2023 dead at the airport.

[cornbinder89]

Your 12 volt is dead. If you leave it plugged in to a EVSE dock it will after a few days discharge your 12 volt battery. Regardless just gets some voltage to your 12 volt battery and you shoudl be able to then plug in to a EVSE dock to get it charged back up.. Then go replace the 12 volt.

My understanding was it was parked at the airport car park, not plugged in anywhere, so no, it is not the 12 volt battery that is discharged.
I'll be interested to see what the problems was.
BTW mine will sometimes charge the 12 volt when plugged into the EVSE after charging the main traction battery. It is indicated by only the 3rd blue light on the dash flashing while the other two are off. It is also stated in the manual as such.
The indicator will also flash for up to 5 minutes if
the electrical power to the EVSE is interrupted
during charging. Charging will restart automati-
cally when the electrical power to the EVSE is
restored if the charging connector is connected.
The charge start beep will not sound when
charging restarts.
The indicator will also flash when the following
system are operating:
• Climate Ctrl. Timer
• Remote climate control (if so equipped)
• Li-ion battery heater
3 flashes
When the indicator light 䊊
3 flashes when the 12-volt
The indicator light 䊊
battery is being charged. See “Charging the 12-
volt battery” in the “EV overview” section.
CH-30 Charging
When not charging
None of the lights are illuminated when the Li-ion
battery and 12-volt battery are not charging.

 

[llopness]

After some snafus with Nissan roadside assistance, I met a tow driver at the airport. After figuring out that the driver's door needs to be closed for the car to stay in neutral. we pushed it to where he could hook onto the front wheels.
took it to the dealership and the woman at the service desk asked if I'd tried charging the battery and said it's normal for the traction battery to discharge itself after sitting so long in the cold(69%=>0% in 7 days).

 

[pjacobsma]

its not a bug. the EVSE dock takes a pilot signal from the 12 volt battery in the leaf to tell the EVSE dock that car is there and ready for a charge. Anytime you leave your car plugged in to an EVSE Dock for more than a day it will slowly Drain the 12 volt battery as that never shuts off.. This is why we have so many threads here telling you to use a trickle charge on your 12 volt when you leave for a few days. and once your Traction pack is charged there is no reason to leave your LEAF plugged in to the EVSE dock. When you leave it for a few days Do not leave it plugged in to the Dock OR get your self a trickle charger and then keep your 12 volt happy.

For what it's worth, I left my Leaf plugged in to the EVSE (Level 1) for a week when I was out of town. I set the timer to charge the traction battery for one hour every night as I had heard that the 12v could discharge when the car sits unused for an extended time. When I came home the car started and ran with no problems.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Few if any of us suggest that the 12 volt battery be replaced with no testing first.

 

[knightmb]

After some snafus with Nissan roadside assistance, I met a tow driver at the airport. After figuring out that the driver's door needs to be closed for the car to stay in neutral. we pushed it to where he could hook onto the front wheels.
took it to the dealership and the woman at the service desk asked if I'd tried charging the battery and said it's normal for the traction battery to discharge itself after sitting so long in the cold(69%=>0% in 7 days).

They would have to qualify what they mean by cold. Because 20F is cold, so is 10F, but it would not be cold enough to trigger the battery heater. If the outdoors temperature was always -4F or colder, then that would make sense up to a point. Once the battery gets below 30% SOC, the battery heater will no longer activate. So at worse, you would have a battery that was close to that SOC when it stopped or it was so cold that once it activated at -4F (and was above 30% SOC) that it never shut-off until the battery was completely depleted. Not impossible, but that would be some seriously cold temperatures to defeat the battery heater on a continual basis. To reference, the battery heater (in the 24,30,40 kWh) battery uses about 300 watts of power. If the battery heater started at 30% SOC (or 12 kWh of capacity remaining), that would run for about 12,000 / 300 = 40 more hours or nearly 2 days (non-stop, no breaks).

I wouldn't want Leaf owners to confuse this with *any* cold weather saps your battery capacity to nothing because it's certainly not true. Whatever airport you left your Leaf at must have experienced a brutally cold week.

 

[cornbinder89]

After some snafus with Nissan roadside assistance, I met a tow driver at the airport. After figuring out that the driver's door needs to be closed for the car to stay in neutral. we pushed it to where he could hook onto the front wheels.
took it to the dealership and the woman at the service desk asked if I'd tried charging the battery and said it's normal for the traction battery to discharge itself after sitting so long in the cold(69%=>0% in 7 days).

If it was cold enough where the car was sitting, then I can see the battery heater may draw down the power. Just sitting in warmer temps, I don't accept that 6 days without use or being plugged in should cause a 60% drop in traction battery

 

[vectormax]

I find that many problems are solved simply by disconnecting the 12v , waiting a minute and reconnecting. Rebooting should always be the first solution. I've done it plenty of times, it doesn't damage anything Probably the reason why replacing 12v batteries seems to fix everything. I now carry a 10mm box wrench in my glove box for emergencies.

 

[cornbinder89]

. temperatures were around freezing all week.
any ideas on how this would happen?

Just re-read post number 1
It would seam that battery heaters should be a non-issue at these temps. If it were "around 0F" that would be different.
So, I conclude that the service adviser is ignorant, and that a car should be able to sit in those temps without that much power loss from the traction battery.
Something drew the traction battery down.

 

[knightmb]

Just re-read post number 1
It would seam that battery heaters should be a non-issue at these temps. If it were "around 0F" that would be different.
So, I conclude that the service adviser is ignorant, and that a car should be able to sit in those temps without that much power loss from the traction battery.
Something drew the it down.

Agreed, I have (2) Leaf at my command and when we had an entire week of temperatures below 20F, my wife's Leaf sat outside with 7 inches of snow on top of it while I was driving mine around. When she finally scrapped the snow off 3 days later to go drive it, it had not lost any SOC, was still sitting at 72% where she left it. It was cold and windy, but temperatures never got below 10F during the night.

 

[Drew21]

We left our 2014 in an unheated garage for nearly two weeks while away around Christmas/New Year's. The average temperature was "around freezing," with nights from the mid-teens to mid-20s and days from the mid-20s to upper 30s. Maybe not exactly what the OP's car experienced, but maybe not that different. I have confirmed on multiple occasions that the Leaf's thermometer shows the same temperature as our outdoor thermometer, so the garage holds little or no accumulated daytime heat.

Anyway, the car was parked with 50% charge and had 50% charge when we returned. I've seen no evidence that our Leaf losses charge when sitting for a week or two, even in the winter. I think the OP should seek a second opinion.

 

[cornbinder89]

This is from the '15 service manual. It shows the time the 12 volt battery charges.
In this case it seams that the 12 volt was fine, and the traction battery was depleted.
12 volt charges when connected to the EVSE
When sitting for a long period it will charge from the traction battery.

 

[cornbinder89]

Also found a section on DTC being set when the 12 volt battery is disconnected. Without a screenshot of the section, basically it say it happens when the battery is disconnected without following the correct procedure. It requires cycling the power button on and off and than waiting at least 5 min but less than an hour. If not followed the capacitors in the car can cause erroneous DTC's to be set.

 

[Ez2517]

its not a bug. the EVSE dock takes a pilot signal from the 12 volt battery in the leaf to tell the EVSE dock that car is there and ready for a charge. Anytime you leave your car plugged in to an EVSE Dock for more than a day it will slowly Drain the 12 volt battery as that never shuts off.. This is why we have so many threads here telling you to use a trickle charge on your 12 volt when you leave for a few days. and once your Traction pack is charged there is no reason to leave your LEAF plugged in to the EVSE dock. When you leave it for a few days Do not leave it plugged in to the Dock OR get your self a trickle charger and then keep your 12 volt happy.

I never had the card plugged into the EVSE when the 12V batterie 'died'. The bug IMO is that the car does not reliably recharge the 12 battery from the traction battery even if the traction battery is full. IMO there is no reason for the car to sit on a fully charged traction battery while watching the 12 V battery getting empty ...

 

[RYoungberg]

FYI: I have been driving Leafs for about 8 or 9 years now, as I used to import and trade them.

Because my typical journeys are short and I use a lot of 12v accessories, during the winter months I am in the habit of giving the 12v battery a monthly or bi-monthly overnight top-up charge.

Before such an extended airport car parking at an airport, I would have given the 12v battery an overnight charge to give it every chance of not crapping out when I got back.

I hope this plays out well and the problem turns out to have an easy fix

 

[RYoungberg]

I never had the card plugged into the EVSE when the 12V batterie 'died'. The bug IMO is that the car does not reliably recharge the 12 battery from the traction battery even if the traction battery is full. IMO there is no reason for the car to sit on a fully charged traction battery while watching the 12 V battery getting empty ...

Just like with an ICE vehicle, always carry jumper cables ($15) and get a 12-V battery tester ($20) to check the battery strength occasionally and to see if the 12-V battery is the problem or something else.

 

[RYoungberg]

I had a 12 VDC battery die, recently. it turned out that when I was putting in my sunshade, I accidentally pressed the emergency flasher. I know this because when I got a jump, the flashers were on when the car turned on.

I had a 12 VDC battery die, recently. it turned out that when I was putting in my sunshade, I accidentally pressed the emergency flasher. I know this because when I got a jump, the flashers were on when the car turned on.

I left my emergency flashers on and they drained the 12-V battery in less than an hour! Had to get a 'jump' to get going again. I always carry jumper cables ($15) and a 12-V battery tester ($20).

 

[Jerther]

and get a 12-V battery tester ($20)

Any model you would recommend?

 

[mrlithium]

Would being able to disconnect the LVB be useful so that it doesn't drain ??

 

[cornbinder89]

JUST to clear up some mis-information:
LOOK AT THE SERVICE MANUAL I attached in post #31, it shows when the 12 volt is charged, and it is when plugged into the EVSE, when it is plugged into a DCFC, when the climate timer is activated, and under other conditions, including being left turned off for a long period of time
Folks, this is straight from the NISSAN repair manual. so if you "Know it to be otherwise" I would request that you provide documentation for that claim. I have for mine.
As other have stated, when they left their car un-used for a week or more, they saw no reduction in the SOC for the traction battery.
The above manual screen-shot is from the 2015 Nissan service manual.
Something cause the O/P problem, and it isn't normal operation of the car or normal parking for a week that caused it. I and am sure he would like to get to the bottom of it.
The Dealer service writer was wrong to say "just charge it". Something caused the problem and it could be a mistake made by the owner, or it could be another fault. I believe what the owner said, so am looking for another source for the problem.
Finding a battery discharged, be it the 12 volt or the traction battery is a SYMPTOM not the source of the problem. you must dig deeper to get to the SOURCE of the problem. A battery can fail and be both the symptom and source, but it doesn't mean it is 100% of the time, until proven to be, it should be treated as a symptom.
I and I'm sure most here want to solve the problem once and for all, and not "try" stuff esp if that trying involves buying stuff that isn't proven to be bad.

 

[Stanton]

took it to the dealership and the woman at the service desk asked if I'd tried charging the battery and said it's normal for the traction battery to discharge itself after sitting so long in the cold(69%=>0% in 7 days).

Umm...no.
It would be nice to report back with actual findings since it's in the shop. This is either a simple 12v battery failure...or something much more serious.