Another EV System Warning Light Question...and then some

[Razorbil]

2013 Nissan Leaf SL
81,000 miles

Two days ago - Car charged (on the timer) to 91%, then stopped charging. Will turn on but won't engage the transmission. EV system warning light and red gear light.

12 volt battery is 7 moths old. Took it out and back to the shop that sold it. Had it tested and it is good.
Hooked the 12 V back up and issues cleared. Drove the battery down to 10% with multiple on/of stops along the way. Charged overnight and same issues occurred the next morning.

Unhooked the 12V, reassembled and drove it to the dealership (no warning lights on dash). When reassembled, all warning lights cleared. Dealer ran diagnostics....no codes....nothing could be found, they also tested the 12V and it came back good. Car ran great until I charged it last night. Last night I charged it on a different L2 station altogether. Same issues this morning.

Any thoughts? Thanks for the help.

 

[Nubo]

Seems like a problem with the electric shift system. Disconnecting the battery may be clearing the codes so dealer has nothing to go on. Try LeafSpy to get the code before disconnecting the battery. Or have dealership try to replicate the problem by charging. Or, worst case - have it towed to the shop while the problem is active.

 

[Razorbil]

Update: Now its the EV System Warning light (yellow car symbol with "!") AND the brake light warning indicator (yellow circle with "!"). Checked the brake fluid - it's at the max level.

 

[alozzy]

Update: Now its the EV System Warning light (yellow car symbol with "!") AND the brake light warning indicator (yellow circle with "!"). Checked the brake fluid - it's at the max level.

There are people who frequent here who have advanced diagnostic skills, but until you post detailed info on the trouble codes, you are unlikely to get their attention.

You need to post the trouble codes here, which means you need to get a compatible OBD2 dongle and LeafSpy

 

[Razorbil]

Allozy, thank you for the reply.
I'm going to start digging thru threads, but in the meantime can someone help me decipher these DTC's:
https://imgur.com/a/1rl8c4n

Thanks in advance.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Those show everything from air bag problems, to brake issues, to problems with the high voltage battery. That wide variety of unrelated errors usually means that the 12 volt battery is going bad.

 

[alozzy]

Doesn't hurt to replace the 12V battery, fully charge it before installing it in the LEAF, then using LeafSpy to clear all of the trouble codes. Maybe you just got a bad battery.

If any of the errors come back after clearing them then post them here.

Another possibility is there's a phantom drain somewhere. Check the voltage at night then check it again the next morning. If it drops a lot, there's a phantom drain somewhere...

 

[goldbrick]

I'd also double check all the 12V wiring, both + and GND. A good battery with a bad connection can behave like a bad battery and these symptoms sure seem like a weak 12V supply.

 

[TimLee]

All the signs of unstable 12V buss voltage. A battery that is nearing failure can be fully charged on a trickle charger, show good voltage at posts, and have adequate voltage for a LEAF to start, but be so marginal that it then goes unstable on voltage and the LEAF brakes eratically and throws wierd codes.

The DC to DC and the LEAF 12V charging algorithm should be capable of handling this.

But real world experience on a 2011 says it is not capable of properly dealing with it.

 

[Razorbil]

Thank you all for the advice. I’ve pulled the 12 V battery. I’m going to seek a replacement for it since it is only approximately seven months old. I went through as much of the wiring as I could without disassembling the entire “engine” bay. Terminal post were spotless. No corrosion etc. Terminal clamps were clean and secured appropriately. Fuses look to be in good shape as well. Multimeter readings showed zero degradation overnight as compared to yesterday’s readings, so it doesn’t look like something is causing a parasitic drain. LeafSpy Pro showed resting 12V reading at 11.82. Turned on the A/C and it dropped to 9.14 and continued to fall.

 

[Stanton]

LeafSpy Pro showed resting 12V reading at 11.82. Turned on the A/C and it dropped to 9.14 and continued to fall.

This is all you had to say: a 12v replacement should take care of your problems (at least until it dies). There's a million posts about 12v batteries on the forum, but my suggestion is in my sig (Lithium).

 

[goldbrick]

Agreed that those readings indicate a bad battery. After it's replaced you may want to keep a very close eye on the voltage of the new one.

It's possible that the charging circuitry is bad and isn't charging the battery correctly. I don't think a Leaf battery would last 7 months without any charging but it may be that the charging is insufficient for some reason.

 

[LeftieBiker]

This is also very important: make sure that the new 12 volt battery is either fully charged before installation, or very soon thereafter. If you can find an AGM battery in the 51R group, I'd strongly suggest one of those.