Bluetooth the Culprit?

[voganni]

My 2013 Leaf S ran its 12v battery stone dead in about 36 hours last Sunday-Tuesday. Unplugged it after charging on Sunday, stone dead Tuesday morning. I knew something had changed since my battery tender was no longer able to get the battery up to the float voltage which turns the light from red to green. (It's a little one, only puts out 750ma in charge mode).

Today I did some "parasitic drain" tests with interesting results. The car was showing 1.06 amps with the EVSE plugged in, and .98 amps unplugged! This is WAY over the 125ma which is normal and which the car showed when I first got it. Removing various fuses produced no significant results. Finally I disconnected the battery for about a minute. Reconnecting, I showed a .98amp momentary drain, heard a relay click in the large square fuse box that's conveniently mounted upside down. Now the drain reduced to .63 amps. After a minute and 20 sec, the drain dropped to a normal 125ma! I tried the test a few times, same result. A .98 amp drain would definitely run the battery down in less than 2 days.

Now I have to ask, "why did it do this?" I will be in contact with Nissan and the dealer and post any info I get. I suspect this issue may be a previous poster's problem also.

Read my further discoveries. Also, looks like someone else has had the same problem. I don't think the bluetooth is ever completely "asleep."

 

[TonyWilliams]

Can you post a picture of the offending relay?

 

[voganni]

There are two relays in the box, a black one marked R8 and a green one marked R20. I listened with a stethoscope, and felt them with my fingers, but couldn't tell for sure which one was clicking (maybe both?) Perhaps someone with a service manual can help out.

I talked to a tech at the dealer, and he thought a sticking relay could be the culprit too. Suggested a rap with a screwdriver handle next time (high tech solution!)

It's easy to tell when this happens, as the resting battery voltage starts falling quite rapidly, much more so than normal. The difference after sitting overnight was 12.00 volts vs 12.6 v or so. We'll see what Nissan has to say......

 

[FairwoodRed]

As a phone guy I can tell you that on the old cross bar phone switches, sticking relays were common and rapping on it with the handle of a screwdriver was the recommended fix. It was common enough that you could tell who the most senior techs were just by looked at how beat up their screwdriver handle was!

 

[voganni]

Well, the car reverted back to drain mode overnight. Relays were working fine, the drain was coming from somewhere else. I unplugged just about every fuse in the car, and discovered that unplugging the "power switch" fuse, or both audio fuses, dropped the drain to .47 amp. Then I tried turning off both our cell phones, which were in the house. Bingo! down to .13 amp. I'm not convinced yet, since unplugging all those fuses also caused all the radio presets, startup sounds, etc. to go back to default. I never did disconnect the battery though. Can the car search for a bluetooth paired phone when it's off (the car, not the phone)? News at 11

 

[Rat]

Maybe you should change the title back to Unsolved for now.

 

[johnqh]

Well, the car reverted back to drain mode overnight. Relays were working fine, the drain was coming from somewhere else. I unplugged just about every fuse in the car, and discovered that unplugging the "power switch" fuse, or both audio fuses, dropped the drain to .47 amp. Then I tried turning off both our cell phones, which were in the house. Bingo! down to .13 amp. I'm not convinced yet, since unplugging all those fuses also caused all the radio presets, startup sounds, etc. to go back to default. I never did disconnect the battery though. Can the car search for a bluetooth paired phone when it's off (the car, not the phone)? News at 11

Why don't you turn off the BT on the phones and check the current again?

 

[FerretPewPew]

I read another thread where an owner had the same issue with his BT-enabled phone being on the other side of the wall where his Leaf was parked.

The owner moved the phone to a location farther away from where the car was parked, and the battery drain issue stopped.

 

[TomT]

BT is disabled when the car is off so I don't see how this can be an issue. I always leave my phone in the car with BT enabled and it is has never been a problem.

I read another thread where an owner had the same issue with his BT-enabled phone being on the other side of the wall where his Leaf was parked.