.
 
bowthom said:
So why again does Leaf Spy not give the choice of WiFi or Bluetooth?
I have an ELM327 WiFi that I use with my iPhone to diagnose my GMC and Prius but leaf spy only has a bluetooth option.
Jim mentioned in one post several months back that he was doing testing of WiFi ELM327, but implementation of that has not been done yet.
Iphone had no choice but to use WiFi as it does not support Bluetooth adapters.

The Bluetooth adapters are markedly cheaper than the WiFi adapters and power draw is low enough when inactive that most have been able to leave them connected all the time without 12V battery problems.
WiFi power draw is much higher and they need to be unplugged or switched off.

I still think Jim will implement WiFi support, but at this point he has prioritized other significant improvements like the charging power graph, etc.

Sorry you didn't know it doesn't support WiFi yet.
 
Hello,
I'll ordered another ELM327 this morning. Sorry about the rant, it was the frustration of many hours working on computer problems plaguing my household. Finally got it all sorted out around 2:00 AM. Plus I'm not familiar with Android phones.

Thanks for all your help. :shock:
 
Back
Top